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Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says meatpacking plants will be going back into operation through this weekend and into early next week.

President Donald Trump defended his actions to end a “bottleneck” in the food supply, but legal experts differed over whether an executive order aimed at ensuring meatpackers keep operating amid the coronavirus pandemic could override state and local objections or make companies immune from lawsuits.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is taking fresh aim at knocking down the European Union’s efforts to protect food names like black forest ham, feta, gorgonzola, fontina, roquefort and asiago cheese.

President Donald Trump’s historic move to ensure meatpackers stay open is being cheered by producers who are facing a collapse in livestock prices and, in some cases, having to kill their animals. But the industry will be closely watched to see whether the action worsens the outbreaks that have killed at least 20 packing plant workers.

A backed-up food supply chain and a bottlenecked legislative process await senators as they return to Washington next week, and the desires for the next round of coronavirus assistance are already piling up.

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is gearing up a rural campaign effort that’s designed to look more like Barack Obama’s winning campaign in 2008 than Hillary Clinton’s historically poor showing in rural districts that cost her critical swing states.

The number of people facing hunger is on the rise around the world because of the global COVID-19 crisis, and humanitarian organizations and farm groups are pushing for the Trump administration to boost donations of rice, wheat and other commodities.

An executive order expected to be signed Tuesday at the White House would call on meatpacking plants to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic, but critics say it is forcing workers back into a dangerous environment.

The leader of the House Agriculture Committee says he wants to see more money go into USDA’s Commodity Credit Corp., but he’s willing to oppose a funding increase without conditions giving Congress more authority over how the money is spent.