Politics

RSS

Some small-farm backers and animal welfare advocates are pushing for tighter policing of checkoffs, but the self-help commodity promotion programs are popular with most farmers, so don't hold your breath expecting new mandates from Congress.

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue is defending the work of USDA statisticians in their work to estimate the size of 2019 crops.

California farmers, food companies and other parts of the farm to fork supply chain face several vexing environmental challenges but many have developed innovative new solutions.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is promising farmers that his department will play a key role in enforcing China's pledges to purchase $80 billion in U.S. agricultural commodities over the next two years. 

President Donald Trump on Sunday declared that the “best days for America’s farmers and ranchers are yet to come” following his new trade deals, and he repeatedly thanked producers for standing behind him amid the tariff war with China.

China should be buying wheat, corn and rice from the U.S. as a result of the "phase one" trade deal and tariffs will not hamper those sales, Gregg Doud, chief agricultural negotiator with the office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Friday.

The Trump administration is expected to soon release a new "waters of the U.S." rule redefining what streams and wetlands are regulated by the Clean Water Act, and some observers think the announcement could come this weekend when President Donald Trump speaks at the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual convention.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed the Trump administration’s revision of the North American trade pact with Canada and Mexico, sending the deal to the White House where the president has said he may sign it in a grand ceremony next week.

China has committed to buy at least $80 billion in U.S. farm products over the next two years and the country also agreed to sweeping structural changes that promise to improve trade on a more permanent basis for U.S. beef, pork, rice, corn, wheat, soybeans and other commodities.

Outside of exchanges on trade and climate change, farm issues largely played a minor role in the CNN-Des Moines Register debate, held on Tuesday at Drake University in Iowa’s capital city.