Amy Mayer

With public comment now closed, around 100 advocates for farmworkers and their employers have filed responses to the Department of Labor’s proposed changes to calculating wage rates for the farmworker nonimmigrant visa program.

Recent attention to the country’s meatpacking plants has illustrated that when the four dominant companies face disruptions to processing, smaller, independent operations don’t have adequate capacity to pick up the slack.

Now that all eggs sold in California must come from hens living in cage-free barns, the industry is watching to see when, or whether, the investment required to meet the requirements pays off. California shoppers, meanwhile, are paying higher prices for eggs.

Tyson Foods, one of the country’s largest meat companies, is reporting net earnings per share of $2.87 for the latest quarter, up 48% for the same period a year earlier.

Modernizing wheat breeding to prepare the major food crop for changing climate conditions is the goal of a new five-year $15 million national research project.

California sheep ranchers have filed a complaint against the state for including their workers in the agriculture overtime law that took effect for smaller employers this month.

The Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology is launching a new initiative aimed at increasing the technology used in monitoring and maintaining food safety in specialty crops

The Army Corps of Engineers' 2022 spending plan, which includes new federal funding for longstanding projects, is generating positive feedback from farm country and others who depend on the nation's rivers and ports.

The Food and Drug Administration is dropping water testing requirements for produce growers in favor of having the farmers conduct assessments of the risk of their water sources being contaminated.

Western Growers (WG) plans to bring high level ag-tech classes to California college students. The group has received a $750,000 grant from CDFA’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program to bring training to an estimated 2,750 students in community colleges and four-year colleges and universities.