Articles by Spencer Chase

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack ripped into lawsuits challenging debt relief for minority producers in remarks released Wednesday, asking what those who are challenging the payments did to address previous instances of discrimination the program is meant to address.

Glyphosate is a step closer to getting approved for continued use in the European Union after a positive review by a group of regulators assigned to study the herbicide's safety. 

The Department of Agriculture will propose three new rules to strengthen enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act, potentially restarting another contentious debate about the government’s role in the relationship between processors and producers.

Leading farm groups are supporting Field to Market President Rod Snyder to become EPA’s agriculture adviser. Field to Market has played a leading role in developing and promoting sustainability metrics and organizes a popular annual conference.

The nation’s largest beef producer group says a commonly-applied descriptor on steaks, roasts, and patties offers a disservice to consumers and products alike and is petitioning the Department of Agriculture to change or eliminate it.

A trade association representing meatpackers is asking the highest court in the land to consider a new report in their fight to overturn California’s Proposition 12, arguing the law “provides no benefit to consumers and increases breeding sow mortality, according to the state’s own rule.”

Stakeholders from Capitol Hill to the Corn Belt are backing a push to incorporate sustainable practices into production agriculture, but farmers will need additional know-how and monetary support to make that happen, panelists said at an Agri-Pulse webinar Monday.

Neil Dierks, who has been at the helm of the National Pork Producers Council for two decades, plans to retire by the end of the year.

The Democratic party's chief rural outreach official takes a new job and some West Coast offices add some new staff on Capitol Hill.