Articles by Agri-Pulse staff

The House today passed a bill that would make permanent a tax law provision allowing businesses that purchase new equipment to depreciate 50 percent of the cost in the first year.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack provided a 12-week progress report on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) disaster assistance programs today, announcing that USDA has processed 106,000 payments to farmers in 40 states across the country who suffered livestock and grazing losses between October

May 2012 was the deadline for black farmers to submit claims charging USDA with discrimination under the terms of the Pigford I and II class action lawsuits dating from 1997. But that has not stopped speculation that additional payments could and should be made.

The National Grain and Feed Association (NFGA) is urging the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) to adopt new rules for grain shippers to challenge rail freight rates, alleging that current regulations allow railroads to extract “excessive monopoly profits” from agricultural customers.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) has joined several agricultural groups in asking EPA to withdraw its “interpretive rule” concerning Clean Water Act (CWA) permit exemptions for certain farming activities near wetlands.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) today announced country-specific reallocations of the fiscal year 2014 in-quota quantities of the World Trade Organization (WTO) tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for imported raw cane sugar.

U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., are calling on USDA to shut down all Foster Farms poultry processing facilities until a year-long salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 600 people in 29 states is under control.

The EPA today issued a rule designed to maintain liquidity in the market for the renewable identification numbers, or RINs, established under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS.) A second rule was issued listing additional fuels that can qualify for RINs and certifying corn kernel fiber as a “crop re

A broad group of agricultural organizations is asking Congress to take action on the U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) rule if it is found to be in violation of U.S. international trade obligations