Articles by Jonathan H. Harsch

The omnibus funding bill for 2018 that President Donald Trump signed into law last week specifically acknowledges “the importance of the deployment of wireless broadband services in rural areas of the United States.”

Capital gains tax breaks could inject trillions into the nation’s struggling low-income rural and urban communities, thanks to new “Opportunity Zones” tax provisions.

The U.S. ethanol industry is fighting to maintain its record-setting growth despite the oil industry’s continuing attacks and the surge in global protectionism that threatens American exports of the corn-based biofuel.

If Congress wants to boost the farm economy and rural development, university researchers say the upcoming farm bill needs to focus on farmers’ and ranchers’ urgent healthcare needs.

The biofuels and fossil fuels industries are aggressively jockeying for position in the run-up to 2022 when the U.S. EPA will have broad discretion to re-write the rules for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which mandates the use of ethanol, biodiesel and other biofuels in the nation's transportation fuel supply.

In writing the five-year 2018 farm bill, Congress could add new provisions to support aquaculture, with the added benefit of boosting soybean growers’ income, according to testimony at a Senate hearing Tuesday.

The Ford Motor Company is championing world-wide efforts to use more agricultural resources in cars, trucks and other products. This push to increase the use of sustainable, renewable ag materials echoes Henry Ford's efforts to build indestructible car bodies from soybean-based bioplastics and his early steering wheels from wheat straw.

The federal “BioPreferred” initiative to boost farm income, economic development and job growth is paying off in a big way.

After scoring a major political victory with the passage of tax reform legislation in December, the Trump White House hopes to notch another win by passing legislation to upgrade the nation’s neglected infrastructure, including highways, bridges, broadband and marine transportation systems.