Articles by Derrick Cain

Legislation (S. 376) that seeks to reauthorize the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), which provides drought information to farmers and ranchers, would cost $65 million over four years, according to an estimate released today by the Congressional Budget Office.

The USDA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported today that it found a 67 percent increase in “high-dollar” overpayments in FY 2012 compared to the previous fiscal year.

Chicken producer Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation announced Wednesday a $25 million investment in Alabama to build a feed mill facility and to renovate a poultry processing facility.

A coalition of agricultural and food organizations led by the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and Cargill sent a letter recently to press U.S. trade negotiators to include its “core” principles in the final Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement

While agricultural stakeholders await more action from Congress on immigration reform and on the potential fate of many undocumented farm workers, two lawmakers recently made moves to clamp down on illegal immigration.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia entered an order Aug. 20 granting a motion by several organizations to intervene in a pending country-of-origin-labeling (COOL) lawsuit, which seeks to block implementation of a USDA mandatory meat labeling rule.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) continued its campaign Tuesday against an amendment in the House-passed farm bill that it says would annul several state bans on “inhumane factory farming practices” and rules regulating agricultural practices.

Agriculture equipment giant John Deerereported today a 26 percent increase in third quarter earnings compared with the same period last year, as a result of “considerable strength in the farm sector, especially in North and South America.”

House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., recently told the nation’s governors that the committee plans to consider the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) next month with the goal of having it hit the House floor in October.

Top U.S. agriculture officials put their Brazilian counterparts on “advance notice” that the United States may have to soon end the annual $147.3 million in payments that have been staving off retaliatory measures as part of the ongoing cotton dispute, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said today.