Ben Nuelle

Help is on the way to small businesses across the country, including farms and other ag employers. The Small Business Administration has released rules for a landmark $349 billion forgivable loan program funded by the $2 trillion economic stimulus bill. 

Social distancing may be a crucial step to help limit the spread of the coronavirus, but the lack of high-speed internet in rural areas to conduct classes, run small businesses, or practice telemedicine could have dire financial consequences if the pandemic lasts months.

Renewable fuel advocates say a final Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule economy rule issued by the Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency misses the mark for transitioning to high octane low carbon fuels.

Producers are expected to plant 7.29 million more corn acres, 7.6 million more soybean acres, and 451,000 fewer wheat acres this year, according to USDA’s Prospective Plantings report released Tuesday.

Now that President Donald Trump has signed the historic $2 trillion economic relief package into law, work now turns to getting the money out as quickly as possible. “This doesn’t do anybody any good if it takes a long time,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday.

The Trump administration is paving the way toward potentially restarting the economy in some areas of the country.

The Agriculture Department is accepting 3.4 million acres into the land-idling Conservation Reserve Program following the first general signup in four years.

The $2 trillion Phase 3 stimulus package that passed the Senate late Wednesday night has a lot for ag, but not everyone thinks the sector is getting what will be needed for 2020. Starting with USDA.

A leading architect of the ag programs in the $2 trillion economic stimulus package says he expects USDA could use the funding it gets through the bill to provide several forms of relief to producers beyond a new Market Facilitation Program.