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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Monday, January 20, 2025
More Senate confirmation hearings are on tap today. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head EPA, former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, will appear before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, selected to be interior secretary, will testify before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Democrats on the House Ag Committee are starting to line up behind the candidates seeking to be the panel’s ranking member. Reps. Angie Craig, D-Minn., and Jim Costa, D-Calif., are challenging Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., for the minority’s top spot.
Montana Democrat Jon Tester has managed to use his agriculture background and down-home image to maintain his lock on a seat representing a largely conservative constituency. But with his spot up for grabs in a rigorous-looking race that could determine which party controls the senate, the organic grain farmer will have to fight to reclaim it.
The government could save taxpayers “hundreds of millions per year” by reducing crop insurance companies’ rate of return on the program in line with market conditions, according to the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
Senators were warned Wednesday that the EPA’s new regulations for plant-incorporated protectants will slow the breeding of new fruit and vegetable varieties that are more resistant to pests and diseases.
Critics of commodity checkoffs are making a fresh run at imposing new restrictions on the programs, including a prohibition on contracting research and promotion work out to organizations that lobby Congress or federal agencies.
A bipartisan Senate bill would accelerate a shift in the Conservation Reserve Program toward grasslands and smaller, environmentally sensitive parcels away from the larger tracts that have been traditionally enrolled through the general signup process.
Tax credits and funding boosts for on-farm energy programs through the Inflation Reduction Act could incentivize more farmers to install anaerobic digestion systems on their farms, a major part of the Biden Administration’s plan for reducing methane emissions.
A Tuesday hearing at a Senate Agriculture Subcommittee illustrated a bipartisan priority to incorporate the concept of "food as medicine" into the upcoming farm bill.
More than a year after courts forced the Agriculture Department to shut down a debt forgiveness program for minority farmers, Congress is set to give USDA wide open authority to aid borrowers of all races while providing additional aid to victims of past discrimination.
