Items Tagged with 'Ferd Hoefner'

An Illinois Democrat says getting a bipartisan farm bill done this year is “critically important” and that she is optimistic Congress can pass new legislation before the September deadline included in last year's extension.

Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee are eying big changes to the Conservation Reserve Program in the upcoming farm bill, though many influential voices question whether the efforts will gain much steam.

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.

Congressional Republicans who opposed the Inflation Reduction Act, the main funding mechanism for President Joe Biden's climate policy, would like to move the IRA's funding for climate-related farming practices into the farm bill, which could permanently boost funding for conservation programs.

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture says it wants to see a strong commodity title in the farm bill but is focusing its efforts on ag research, cybersecurity and trade.

The much-anticipated White House hunger and nutrition conference set for Sept. 28 will feature the release of a national strategy that's expected to lay out a blueprint for ending hunger and addressing diet-related diseases that could very well embrace the old parental admonition: Eat your vegetables.

The demise of President Joe Biden’s climate funding plan on Capitol Hill makes it a lot harder, but not impossible, to help farmers ramp up climate-related practices. But the administration retains a powerful tool in the Commodity Credit Corp., and there will be pressure to steer farm bill funds into climate priorities.

USDA has a daunting task as it seeks to pick the winners for one of the biggest ag lotteries ever: the $1 billion Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, whose first round of funding drew more than 450 proposals seeking $3 billion to $4 billion.

The Agriculture Department is ditching a change in commodity program subsidy eligibility rules that would have unintentionally made it harder for some members of family farming operations to qualify for payments, a top official says.