Environment

A flagship program to evaluate the impact of “climate-smart” practices and promote regenerative agriculture is starving for money.

The administration’s efforts to control food inflation could be running into a challenge with President Donald Trump’s trade policy. Former USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber says reciprocal tariffs run the risk of undermining administration efforts to bring egg prices down — if adopted as described.

Providers of foreign food assistance that have seen their contracts reinstated after the funding freeze are still struggling to resume operations.

The Agriculture Department is de-emphasizing vaccines as a tool to control bird flu in poultry operations, leaving advocates for the shots seeking clarification on where the department stands on them.

USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service officials will be discussing the bird flu outbreak with state officials and industry stakeholders today. The call comes after Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins told Breitbart.com that vaccines were “off the table,” leading to questions about whether vaccination would still be part of the administration’s bird flu strategy.

Lawmakers face a deadline of this Friday to avoid a government shutdown. But the partisan impasse over how to keep departments and agencies funded has yet to be resolved. 

Buyouts and firings have shrunken staffs at USDA field offices as the Trump administration works to downsize the federal workforce. Leases for some locations will soon be terminated.

The agricultural industry is more optimistic than it was in the summer of 2023 that producers will be able to live with new requirements to protect endangered species from pesticides. 

Corn and soybean growers meeting at this year’s Commodity Classic wrestled with the potential impacts of President Donald Trump’s sweeping actions on trade and federal spending cuts.