The Fresh Produce Procurement Reform Act, legislation to increase USDA’s procurement of fresh fruits and vegetables, is being introduced in Congress to the industry’s delight by one of the most powerful Democrats in the U.S. House.
House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-CT, has introduced the bill that would
Continue Reading Bill to reshape and revive Families Food Box Program introduced by powerful House Democrat
The Farmers to Families Food Box program is dead, killed by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. When it runs out of money later this month, it will have spent $5.5 billion in one year on a unique COVID relief program.
In the trillions upon trillions spent on COVID relief,
Continue Reading Letter From The Editor: End of a safe food program that made a difference
In one of his final acts before leaving the USDA, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue signed an agreement ending a turf war between his department and the Department of Health and Human Services. It shifts oversight of gene-edited livestock to USDA.
A short time earlier, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner
Continue Reading Perdue exits the building after getting USDA jurisdiction over gene-edited livestock
Meat production this week is up about 3 percent compared with the previous week, according to market reports by SiriusXM’s Rural Radio. That’s still off by as much as a third from a year ago. The numbers are causing some retailers to ration fresh meat purchases or risk selling out
Continue Reading Sonny Perdue’s predictions about meat production recoveries could be coming true
Coronavirus illnesses to date may touch as little as 4 percent of meat and poultry employment, but it been enough to roil the industry over how much protection the plants need to be safe.
Actions taken in tight proximity to one another by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and
Continue Reading Perdue and federal judge both play the OSHA card on meat and poultry industries
Two senior U.S. Representatives, two former Secretaries of Agriculture, a chef, and Consumer Reports have sent USDA an “action plan” to safeguard America’s food supply during the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve sent the plan with a cover letter to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue
The plan reportedly includes detailed steps
Continue Reading Democrat leaders in food sector and Consumer Reports hatch plan for Sonny Perdue
Out of their concern for food safety and their tendency to support American producers, consumers have long supported Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) of meat products.
But those “Made in the USA” signs and labels have been missing or suspect ever since Congress bowed in 2015 to the World Trade
Continue Reading Perdue takes the ‘Made in USA’ beef labeling option over country of origin
The reaction was somewhat muted to the new “regulatory framework” for agricultural biotechnology products announced last week by the White House and USDA.
The big agriculture organizations and biotech industry did, of course, quickly praise President Trump’s new executive order. For something that streamlines the regulation of genetically modified organisms,
Continue Reading New Executive Order to fast track agricultural technology applications
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is relocating USDA’s economic research units and 85 percent of their jobs to the greater Kansas City area. USDA’s researchers do some food safety research.
Perdue Thursday announced that both USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) along
Continue Reading Ag secretary picks Kansas City area as new home for USDA research units
Crop reports and economic forecasts for agricultural commodities have long been the work products of USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) and its National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
Those are the USDA research units that Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue wants to move out of the District of
Continue Reading Letter From The Editor: It’s Only a Matter of Time
