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Feds pledge $2.3 billion to boost ag exports amid farm bill uncertainty
Federal agricultural officials plan to spend up to $2.3 billion to promote farm exports and to send U.S. grain to countries that are suffering food shortages. “This will complement existing trade promotion programs as we await Congress’s action on both the budget and the farm bill,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Tuesday. The […]
USDA announces another $759 million of grants and loans for rural internet
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is awarding grants and loans that total about $759 million to 49 high-speed internet projects in 24 states and in other territories, the department announced Thursday. There are four awards for Michigan, including a grant for the Upper Peninsula that was one of the largest in the country. The Upper […]
Federal government has given $800 million to keep indebted farmers afloat
More than 13,000 farmers have benefited from nearly $800 million in federal debt relief, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Tuesday. The assistance came from a new federal initiative to erase farmers’ loan delinquencies to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and private lenders or to resolve their remaining debts after foreclosure. Going forward, the […]
USDA hopes to boost fertilizer production as soon as next year
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will invest $500 million to increase domestic fertilizer production, doubling its previous commitment, the agency announced. The federal dollars would boost long-term projects and ready-to-go proposals that might have an effect as early as next year. Some of the first projects to get funding from the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program […]
USDA more than triples funding for ‘climate smart’ agriculture
The Biden administration plans to distribute more than $3 billion to fund projects that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon in agriculture and forestry — a tripling of its initial commitment in February. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was set to publicly announce the expansion of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program on […]
Vilsack: America’s voluntary approach to agriculture is better than Europe’s mandates
BOONE, Iowa — The more than $1 billion the federal government is devoting to voluntary efforts to reduce agriculture’s adverse effects on the environment is a better long-term strategy than mandating new rules for farmers, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Tuesday. While state and federal officials in the United States have tended to […]
New COVID booster vaccines approved by FDA
Two new COVID-19 vaccine mixtures that are thought to be more effective at preventing serious illness for currently circulating coronavirus variants were approved by federal regulators on Wednesday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized two variations of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines that contain genetic components of omicron subvariants that are currently causing the […]
Report: COVID cases, deaths at packing plants were triple previous counts
The numbers of meatpacking workers infected and killed by the coronavirus are much higher than previously known, a congressional review has found. More than 59,000 workers of the country’s five largest meatpackers were infected, and about 270 died, according to a report by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis that was made public […]