Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced a new long-awaited poultry inspection rule that will require companies to conduct microbiological tests for pathogens that cannot be seen by the naked the eye, and will remove federal inspectors from the beginning of lines, but will not increase the speed at which birds can whiz by the inspectors. Read More...

House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., subcommittee ranking member Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and 138 other House members said Wednesday that if Japan and Canada do not provide full market access under the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement they should be left out. Read More...

The chief parties involved in the continuing dispute over the latest iteration of the U.S. country-of-origin import labeling law received a final World Trade Organization compliance report Wednesday, Washington Trade Daily reported late Wednesday. Read More...

The Agriculture Department today released a report on greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture and forestry that USDA officials say can help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners figure out how to participate in carbon markets, but is more likely to be used by government officials and consultants to try to help farmers. Read More...

The papers for President Barack Obama’s nomination of Lisa Mensah to be the Agriculture undersecretary for rural development have gone to the Senate Agriculture Committtee, and Mensah has begun meeting with senators to discuss her nomination. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is in Bridgeport, N.Y., today to continue promoting the potential of the Rural Infrastructure Opportunity Fund USDA launched with CoBank last week, although there are still some questions about exactly how the fund will function and what benefits it will provide to rural America. Read More...

Agriculture Department officials are reviewing the shutdown of grain inspection and weighing services at the Port of Vancouver, Wash., but cannot comment on any possible action until the review is complete, a USDA spokeswoman told The Hagstrom Report late Wednesday. Read More...

The National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety today release a document entitled “Model Policy: Youth Employment in Agriculture,” which addresses age- and developmentally appropriate assignments, training needs for adolescent workers, and ideal supervision and mentoring by adult workers. Read More...

The Agriculture Department on Tuesday announced the availability of more than $9 million in outreach and technical assistance for minority farmers and ranchers and military veterans who are new to farming and ranching. Read More...

The Agriculture Department announced Tuesday that the new Supplemental Coverage Option known as SCO will be available for corn, cotton, grain sorghum, rice, soybeans, spring barley, spring wheat, and winter wheat in selected counties for the 2015 crop year. Read More...

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., today introduced a bill that would impose a federal tax of 1 cent per teaspoon of caloric sweetener, such as sugar or high-fructose corn syrup in sweetened beverages. Read More...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia today upheld the Agriculture Department’s authority to issue rules implementing the country-of-origin labeling law for meat and poultry products and denied a request for a preliminary injunction to block implementation of the USDA’s May 2013 final rule for the labeling law. Read More...

Senior Obama administration officials are meeting at the White House today with representatives of leading food, agriculture and technology businesses to discuss ways these companies are leveraging open government data, information tools, and other innovations to improve the resilience of the U.S. and global food system and reduce the contributions of food production to climate change, the White House announced early today. Read More...

Neonicotinoids, the insecticides that affect bee health, have been found to be “pervasive” in six states and nine Midwestern rivers, including the portion of the Mississippi that drains southern Minnesota, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Monday. Read More...

The White House today will release a report that says delaying action to stem climate change will have major negative economic consequences, and companies will announce steps to focus on food security and resilience in the agricultural sector, White House officials said Monday. Read More...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy’s trip to Missouri and her meeting with Republican members of the Senate have not silenced her critics, but McCarthy said in an in exclusive interview that she is glad she is making the effort, Jerry Hagstrom writes in his National Journal column today. Read More...

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has published two blog posts to explain the Waters of the U.S. rule. Read More...

Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., Jim Costa, D-Calif., Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Steve Womack, R-Ark., released a statement Friday noting that 218 House members support a reduction in the volumetric requirements for ethanol in the Renewable Fuel Standards. Read More...

The Obama administration will honor 15 local agricultural “Champions of Change” in a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday. Read More...

In a continuing sign that Democrats believe healthier school meals have political appeal, First Lady Michelle Obama mentioned Republican opposition to healthier school meals as one reason people should give money to Democrats during the congressional election season during a little-noticed campaign event in Chicago on Thursday.
Read More...

While the American fruit and vegetable industry worries about drought in California and consumers worry about low prices, European fruit farmers are asking the European Union for assistance due to high production and high prices. Read More...

Several consumer groups met last week with the staff of the White House Office of Management and Budget and voiced their opposition to the Agriculture Department proposal to transfer some poultry inspection functions from government inspectors to companies. Read More...

Mobile slaughter houses backed by the Agriculture Department are now used to butcher chickens on Martha’s Vineyard, lambs and goats in California, buffalo in Nebraska, elk and boar in Texas, turkeys, pheasants and quail in Kentucky and reindeer in Alaska, Bloomberg and Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Read More...

The man with a firearm arrested Wednesday trying to enter the Cannon House Office Building is the president-elect of the National Pork Producers Council, Roll Call reported. Read More...

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on Thursday released a proposal to turn a dozen federal social programs including food stamps into a block grant. Ryan released what he called a discussion draft of the proposals. Read More...

Trade Representative Michael Froman and Michael Punke, the U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization, today expressed disappointment that India has blocked a finalization of a trade facilitation agreement over the issue of food stockpiling, and said the situation has put the WTO and the future of the Doha round of negotiations in danger. Read More...

The government’s definition of the size of a small agricultural enterprise by annual receipts is too low, a Small Business Administration official and business leaders testified Thursday before the House Small Business Agriculture, Energy and Trade Subcommittee. Read More...

Cargill Meat Solutions successful employment of immigrant laborers shows the importance of immigration reform legislation, a Cargill executive explained last week at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event entitled “Open for Business: Spurring Local Economic Growth by Welcoming Immigrants.” Read More...

A House Agriculture subcommittee hearing on the role of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, Thursday showed partisan differences over the program that were similar to those during the farm bill debate.
Read More...

Investors should put more of their money into projects in rural America because they are not generating high enough returns in traditional investments, a key Wall Street investment banker said today at a White House Rural Council conference. Read More...

A coalition of 82 farm, ranch consumer and faith-based groups sent a letter to the Justice Department today urging it to extend its review of Tyson Foods’ proposal to take over Hillshire Brands. Read More...

White House counselor John Podesta told a group of senators today that the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement of the volumetric requirements for the Renewable Fuel Standard in 2014 is imminent, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said today.
Read More...

The Export-Import Bank is an essential tool to finance exports in rural America and several Treasury Department programs are also available to participate in financing in rural America, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told investors today at the White House Rural Opportunity Investment Conference. Read More...

The School Nutrition Association today sent First Lady Michelle Obama a letter saying they consider her remarks at a Tuesday event about people serving junk food to students to be “disappointing” and “offensive to school cafeteria professionals.” Read More...

CoBank, the large cooperative agricultural bank, will announce today that it has created a Rural Infrastructure Opportunity Fund to finance the projects that USDA’s Rural Development division usually funds, such as electricity, water and sewer projects and rural business loans and grants, CoBank CEO Robert Engel and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said late Wednesday. Read More...

The differences between Republican senators from the Plains and the rest of the Senate Agriculture Committee over school food became apparent today at a hearing on reauthorization of the school meals program.
Read More...

Nine Senate Democrats will meet with John Podesta, a counselor to President Barack Obama, on Thursday to be updated on the administration’s plans on the volumetric requirements for the Renewable Fuel Standard, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., announced today. Read More...

The Senate version of the emergency supplemental funding will contain money to cover anticipated fire suppression shortfalls for the remainder of 2014, but also President Barack Obama’s request to authorize future disaster funding for the U.S. Forest Service, a division of the Agriculture Department, and for the Interior Department, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, R-Md., said today in releasing a draft of the bill. Read More...

The United States and the European Union have updated their farm programs within the past year, but they have gone in divergent directions, prominent academic analysts said at an International Food Policy and Research Institute seminar in Washington last Wednesday. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the creation of the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR) and the appointment of a 15-member board of directors. Read More...

House Agriculture Department Operations, Oversight and Nutrition Subcommittee Chairman Steve King, R-Iowa, today announced the witness list for his hearing Thursday on the role of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps in relation to other federal assistance programs. Read More...

First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated the success of her “Drink Up” campaign to urge people to drink water — and then used that example to make the case one more time that schools can serve healthy food and convince children to eat it if the people in charge of school meals try hard enough.
Read More...

California may be experiencing a drought but people in some of the high-poverty agricultural communities in the state will get more access to drinking water courtesy of a program sponsored by the California Endowment and local municipalities, Annalisa Robles, a program manager at the endowment, announced today at the White House. Read More...

With a Government Accountability Office report citing inaccurate payment rates for school breakfast and lunch programs as two of the highest in the federal government likely to come up at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Wednesday, the Agriculture Department today defended the integrity of the school meals program, but also noted it is striving to improve the payment accuracy rate. Read More...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy today met with Republican members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and from the tone of the news releases from key members, she got an earful about the agency’s problems in rural America. Read More...

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said late today that she will introduce an emergency supplemental funding bill Wednesday with $1 billion less than President Barack Obama requested to deal with the children seeking refuge at the Texas border, and that it will still include money for fighting wildfires. Read More...

A report on the cost and effectiveness of measures to save the lesser prairie chicken is almost ready, an Agriculture Department spokesman said late Monday after House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and 11 other House Republicans wrote Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking for the report. Read More...

The financing of conservation efforts will be among the topics at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting this year and a number of agriculture and nutrition experts will be among the speakers, the Clinton Foundation announced today. Read More...

Two House Agriculture subcommittees have scheduled hearings next week. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has proclaimed August 3 to 9 National Farmers Market Week. Read More...

Scott O’Malia, a Republican commissioner on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, announced Monday that he will resign effective August 8. Read More...

The Western Organization of Resource Councils has announced that John Smillie will become the executive director on January 1, 2015. Read More...

The House Small Business Agriculture, Energy and Trade Subcommittee will hold a hearing Thursday entitled “Modernizing Agriculture Producer Size Standards.” Read More...

Students who saw their school meals get healthier at the beginning of the 2012 to 2013 school year complained at first, but by spring most said they liked them, although there were variations among types of schools, according to an academic survey of school food administrators and staff released today. Read More...

The Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency announced today that disaster assistance for bush or tree free growers due to frost or freeze during the 2012 crop year will be available starting Tuesday. Read More...

In a sign of the severity of the California drought, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Friday that USDA would provide $9.7 million in emergency water assistance to 73,000 residents in 11 California counties experiencing the driest year on record.
Read More...

Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe will leave his post next month to become president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions — C2ES. Read More...

The Democratic-leaning National Farmers Union and the Republican-leaning American Farm Bureau Federation asked roughly the same questions last week about the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Waters of the U.S. rule, but adopted different tones in their communications about the situation. Read More...

The White House Rural Council will host a conference on Wednesday and Thursday to promote potential investment opportunities in rural America, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today. Read More...

The House Agriculture Department Operations, Oversight, and Nutrition Subcommittee will hold a hearing Thursday “to examine the role of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, in relation to other federal assistance programs,” the House Agriculture Committee announced today. Read More...

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture announced today that its board has chosen Barbara Glenn to succeed Stephen Haterius as its CEO. Read More...

First Lady Michelle Obama continued her fight for nutritious school meals today, labeling the members of Congress leading the pushback as “complaining voices,” and urging the children attending the third annual White House Kids’ State Dinner to join her in the battle.
Read More...

A coalition of consumer groups has asked the Agriculture Department and the Office of Management and Budget to release the latest version of a rule to change poultry inspection and open a new comment period. Read More...

Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., on Wednesday introduced a bill that would prevent Commodity Futures Trading Commission consumer protection regulations on farmers and ranchers from being “overly laborious” and give them more time to deposit money in their margin accounts. Read More...

Conservation groups are mounting a campaign in defense of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Waters of the U.S. rule, even as farm leaders and Republicans in the House move bills to try to stop EPA from proceeding with it. Read More...

The School Nutrition Association exhibit hall featured a lot of junk food
as well as a case for “smart snacks,” Time magazine said in an article
posted online Wednesday. Read More...

Foods grown on small farmers are being marketed to institutions through assistance from the Agriculture Department, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

▪ Associated Press — Locally-grown foods look to bigger business

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and William Dietz, a former Centers for Disease Control official now at George Washington University, have separately written that the FDA’s nutrition labeling proposal does not make nutritional values, calories or ingredient labeling clear enough to consumers, the Associated Press has reported. Read More...

The Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service today released a proposed rule that would require all official establishments and retail stores that grind raw beef products for sale to keep records that disclose the identity and contact information of the supplier of all source materials that they use in the preparation of each lot of raw ground beef. Read More...

African leaders and President Barack Obama are scheduled to discuss food security and post-2015 millennium development goals among other topics when during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington August 4 to 7. Read More...

Michael Punke, the deputy U.S. Trade Representative who also has the title of U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization, said today he believes India may drop its linkage of implementing a trade facilitation agreement and securing public stockholdings for food security purposes in developing countries. Read More...

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., announced today she will hold a hearing Wednesday on the school meals programs. Read More...

The Agriculture Department today released a final rule that extends non-discrimination protections to transgender and gender non-conforming participants in many USDA services and programs. Read More...

The U.S. government has submitted a work program on food security to the World Trade Organization, Washington Trade Daily reported today. Read More...

President Barack Obama today emphasized his administration’s efforts with Indian tribes and rural electricity to help the country cope with climate change. Read More...

Feeding America, the Land Trust Alliance and the National Restaurant Association are among the groups urging the House to vote for a bill that would make permanent certain tax deductions for charitable donations of food. Read More...

Twenty-seven former panelists for the Institute of Medicine told Congress Monday not to change healthier foods rules for children, as the Agriculture deputy undersecretary in charge of nutrition reminded school food service directors who have asked Congress for changes that they have responsibilities to serve food that will result in healthy children and adults. Read More...

The American Sugar Alliance, which represents cane and beet growers, expressed concern this week about the Agriculture Department’s report showing declining acreage devoted to sugar, while a business coalition says it is worried that the U.S. and Mexican governments will reach an agreement to manage the sugar trade with Mexico. Read More...

The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday to consider Robert Holleyman, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be a deputy U.S. trade representative. Read More...

With First Lady Michelle Obama's Kids' State Dinner scheduled for Friday, the White House has released a blog post about its preparations. Read More...

The National Milk Producers Federation on Monday endorsed an Agriculture Department draft framework for the United States and Canada to address an outbreak of a serious foreign animal contagion, such as foot-and-mouth disease. Read More...

SUNNE, Värmland, Sweden — Lars Romert, former press counselor at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, hosted Jerry Hagstrom here Monday as Hagstrom tours Scandinavia. Read More...

The debate over healthier food rules for school meals continues this week at the School Nutrition Association’s Annual National Conference in Boston, while First Lady Michelle Obama plans a White House Kids’ State Dinner Friday featuring healthy food recipes submitted from children in all the states and territories. Read More...

Robert L. Carlson, former president of the North Dakota Farmers Union and the Rome-based World Farmers’ Organization (WFO), has been appointed United Nations special ambassador of the International Year of Family Farming. Read More...

Farmers for Thad, a Mississippi group organized with the help of the American Soybean Association, showed how farmers can use social media to show political strength beyond their numbers, Jerry Hagstrom writes in his National Journal column today. Read More...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said Friday that the agent will be careful about any regulation dealing with water in ditches, and that farmers and ranchers have been misinformed about many other Impacts of the Waters of the U.S. rule. Read More...

Agriculture Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Michael Scuse came under questioning Thursday over updating farmers’ Actual Production History records known as APH, but afterwards members commended him for implementation of the commodity program and crop insurance provisions of the bill. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack met with school meal advocates on Thursday behind closed doors, but from statements issued afterwards the meeting seemed to relieve the tensions with the School Nutrition Association only a little, while other nutrition groups saw the meeting as helpful. Read More...

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss., hosted a dinner Wednesday evening to celebrate the United States Food for Peace Program’s 60th anniversary. Read More...

A House agriculture subcommittee held a hearing on the societal benefits of genetically modified organisms this week, while a co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream joined Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., to protest a bill introduced by Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., that would require a Food and Drug Administration voluntary GMO labeling program, but stop the states from requiring labels. Read More...

The National Chicken Council on Thursday praised the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service for sending its proposed rule to modernize the U.S. poultry inspection system to the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review.
Read More...

The White House early today released a report on actions it says President Barack Obama has taken in the past year to improve the economy for middle-class Americans. Read More...

Darci Vetter, confirmed Wednesday as the U.S. chief agriculture negotiator with the rank of ambassador in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, will speak at the U.S. Grains Council summer meeting, the council announced. Read More...

The American Farm Bureau Federation and Western Growers joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and other groups Wednesday in a Washington press conference and a “day of action” in 60 congressional districts in 25 states in an attempt to push Congress to take action on immigration reform this year. Read More...

The House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on the World Trade Organization, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the chairman of the subcommittee, has announced. Read More...

The Senate today confirmed by voice vote Darci Vetter as the chief U.S. agricultural negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Read More...

The Agriculture Department has sent confirmations to 16 groups for a meeting on school nutrition on Thursday with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Sam Kass, the White House nutrition adviser and executive director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood obesity. Read More...

The Organic Consumers Association announced Tuesday that it has launched a MoveOn.org petition drive asking Hillary Clinton to reverse her support for genetically modified organisms and to “become a supporter of the transition to sustainable, organic, regenerative agriculture.”
Read More...

The Agriculture Department’s Food, Consumer and Nutrition Service has hired Angela Tagtow as executive director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. Read More...

The American Frozen Food Institute has hired Joe Clayton as executive vice president of public affairs. Read More...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy will head to Missouri on Thursday to counter “myths” about the agency’s proposed Waters of the U.S. rule that have developed among farmers, ranchers and agribusiness leaders, she said in a call to reporters today. Read More...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said today that EPA’s final rule on the volumetric requirements for biofuels for this year has been delayed because the Obama administration wants to make sure the rule still encourages the increased use of biofuels over the long run.
Read More...

A key farm lobbyist has told The Hagstrom Report that the school lunch issue may be keeping the House Republican leadership from bringing up the fiscal year 2015 Agriculture appropriations bill just as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Sam Kass, the president’s senior nutrition adviser, plan to meet with a wide range of school lunch advocates this week. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Sam Kass, the White House nutrition adviser and executive director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let's Move campaign against childhood obesity, are scheduled to meet with school meals advocates Thursday, but the School Nutrition Association won’t send its top leadership to that event. Read More...

In a development that could reveal the latest views in Congress on immigration policy, the Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on President Barack Obama’s emergency supplemental request for funding to handle the unaccompanied children arriving from Central America at the Texas border. Read More...

President Barack Obama’s emergency supplemental budget request for resources to deal with the increase in migration of Central American children at the Texas border will include a request for $615 million for the Agriculture Department’s U.S. Forest Service to suppress forest fires and to deal with the issue of long term financing of fighting forest fires, a White House official said in a call to reporters today. Read More...

Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., today joined Consumer Reports in calling on the Agriculture Department to shut down all Foster Farms poultry processing facilities until a salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 600 people in 29 states is stopped. But USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said it had taken proper action by announcing a recall of certain Foster Farms products directly linked to illness. Read More...

The National Grain and Feed Association Monday submitted a proposal to the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) to establish new rules and procedures that captive grain shippers could use to challenge rail freight rates they believe are unreasonable, while Growth Energy sent a letter to the STB outlining ethanol industry concerns about substandard rail service. Read More...

House Agriculture subcommittee hearings on “the societal benefits of biotechnology" and implementation of the commodity policy and crop insurance provisions of the 2014 farm bill will be held this week. Read More...

On Wednesday, the House Natural Resources Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Subcommittee will hold a hearing on two bills: Read More...

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Christopher Giancarlo, a new Republican appointee to the commission, today named James Goggins as his chief of staff and Marcia Blase as his senior counsel. Read More...

President Barack Obama honored immigrant chef José Andrés in a Fourth of July ceremony at the White House today, while immigration reform advocates vowed to continue pushing the House to pass a bill, even though Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told Obama last week that the House will not take up an immigration reform bill this year. Read More...

The Agriculture Department’s business and industry development program has made a loan to support Annin Flagmakers, a company that produces American flags at a plant in rural Coshocton, Ohio, which employs approximately 225 peopple, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack noted in a newspaper column distributed to newspapers Thursday. Read More...

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden will join Secretary of State John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Trade Representative Michael Froman in a trip to China July 7 to 12 for the U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. Read More...

Foster Farms, the California chicken producer that has been the subject of a 16-month investigation over salmonella outbreaks, has recalled more than a million pounds of chicken after the Food Safety and Inspection Service found a direct link with the illness, according to news releases and reports. Read More...

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jo Ann Emerson has joined the board of the World Food Program USA, a private sector group that supports the World Food Program, a Rome-based United Nations agency that distributes food aid. Read More...

Farm leaders who had tried to convince the House of Representatives to pass immigration reform legislation this year expressed deep disappointment at the announcement Monday that the House will not take up a bill this year and that President Barack Obama will use his executive powers to deal with the situation.
Read More...

A Fourth of July picnic including hot dogs, cheeseburgers, pork spare ribs, potato salad, baked beans, lemonade and chocolate milk will cost 5 percent more than last year but still comes in at less than $6 per person, the American Farm Bureau Federation said in a news release today. Read More...

The United States and Korea have signed an equivalency agreement that will allow organic processed products certified in the United States or Korea to be labeled as organic in either country, the Agriculture Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced today. It is effective immediately. Read More...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy will travel to Missouri next week to try to clarify what is covered under the agency's Waters of the U.S. rule, an aide told The Hagstrom Report today. Read More...

Every year there are retirement parties for staff at the House Agriculture Committee, but there may never have been a retirement party as grand as the one held last Tuesday for Debbie Smith, the chief clerk of the committee who retires today after working on the committee for more than 31 years. Read More...