The U.S. government has decided to appeal the World Trade Organization ruling against the U.S. program of country-of-origin labeling for red meat. Read More...

The World Trade Organization General Council on Wednesday approved measures to enable full implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement by allowing developing countries to continue to hold stocks of food. Read More...

President Barack Obama today pardoned an Ohio-bred turkey named Cheese today in a ceremony in the grand foyer of the White House — snow and sleet prevented the ceremony from being held outdoors. Read More...

The Agriculture Department has released an infographic on how to prepare a turkey safely and has also announced that its helpline will be open on Thanksgiving Day to take calls. Read More...

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has a released a video about his turkey brine recipe and also posted the recipe and his grandmother’s creamed spinach recipes on his website. Read More...

The Agriculture Department announced this week that nearly 2,500 applicants will receive disaster assistance through the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) for losses suffered from Oct. 1, 2011, through Sept. 30, 2013.
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President Barack Obama would veto the tax extenders bill that Congress is writing because it does not include tax breaks for the middle class, National Journal, DTN/The Progressive Farmer and The New York Times reported on Tuesday. Read More...

The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing next Wednesday on “Farmers and Fresh Water: Voluntary Conservation to Protect our Land and Waters,'”Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has announced. Read More...

The National Turkey Federation today unveiled the turkeys that will be pardoned at the White House on Wednesday by President Barack Obama. Read More...

The Food and Drug Administration announced today it has finalized the long-awaited final rules on menu labeling in restaurants and other establishments and that they will be published in the Federal Register on Monday. Read More...

Net farm income is forecast to fall by more than 22 percent this year compared to 2013, but will still be about $16 billion above the previous 10-year average, the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service said in a report issued today. Read More...

A coalition of renewable fuels leaders told congressional staff today that even though the Environmental Protection Agency did not issue volumetric requirements for renewable fuels in 2014, Congress should not change the law. Read More...

The White House announced Friday that Susan “Susie” Morrison will serve as the next executive pastry chef — and that she will tend to the beehives next to First Lady Michelle Obama’s kitchen garden. Read More...

President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration may relieve as many as 450,000 farmworkers and more spouses from fear of deportation — close to twice the original estimate, Farmworker Justice said today. Read More...

The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration Service have released documents providing more information on President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration announced late Thursday. Read More...

Crop Life America has hired Janet Collins as senior vice president of science and regulatory affairs, effective January 5.
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The recent trade facilitation agreement between the United States and India to end their impasse in the World Trade Organization over India’s public stocks of food will help American farmers because it will allow the agreement to improve border procedures to go forward, Darci Vetter, the U.S. chief agricultural trade negotiator said this week. Read More...

National Milk Producers Federation President and CEO Jim Mulhern said today that the executive action on immigration announced late Thursday by President Barack Obama “will not solve the current or future needs of dairy farmers.” Read More...

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have released calendars showing their schedule for 2015. Read More...

Following the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement that it will not issue volumetric requirements for the Renewable Fuel Standard this year, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Council of Chain Restaurants and the Environmental Working Group today called on Congress to change or repeal the RFS, while farm groups thanked EPA for not finalizing its proposal, and members of Congress called for certainty. Read More...

The vote on the Oregon ballot initiative requiring the labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients is being recounted, The Oregonian reported today. Read More...

The Environmental Protection Agency announced today it would not finalize the long-awaited 2014 volumetric standards before the end of the year. Read More...

The Senate today confirmed Lisa Mensah as the Agriculture undersecretary for rural development and Jon Holladay as the USDA chief financial officer, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. announced late in the day. Read More...

President Barack Obama tonight delivered a nationally televised speech on his executive action on immigration that included a brief reference to farm workers. Read More...

World Trade Organization Director General Roberto Azevêdo wants to extend consultations on drawing-up a post-Bali work program until next July, Washington Trade Daily reported late today. Read More...

In observance of National Rural Health Day, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced $10 million in USDA rural health grants and urged rural Americans who have not signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act to do so before the December 15 deadline. Read More...

In what appeared to be the start of the debate over reauthorization of the child nutrition programs next year, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., asked a group of agricultural leaders of all types assembled at the National Geographic Society this week to help continue policies toward healthier eating. Read More...

The House Foreign Affairs Committee today marked up a bill to make some changes to the Feed the Future program at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Read More...

AGree, the foundation-financed collaborative initiative on agriculture that includes all types of agricultural leaders, has reached consensus to tackle four key policy areas but on genetic modification has concluded it can only be a forum for discussion. Read More...

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Wednesday that the Democratic Caucus has approved 18 ranking members for the 114th Congress. Read More...

As President Barack Obama prepares to address the nation this evening on his executive action on immigration reform, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said it is the family unification program that will help farm workers find relief from deportation. Read More...

Incoming House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway, R-Texas, today announced the appointment of key senior staff on the committee for the 114th Congress. Read More...

The new Brazilian dietary guidelines urging its citizens to avoid “ultra-processed food” may be bolder than the U.S. dietary guidelines now under development, Jerry Hagstrom writes in his National Journal column today. Read More...

The Congress Research Service has issued a data brief that says child and adolescent obesity rates have stabilized over the past decade, but almost 32 percent of U.S. children and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 19 are overweight, and more than half of those children are considered obese. Read More...

Hours before President Barack Obama announced that he will speak to the nation Thursday evening on his executive order on immigration, the United Farm Workers held a rally in front of the White House to remind Americans that undocumented workers provide most of their Thanksgiving Day food and to call on Obama to make sure farm workers are covered in the executive order. Read More...

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will convene a meeting of the Agricultural Advisory Committee on Tuesday, December 9 at 10 a.m., at its headquarters at 1155 21st St. NW in Washington. Read More...

United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez met with President Barack Obama today and afterward announced that Obama had told him that his executive action on immigration will protect 250,000 workers, half of them in California. Read More...

President Barack Obama will travel to Las Vegas on Friday to promote the immigration executive order that he will announce in a speech to the American public on Thursday at 8 p.m., National Journal reported today Read More...

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced that the House Republican Steering Committee today recommended the following committee chairs in the 114th Congress: Read More...

An Agriculture Department spokesperson said today that the Food Safety and Inspection Service is planning to finish a rule on labeling tenderized meat by the end of the year, as consumer groups asked in a letter on Monday. Read More...

The House Republican Steering Committee today selected Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, as the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee in the next Congress. Read More...

The American Sugar Alliance told the Commerce Department today that the draft agreements with Mexico to suspend pending trade cases against Mexico's sugar industry cannot be effectively enforced. Read More...

The House Foreign Affairs Committee will mark up a bill on Thursday to make the Feed the Future program at the U.S. Agency for International Development permanent, the committee announced today. Read More...

Leaders of European cheese groups and OriGIn, the global coalition of groups that support geographical indications, say they are puzzled at the National Milk Producers Federation’s recent criticism of the European Union’s attempts to include legal protections for the labeling of certain cheeses in the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Read More...

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., confirmed today that she will become the ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee in January when the Republicans take control of the Senate. Read More...

An Agriculture Department innovation grant to Ducks Unlimited has resulted in Chevrolet, a division of General Motors, purchasing carbon credits that will allow 11,000 acres of North Dakota Prairie Pothole grasslands to stay in agriculture permanently. Read More...

Members of the Safe Food Coalition sent Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack a letter today urging him to finalize a rule to label mechanically tenderized beef products by the end of the year and send it to the Office of Management and Budget. Read More...

Members of eight state agriculture councils of the Humane Society of the United States have signed a letter to Trade Representative Michael Froman urging him to appeal the World Trade Organization’s recent decision against the U.S. country-of-origin labeling regime for red meat.
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On Friday, the last day for comments on the proposed Waters of the United States rule, the American Soybean Association, the National Corn Growers Association and the American Farm Bureau Federation said the agencies should withdraw the rule. Read More...

Farmland values in the Midwest and Southern United States rose in the third quarter of the year while values declined in other regions, according to reports released by Federal Reserve branch banks. Read More...

The Brazilian government has published new “Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population” that urge citizens to avoid “ultra-processed products” such as chicken nuggets, potato chips and soft drinks. Read More...

The food movement should make immigration reform its top priority during the rest of the Obama administration, White House nutrition policy adviser Sam Kass said in a wide-ranging speech Wednesday. Read More...

The United States and India have reached agreement on developing countries’ public stockholding of food and the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement — also known as the Bali agreement — will be able to move forward, Trade Representative Michael Froman announced late Wednesday. Read More...

Farm groups and companies providing prescription agriculture services have reached agreement on data privacy and security principles, the American Farm Bureau Federation announced early today. Read More...

One of the nominations that the Obama administration wants confirmed in the lame-duck session of Congress is that of Lisa Mensah to become Agriculture undersecretary for rural development. Read More...

The Environmental Working Group has released what it calls the “Dirty Dozen Guide to Food Additives.”
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Newly elected members of Congress are arriving today in Washington for an orientation session, according to an advisory from the House Daily Press Gallery. Read More...

Incoming Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., says that House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., is wrong to worry that he will reopen the farm bill, Jerry Hagstrom writes in his National Journal column today. Read More...

Cooper Farms, a 76-year old Fort Recovery, Ohio, operation, will provide the national Thanksgiving turkey that the National Turkey Federation will present to President Barack Obama to pardon on November 26. Read More...

The New York Times is posting videos online of its Food for Tomorrow conference, which began Tuesday and continues today. Read More...

Republican pragmatists intend to rule in the next Congress, Josh Krashaur writes in the National Journal today. Read More...

The Agriculture Department has opened registration for its 2015 Agricultural Outlook Forum. Read More...

The Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Friday announced it had determined that a potato engineered to produce smaller amounts of acrylamides when fried and an alfalfa variety had been approved as safe to grow.

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Races that are still to close to call include those of Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., a member of the House Agriculture Committee, who is behind, and Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., the ranking member on the House Rules Committee, who is ahead, Roll Call reported today. Read More...

The Agriculture Department today published a Federal Register notice seeking public comment on its proposed second beef checkoff program.
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AGree, the collaborative effort of nine foundations, today released three sets of recommendations on future agricultural policy. Read More...

ST. PAUL — All of agriculture can unite around the need for research on soil, National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson told a Catholic Rural Life conference here last week. Read More...

Whole-Farm Revenue Protection crop insurance policies that will be of particular interest to fruit and vegetable growers and organic farmers and ranchers is now available for the 2015 crop year in almost all parts of the country, the Agriculture Department announced late last week. Read More...

The Child Labor Coalition, a 34-member group that fights exploitative child labor, today applauded Philip Morris International's announcement that it will no longer purchase tobacco from individual farmers but through third-party leaf supply companies that will require growers to abide by Philip Morris’s child labor policy, which prohibits hazardous tobacco work for workers under 18. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will speak at the American Farm Bureau Federation's 2015 convention and trade show, Farm Bureau announced today. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who has expressed his frustration with a working group’s inability to come up with a consensus to improve the beef checkoff, announced today that USDA is proposing a new checkoff program for beef and beef products and that he is seeking input from the public to guide its development. Read More...

Senate Democrats may push to finish a bill that would revive tax breaks for business, including some in agriculture, but House Republicans may take a strong stand against them, The Hill reported today. Read More...

The National Corn Growers Association asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today to delay its planned mat-laying work along the Mississippi River. Read More...

The House of Representatives will return to Washington on Wednesday through Friday, but will focus on "organizational conferences," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a note to Republican offices on Thursday. Read More...

With the 2014 elections over and the certainty that the Republicans will take control of the Senate in the next Congress, attention has turned to how the fiscal year 2015 Agricultural appropriations bill will be finished and who will be in charge of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee in the House and who will serve on that subcommittee. Read More...

Members of Congress and private sector groups are pushing Congress in the lame-duck session to pass a bill that would make the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future program a permanent part of that agency. Read More...

A five-day event celebrating 10 years of President Bill Clinton's presidential library in Little Rock this month will feature two events benefitting the Arkansas Foodbank. Read More...

The United States and India have resolved their differences over New Delhi’s demands on public stock holding of food as part of the post-Bali work program of the Doha Development Agenda at the World Trade Organization, Washington Trade Daily has reported. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is expected to distribute a questionnaire on what beef producers would want in a new checkoff program next week, American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman told reporters Tuesday. Read More...

Republicans won all seven state commissioner election races this year, the Republican Agriculture Commissioners Committee announced late Tuesday. Read More...

Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, won re-election Tuesday and is poised to become chairman of that committee when the Republicans take control of the Senate in January. Read More...

The city of Berkeley, Calif., became the first in the country to pass a tax on sweetened sodas, while a soda tax in San Francisco failed, the Huffington Post reported late Tuesday. Read More...

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the incoming Senate majority leader, and President Barack Obama have scheduled news conferences today to discuss the election results. Read More...

The extension of tax breaks important to farmers and ranchers is at the top of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s agenda in the lame-duck session of Congress, Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman said in a wide-ranging session with reporters on Tuesday.
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House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., won re-election to the House of Representatives, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported late Tuesday. Read More...

A Colorado measure to require labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients failed on Tuesday while a measure in Oregon was behind in unofficial results, Reuters reported. Read More...

With Election Day underway, the Republicans appear poised to take control of the Senate, but the race for Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, to keep his seat remains a toss-up. Read More...

The end of the tenure of Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee is only the beginning of likely changes in House committees affecting agriculture and food. Read More...

Balletopedia, which bills itself as an “interactive almanac of American politics” is tracking the elections for state agriculture commissioner. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was waiting for White House direction in the 2010 ouster of Shirley Sherrod, the Georgia rural development official who was falsely accused of racist statements, according to emails revealed in a court case, the Associated Press reported Monday. Read More...

In a tribute to former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Atlantic food writer Corby Kummer said he deserved the title “mayor of food.” Read More...

The recently renovated and reopened White House Visitor Center features a dinner table display of what some presidents ate and asks vistors to guess who ordered certain items. Read More...

Retirements from Congress as well as the results of the 2014 midterm elections on Tuesday will affect the leadership and membership of the Senate Agriculture Committee in the next Congress. Read More...

By a nearly 2-to-1 margin, California voters support a recent statewide law banning disposable plastic grocery bags at supermarkets, according to the latest USCDornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll, which was released today. Read More...

The chairmanship of the overall Senate Appropriations Committee is easy to foresee no matter which party wins control of the Senate. Read More...