"A battle that ties food aid for needy families with crop subsidies for American farmers may stall efforts to renew a sweeping agricultural policy law, forcing Congress to consider delaying action on the $1.5 trillion proposal until after this fall’s elections."
"Last week, General Sherman, California's most famous giant sequoia, got a checkup."
"The House Agriculture committee is trying to fund its farm bill proposals with “counterfeit money,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters Wednesday morning. Vilsack spoke after a range of groups from across the political spectrum criticized House Republicans’ proposed farm bill, which seeks to direct tens of billions to subsidies for farmers of peanuts, rice and cotton."
"The proposed version of the $1.5 trillion omnibus unveiled last week by House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) includes several priorities of big agribusiness — proposals that frustrated both right-aligned groups such as the Heritage Foundation and left-leaning ones including the Environmental Working Group amid progressives’ and populists’ broader dislike of what they see as crony capitalism at the U.S. farmstand."
"House Republicans and Democrats have released two dueling visions for the farm bill, the massive $1.5 trillion omnibus that underpins the U.S. food system."
"After more than a year of hearings, listening sessions and heavy lobbying by policy groups, the five-year bill that funds agriculture and nutrition programs doesn’t look much closer to becoming law than it did when the discussions began."
"Dirt, it turns out, isn’t just worm poop. It’s also a humongous receptacle of carbon, some 2.5 trillion tons of it — three times more than all the carbon in the atmosphere."
"Congress appears unlikely to pass a new farm bill by the end of this year amid standoffs over Republicans’ push to extend subsidies to three specific Southern crops — at the potential cost of billions in both food aid and popular farm conservation programs."
"Even as juries decide against a herbicide maker, proposed industry-backed measures would limit lawsuits and local use restrictions".
"Concerns are mounting over impacts of a possible federal government shutdown on critical infrastructure projects and permitting activities."
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