Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on New Year’s Eve that the Agriculture Department is partnering with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to reduce fraud in farm programs and streamline payment limits for family farmers.
The Agriculture Department will make its first in-depth survey of organic farming this spring and will send an eight-page questionnaire to known organic farmers. The survey will ask which crops and livestock are produced, how they are grown and where they are sold.
USDA is re-establishing the Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee to examine the full spectrum of issues facing the fruit and vegetable industry and to provide suggestions to USDA on how programs can be tailored to best meet the challenges of the industry...
USDA will target $50 million from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) for a new initiative to encourage more organic agriculture production. Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan made the announcement Tuesday to USDA’s National Organic Standards Board.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says he’s confident Congress will act early in the new year to extend the tax incentive for soy biodiesel, according to Brownfield. “We’re obviously encouraged by comments from congressional leaders that it’s their intention to take this matter—the tax extenders...
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said federal farm payments have enabled Americans to have relatively cheap food and are needed to protect farmers from price drops. “Who benefits ultimately for all of this? I would argue that it’s not the 250,000 to 270,000 farmers who benefit from this...
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has directed the Agriculture Department to revise a computerized forecasting model that showed that climate legislation passed by the House would make planting trees more lucrative than producing food, according to the Washington Times.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defended the livestock industry against a lawmaker’s allegations that crowded conditions and antibiotic usage in modern farms are endangering human health. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) told Vilsack at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing on Wednesday...
REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio (Jan. 6, 2010) – Thirty Ohio grape growers will soon receive $2,000 grants provided by the Vineyard Expansion Assistance Program. Ohio vineyards will receive these grants funded by the Ohio Department of Agriculture through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Block...
Ohio Farm Bureau and Ohio's six major commodity organizations along with a coalition of over 500 local, state, and national elected officials, businesses, organizations, and farm-families secured the support of Ohioans by a margin of 2 to 1 in support of amending the Ohio Constitution to establish the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board during the November 2009 election.