Opinion
Opinion: USDA was duplicit in passing new pork inspection final rule
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Everybody kept telling us that USDA's new Swine Inspection Service was just dandy. Former USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue literally gushed and fawned over it:
Agribusiness
GRAPHIC: Design of South Dakota meatpacking plant contributed to high number of COVID-19 cases, CDC says
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In an August report, the CDC noted a difference between salaries employees in an office setting and the hourly workers on the production line.
#agalerts
#AgAlerts: Losing farms; giant pigs; recovery from wildfires
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Ford outlined how sustained low commodity prices now meant that the average farm income in 2017 was $43,000, and that the median farm income for 2018 was minus $1,500. This had pushed bankruptcies in the farm states across the Midwest, which sell half of U.S farm products, to the highest level in a decade.
JBS a big winner in USDA trade war relief contracts
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A Brazilian-owned meat processing company undercut its competition by more than $1 per pound to win nearly $78 million in pork contracts through a federal program launched to help American farmers offset the impact from an ongoing trade war.
Opinion
Opinion: Ag blazing 5 for 2019 (and beyond)
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Breaking out major prognostic tools (including an 8-ball, Ouija board, paper fortune teller and dart board...yeah we're high tech around here) here are some of the big agricultural issues on the horizon for 2019.
Food for thought
Opinion: The most consequential ag story in 2018 is …
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In the past year Dave Dickey has blogged and waxed on a number of consequential agricultural events. Find out which ag story was the the most consequential in 2018.
Opinion
Opinion: Smithfield may profit from U.S. China trade war
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Generally speaking, pork barrel politics amounts to politicians trading favors to constituents or special interest groups for political support, often as campaign contributions. Pork barrel spending, better known as earmarks in federal spending bills, have surged in 2018. Who may be profiting this year? Smithfield Foods.
Agribusiness
Large animal feeding operations on the rise
Several states see shifts in animal production since 2011
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The number of new concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have increased across the U.S. over the past six years - bringing the total operations just under 20,000, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. From 2011 to 2017, the United States saw more than 1,400 new large-scale concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) established. That’s up 7.6 percent. Here's a look at the issue in maps and charts.
Opinion
Opinion: China ready, willing and able to go head-to-head with U.S. in trade war
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As Dave Dickey writes, U.S. grain and oilseed farmers, specialty crop growers and pork producers are hoping that China and U.S. leadership pull back their reins on the potential for a full-blown trade war that could cripple U.S. gross domestic product.
Health
Nonpartisan watchdog finds ‘gaps’ in oversight of antibiotics in agriculture
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The federal government has taken steps aimed at reducing the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a serious health threat that sickens an estimated 2 million people in the United States each year. But nobody knows if those steps — many focused on monitoring the antibiotics given to cattle, hogs and chickens raised for food — are working.