Investigate Midwest (https://investigatemidwest.org/tag/trump/)
A May 1 conference call with federal, state and local health officials sent one message: Despite a COVID-19 outbreak amongst it workers, Rochelle Foods was to remain open. This fall, a second outbreak at the plant wasn’t publicly reported.
The Trump Administration took a step on Friday to severely weaken state regulation of pesticides, taking away a tool that state regulatory officials say helps protect farmworkers and the environment.
While president-elect Joe Biden has not announced any specific plans to protect meatpacking workers, advocates believe there are things he could, and should, do.
Even as thousands of their employees fell ill with COVID-19, meatpacking executives pressured federal regulators to help keep their plants open, according to a trove of emails obtained by USA TODAY and The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.
A week after President Donald Trump attempted to prop up the nation's meat supply chain through an executive order, the industry remains hobbled by plant closures and production losses, USA TODAY and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting found.
The Department of Agriculture is looking to halve the U.S. farming industry’s environmental footprint by mid-century in a target that includes several climate and clean energy goals.
A roundup of news, reports, and research on agribusiness and related issues. Do factory farm bans have a political future? | Newfoodeconomy.com
CAFOs have long been a hot-button issue in big farming states like Iowa and North Carolina. “In Iowa, there’s been like, 15,000 new CAFOs in the last eight years or something like that,” says Bob Martin, program director of Food System Policy at the Center for a Livable Future. “And they’re continuing to intensify in North Carolina, in broiler [chicken] CAFOs on the Eastern Shore [of Maryland] … they’re kind of moving unabated,” he adds.
The closing days of 2019 find small farms pummeled from every side: a trade war, severe weather associated with climate change, tanking commodity prices related to globalization and political polarization. It is the worst crisis in decades.
OK, let's begin with the obvious. The POTUS is not a meteorologist (although he's been known to play one on TV). Meteorologists pride themselves on using the best scientific tools at their disposal in order to provide the public with the most possible accurate weather forecast. Full stop. Meanwhile, the POTUS has shown himself to be less than science-friendly. And there's the rub. Now generally I don't get too involved in whatever kerfuffle the White House is embroiled in at any given moment, but when it comes to all things agriculture (and what is more agriculture-dependent than the weather) I pay attention. And what one comes away with regarding the POTUS' September #Sharpie-gate surprise regarding the potential storm track of Hurricane Dorian is that this particular White House has no problems with providing the public with misleading (some would say false or outdated) weather projections to protect the President's beliefs (right or wrong). Anyone reading my December 2016 blog to fellow journalists would not be surprised that weather forecasts could one day could not only become twisted but politicized. Truth is a fragile thing.
Costco will control the production process from farm to store, making key decisions down to the grain chickens eat and the type of eggs hatched. Costco has even put its socially-conscious corporate reputation on the line.