Other Ag News:

WASHINGTON, August 14, 2024 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced the appointment of 20 new members to the Advisory Committee on Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. This committee is part of USDA’s support for equitable access to USDA’s services and programs and creating more market opportunities for local and regional production.

When purchasing food, many consumers look for information on where the food came from and how it was produced. No antibiotics, cage-free, and grass-fed are a few marketing claims consumers find on protein-based food packaging. To provide assurance to customers of the validity of these and other claims, producers often enlist the services of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).

In Miami, crops grow 365 days a year. This fact spurred Dr. Maruthi Sridhar Balaji Bhaskar of Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida, to take action to help his students. “We have lots of interest in agriculture here,” said Bhaskar, an associate professor in the FIU Department of Earth and Environment. “I want my students to know what different opportunities are available to them, especially with USDA.”

WASHINGTON, August 9, 2024 – On August 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it will invest $400 million with at least 18 irrigation districts to help farmers continue commodity production while also conserving water across the West. The funding is expected to conserve up to 50,000 acre-feet in water use across 250,000 acres of irrigated land in production, while expanding and creating new, sustainable market opportunities.