Food stamp fight looms in U.S. Congress

Reading Time: < 1 minute The Democratic-run U.S. Senate passed a $500-billion, five-year Farm Bill on June 10 that expands a taxpayer-subsidized crop insurance program and rejects sweeping cuts in food stamps for the poor being pursued in the House of Representatives. The bill passed easily, 66 to 27, and now goes to the Republican-controlled House. It was the second […] Read more


U.S. approves two horse slaughterhouses

Reading Time: 2 minutes The U.S. government approved a horse slaughter plant in Iowa July 3, its second such move in four days, but it also renewed its appeal to Congress to ban the business and was hit by a lawsuit from animal welfare groups. In a statement, the U.S. Agriculture Department said it was required by law to […] Read more

U.S. sugar surplus headed for the gas tank

Faced with a huge sugar surplus, the U.S. government published a rule on Friday that allows it to sell excess amounts at a loss to ethanol companies for making biofuels for cars and trucks. The Agriculture Department said the “sugar-for-ethanol” program, authorized by a 2008 law, would be “if needed … an additional tool to […] Read more


U.S. House passes Farm Bill sans food stamps

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives defied a White House veto threat and passed a Farm Bill Thursday that expands the taxpayer-subsidized crop insurance system but omitted food stamps for the poor. Lawmakers passed the 608-page bill, unveiled by Republican leaders late on Wednesday night, on a 216-208, party-line vote after two hours of debate […] Read more

U.S. seeking source of rogue wheat

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters / The United States is still racing to determine how unapproved genetically modified white winter wheat was found growing in an Oregon field, a discovery that caused South Korean buyers to step aside and other importers to step up testing. A top official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture said investigators are “pursuing many […] Read more


U.S. House deals shock defeat to Farm Bill

Republican budget-cutters joined with Democratic defenders of food stamps on Thursday to deal a shocking defeat to the proposed US$500 billion, five-year farm bill backed by Republican leaders, undermining hopes of enacting such legislation before the current stop-gap law expires. “Today’s failure leaves the entire food and agriculture sector in the lurch,” the American Soybean […] Read more

USDA probe finds GM wheat was ‘isolated incident’

The unapproved genetically modified wheat that was discovered sprouting in Oregon appears to have been “a single isolated incident,” U.S. agricultural officials said on Friday in their most detailed description yet of their ongoing investigation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement it had found no genetically modified (GM) seeds in any field […] Read more



U.S. sharpening tools to dig out of impending sugar mountain

Sugar processors are set to forfeit tens of thousands of tons of sugar used as collateral on price-guarantee loans

Reading Time: 3 minutes Reuters / The U.S. government is readying a tool created during last decade’s biofuels craze — a never-used program to sell sugar at a loss to ethanol makers — as a way to whittle a looming sugar surplus down to an affordable size. The sugar-for-ethanol program could be a lower-cost way for the Agriculture Department […] Read more