Prior to the upcoming Florida legislative session, the Agriculture Communicators of Florida held a Zoom conference for their members to get the inside story of the priorities for Florida agriculture. AgNet Media’s Sabrina Halvorson took part in the event and has the story. Sponsored ContentCommitment From Florida Cattle Enhancement Board Members Seeks To Move Research ForwardDecember 5, 2025Florida Cattle Enhancement Board Provides Support …
Alabama Legislative Session Kicks Off Next Tuesday
The 2022 Alabama Legislative Session kicks off next Tuesday, January 11th in Montgomery. And Alabama Cattlemen’s Association (ACA) Executive Vice President, Erin Beasley, said they will be watching all that takes place very closely. The upcoming Alabama Legislative Session will comprise of 30 legislative days in 105 calendar days. It is scheduled to end by April 25th. For more information, contact Beasley …
Agriculture Department and Justice Department Issue Shared Principles and Commitments to Protect Against Unfair and Anticompetitive Practices
(WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2022)Â — Speaking at a White House event focused on competition in agriculture, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland expressed their shared commitment to effectively enforcing federal competition laws that protect farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural producers and growers from unfair and anticompetitive practices, including the antitrust laws and the Packers and Stockyards …
Agriculture Waits for Big Decisions on Supreme Court Cases
This first week of 2022 could be a big one for several agricultural groups and stakeholders. The Supreme Court will likely hear several high-stakes cases that could affect America’s farmers and ranchers. A DTN report says the court recently distributed three of four agriculture cases scheduled for a January 7 conference. Those high-profile petitions include challenges to California’s Prop 12, …
New H-2A Labor Wages Effective Dec. 29
A recent issue of the Florida Citrus Mutual Triangle newsletter provided information about the wage that growers must pay H-2A labor, effective Dec. 29. H-2A workers are foreign agricultural workers who are allowed to work in the United States temporarily. In recent years, the vast majority of Florida citrus has been harvested by H-2A workers. The Employment and Training Administration …
Legislators Want Grapefruit Decision Reversed
Members of the Florida and Texas congressional delegations recently urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reverse its decision to administratively suspend juice content standards for imported grapefruit. The delegations also requested information regarding the circumstances of the suspension, which was allegedly made without a proper rulemaking process, and for which Congress was not notified. The request was led by …
House Advances Legislation to Provide Certainty and Increase Transparency in Cattle Markets
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a pair of bills to provide certainty and transparency in cattle markets—H.R. 5609, the Cattle Contract Library Act introduced by Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee Republican Leader Dusty Johnson, and H.R. 5290, a one-year extension for the Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) Act introduced by Chairman David Scott. The current LMR authorization is set to …
Congress Approves Funding, Continues Ag Disaster Aid
Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown last week amid a GOP fight over the president’s vaccine policies, passing another stop-gap funding measure that continues farm disaster and pandemic aid. The new funding lasts only until February 18th, when lawmakers must again wrestle with funding for the rest of the current fiscal year. But until then, the second stop-gap bill in …
USDA to Issue Final Pandemic Payments for Timber Harvesters and Haulers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will start issuing final pandemic assistance payments to timber harvesters and timber hauling businesses through the Pandemic Assistance for Timber Harvesters and Haulers (PATHH) program next week. Overall, $200 million will be provided to loggers and log trucking businesses who experienced a gross revenue loss of at least 10% during the period of Jan. 1 through Dec. …
Florida Farmers Grapple with Transportation Problems
(TALLAHASSEE/NSF/Dec. 2, 2021) — While global supply chain issues are reportedly easing, Florida farmers told lawmakers Thursday that perishable items with short shelf lives continue to struggle in being moved from fields to markets. During a meeting of the Senate Agriculture Committee, growers said the industry faces transportation and labor shortages in getting products out of the ground and to …