Thousands of pounds of meat had to be recalled because of possible Listeria monocytogenes contaminations and an E. coli contamination. The U.S. Department of Agriculture labeled the recalls as "Class I" and called them "high" health risks.
In recent years, farmers have increasingly chosen to insure both the yield of their crop and the revenue of their crop. By choosing a revenue-based insurance option -- such as the revenue protection policy -- farmers can insulate their crop against steep drops in prices.
Crop yields will be double compared to last year's yields, according to some estimations. Yet an increase in yields means a decrease in crop insurance payouts. And when the price of some crops has plummeted that means farmers might see their income dropping, as well.
Because of the government shutdown, the Food and Drug Administration sent thousands of its workers home on furloughs. As a result, routine food inspections and imported food inspections have stopped.
On Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, dozens of U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies were closed or limited because of the federal government shutdown. However, agriculture officials said farmers won't be affected by the shutdown just yet.
A recent Inspector General report found that the Risk Management Agency has overpaid U.S. farmers by about half a billion dollars through prevented planting programs. Crop insurance programs, such as prevented planting, are meant to compensate farmers when they suffer losses due to weather or disast
On Sept. 17, 2013, Danville firefighters spent the day training for grain-bin rescues. Dave Newcomb, the agriculture rescue program manager for the Illinois Fire Service Institute, taught the intensive, eight-hour training course. The course included sessions on using grain-bin rescue tubes, sawing
The Environmental Protection Agency has registered more than 16,000 pesticides. However, a large portion of those are only "conditionally registered," meaning they lack important data on health safety and environmental well-being. A report by the Government Accountability Office recently criticized
U.S. Agriculture cooperatives receive hundreds of millions of dollars from federal marketing programs. A recent report called those programs' impact into question.
