Farm groups agreed on a rolling visa limit for immigrant farmworkers and minimum wages for laborers, resolving sticking points on the path toward revised U.S. immigration law.
“The approach in this agreement is better for employers, better for employees, better for law enforcement, better for the economy – better for America.” --Jeryr Kozak, NMPF.
NMPF CEO Jerry Kozak says agreement is positive step forward in securing agricultural work force.
Bipartisan bill’s ‘blue card’ would allow farmers to keep their existing workforce.
Despite years of debate in Congress and the country, the Senate immigration bill is really just the beginning salvo.
The state’s $43.5 billion-a-year farm industry depends on a shadow workforce of undocumented Mexican immigrants that’s eroding under economic improvements back home and tighter U.S. border controls.
Western United Dairymen joins the Agriculture Workforce Coalition in urging legislators to fix agriculture’s workforce problems before mandating e-Verify.
At the Turner County Dairy west of Sioux Falls, S.D., finding employees to milk 1,600 cows three times a day isn’t a problem. But dairy owners and industry advocates say if something doesn’t change with the country’s immigration policy and visa programs, America’s food production system will be in trouble.
Ag technology startups get a boost from one another and Dairy Farmers of America.
(UPDATED, Nov. 9) With the next round of NAFTA negotiations set to start in Mexico City Nov. 17, House Agriculture leaders convened a discussion that stressed the importance of the trade agreement to farmers.
Get your day started with a brief rundown of key news.
Separation of church and farmer. When Nik Niessen, 25, and his parents laid plans for County Line Dairy on farmland in rural Indiana, a church camp facility a half mile downwind took the Niessens to court, citing a host of regulatory infractions, including a sacrosanct claim: The dairy impinged on freedom of worship.
In a 13-minute conversation today with Farm Journal Media’s Pam Fretwell, Vilsack says Senate/House farm bill conferees are still working out the details in the dairy program.
Lawmakers and activist groups are calling on the U.S. government to lower the ethanol quota in the face of a possible domestic and international food crisis.
The House voted 268-150 in favor of the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011; now it heads to the Senate.
The Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011 now heads to the House floor with bipartisan support.
Research has found that producers’ attitudes toward the beef checkoff program remain stable and are favorable.
The Agriculture Department would be barred, under language in a House appropriations bill, from proceeding with proposed marketing regulations opposed by major meatpackers and livestock trade groups.The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee approved the draft fiscal 2012 spending bill, including the provision, by voice vote on Tuesday. The bill would provide $17.3 billion in discretionary funds to the Agriculture Department, Food and Drug Administration and related agencies, a $2.6 billion cut from fiscal 2011. The measure also includes $108 billion in mandatory funding, almost 3 percent more than in fiscal 2011.The policy rider would bar the Agriculture Department’s Grain Inspection Stockyard and Packers Administration (GIPSA) from producing a regulation requiring meatpackers to report and justify pricing agreements with livestock producers. The proposed rule, unveiled last year, was written in response to a 2008 farm law (PL 110-246) directive to review marketing and competition issues in the livestock industry.
They say the Environmental Protection Agency’s numeric nutrient criteria is flawed.
Read through these stories which paint a picture of the year that was and what’s ahead for agriculture.
Farm Journal’s Washington Editor Roger Bernard is covering the event today.
Current law would have a ‘devastating effect’ on farms and ranches
For years, American taxpayers have subsidized ethanol production in a bid to boost the nation’s energy independence.Now a boom in ethanol exports is drawing fresh criticism of that tax credit, which cost taxpayers $6 billion last year.The United States this year became a net exporter of corn-based ethanol, exporting more than it imports, as a spike in the price of sugar-based ethanol made by Brazil has given U.S. ethanol a leg up on prices.
Senator calls for better cost-benefit analysis on the rule.
Nafta Negotiators Placing Top Focus on Carmaking and Finance
Trump administration looking to dismantle Canadian dairy program.
The disaster aid bill, which is intended to provide some relief to parts of America that were devastated by natural disasters this year, is widely expected to be voted on this week.