Agriculture

USDA's newly detailed aid package fails to address causes of farm crisis

MINNEAPOLIS—On Monday, the United States Department of Agriculture released the details of its "three-pronged approach" to aiding farmers affected by retaliatory agricultural tariffs. In response, Ben Lilliston, Director of Rural Strategies and Climate Change at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, issued the following statement:

Uprooted Episode 42: Gaming the Grass Fed Beef Market

Josh talks with Ben Lilliston about the growth of the grass fed beef market, and how global agribusiness is using labeling loopholes to sell imported grass fed beef as "product of the U.S.A." You can read Ben's comment to USDA here. 

Regulate new GE techniques? U.S. (never) vs. EU (yes)

New agricultural technologies present new challenges for assessing risks and tailoring risk management measures for those technologies. However, governments, particularly those that have invested taxpayer money to develop the technologies, may not adapt to meet those challenges. The U.S. and EU are taking very different approaches to that task.

Uprooted Episode 40: Giving to farmers with one hand, taking a whole lot more with the other

Josh and Steve Suppan talk about the $12 billion aid package to farmers who have been affected by tariff retaliation.

Stop Meat Companies from Rigging the Grass-fed Market

Food companies have a long history of keeping consumers in dark about the origins of their food. But outright deception is another level of darkness. There are strong signs that global meat companies are taking advantage of a loophole to label imported beef, particularly grass-fed, as “Product of U.S.A.”

IATP Comment on "Product of U.S.A." Food Labeling

August 2, 2018  U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)  Docket ID: FSIS-2018-0024 - https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=FSIS-2018-0024 

Five Red Flags for Food, Farming and Fair Trade Under the UK’s New Brexit Plan

Brexit presents a number of significant risks to the future of sustainable food and agriculture in the UK, the EU and around the world. Until now, those risks have been speculative. But recent actions by the UK government have raised the stakes and presented five significant risks as a result of Brexit.

CFFE Statement on President Trump's Visit to Iowa

President Trump’s bailout is a Band Aid for a farm economy that is hemorrhaging. We need to ask why U.S. farmers and rural communities are so vulnerable to tariffs from other countries. The answer is a broken farm policy, created by corporate agribusiness, that prioritizes overproduction over everything else — including our farmers, our communities and our environment.

Reckless action by Trump administration crushing U.S. farmers

July 25, 2018 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SHORT-SIGHTED TRADE POLICY IS CRUSHING U.S. FARMERS IATP believes the solution lies in a better farm bill, rather than subsidies

USDA helps High Frequency Traders now; promises help for farmers later

On July 10, USDA announced a change to the decades old policy of releasing its monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate (WASDE) first to accredited media representatives and 90 minutes later to the public. In theory, the media interpret WASDE information to the benefit of their subscribers, including traders. But starting in August, the media will receive the WASDE report at the same time as everyone else, due to a policy change made with the analytic assistance of the Commodity Trading Futures Commission.