Morning Agriculture <morningagriculture> With Megan Cassella, Catherine Boudreau and Maya Parthasarathy TURKEY FARMERS FEEL PAIN FROM GIPSA: Days before Thanksgiving, some turkey growers are feeling the harsh effects of last month’s decision by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to pull out of the interim final GIPSA rule. Within hours of the USDA’s announcement, one Pennsylvania turkey…

By Christine Haughney | 11/20/2017 The days leading up to Thanksgiving would seem like an especially busy time to ask turkey farmers to embark on major construction projects on their farms. But a regulatory decision made by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue last month opened the door for turkey farmers and other contract growers to be…

Tanya Berry challenges our assumptions about women’s work, farm life, and small towns, while serving as perhaps the most important fiction editor almost no one has heard of, married to one of the most important American writers almost everyone knows. by Robert Jensen Standing in her modest kitchen, Tanya Berry explains that a bit of…

1 million people call for DOJ to block Bayer-Monsanto merger Petitions delivered Nov. 14, same day critical reports released. Nov 16, 2017 Petitions signed by more than 1 million people were delivered to the U.S. Department of Justice on Nov. 14 calling on the department to block the proposed merger of Bayer and Monsanto. The…

Friday, November 17, 2017 | by Jack Money Beef checkoff vote turning down higher fee certified Cattle producers who voted by mail in a referendum that sought to double a $1 per-head assessment on cattle sales held inside Oklahoma were much more supportive of the proposal than people who voted in person at their local…

by H. Claire Brown | November 16th, 2017 The “People’s Department” may see its biggest reshuffling since the ’90s. A paradigm shift, in charts. On Tuesday, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue issued a memo furthering a reorganization proposal announced earlier this year at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). For the purpose of “improving…

by STEVEN VERBURG | November 16, 2017 The Wisconsin Department of Revenue has found that homes near large dairy operations have been selling for as much as 13 percent below their assessed value in Kewaunee County, where odor, noise and water pollution from the sprawling feedlots have been a big problem. A department study concluded…

OCM members and supporters, This week, USDA Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue dealt another blow to family farmers and ranchers by eliminating the GIPSA office as a standalone agency, with its duties now absorbed by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). Perdue announced his plans to eliminate GIPSA back in September, and we immediately urged the…

For Immediate Release November 6, 2017 Contact: Carrie Balkcom (303) 591-3978 carrie@americangrassfed.org Contact: Will Harris (229) 317-0203 will.harris@whiteoakpastures.com Unannounced Meeting to Promote the Import of Foreign Grassfed Beef Alarms U.S. Grassfed Producers and American Grassfed Association Leaders Denver, Colorado – On Sept. 30, the American Grassfed Association board of directors learned of a movement that…

November 16, 2017 Following on the heels of his withdrawal of the Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) Farmer Fair Practices Rules, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has now announced the elimination of GIPSA as a standalone agency. In a memo released on November 14, 2017, Perdue stated, “The Packers and Stockyards…