Government & Policy

Market to Market (April 9, 2021)

Apr 9, 2021

27 min

Fields are being prepped for the 2021 crop. A look at what’s next for the commodity markets as acreage estimates become a reality. It’s panel time with…Don Roose, Naomi Blohm, Ted Seifried and Matthew Bennett.

Industry foe charged under Iowa's new food trespassing law

Apr 9, 2021

By RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An animal rights activist whose investigations and pranks have made him a leading foe of the livestock industry has been charged with trespassing at a pig facility, in the first case brought under Iowa's latest law aimed at protecting farming operations from intruders. Matthew Johnson, 35, is charged with trespassing at a food operation for...

Biofuels producers, farmers not sold on switch to electric

Apr 9, 2021

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The president and auto industry maintain the nation is on the cusp of a gigantic shift to electric vehicles and away from liquid-fueled cars, but biofuels producers and some of their supporters in Congress aren't buying it. They argue that now is the time to increase sales of ethanol and biodiesel, not abandon them. To help address climate change, President Joe Biden has...

Study: Drought-breaking rains more rare, erratic in US West

Apr 9, 2021

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government study released Tuesday that concludes the situation is worsening. The most dramatic changes were recorded in the desert Southwest, where the average dry period between rainstorms grew from about...

GOP-led states lose bid to challenge immigration rule

Apr 9, 2021

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court in California refused Thursday to permit 14 states led by Republican governors to challenge the overturning of a Trump-era immigration rule affecting hundreds of thousands of people. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against permitting intervention by the states, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. At issue was the so-called...

Policy changes help drive US migrant crossings to new highs

Apr 9, 2021

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Paying a smuggler, Edgar Mejia could afford to take only one child with him to the United States. He chose his 3-year-old "warrior" son, leaving his 7- and 12-year-olds with their mother in Honduras. "Pitifully, I had use him like a passport to get here," Mejia said last week after picking up milk from volunteers at a Brownsville, Texas, bus station for the last leg of...

Market to Market (April 2, 2021)

Apr 2, 2021

27 min

Roads, bridges and rural broadband highlight a new play on infrastructure. Changes in the supply chain after a year of COVID. Market analysis with Arlan Suderman.

Judge rejects rule that let pork plants speed up production

Apr 2, 2021

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has thrown out a rule allowing pork plants to speed up production lines because the U.S. Department of Agriculture didn't properly consider the risks to workers. The judge in Minnesota ruled Wednesday that the agency's Food Safety and Inspection Service didn't follow proper procedures before President Donald Trump's administration issued the rule in 2019. The...

SC volunteers help vaccinate farm workers

Apr 2, 2021

MONETTA, S.C. (AP) — Pink is a prominent part of the picture for a couple of weeks in March around portions of Edgefield, Saluda and Lexington counties, and that time arrived last week for thousands of acres. "We've had a perfect season for growing peaches – been kind of wet, but actually we're … 10 days behind last year, on the blooms," said Jerry Watson, with Watsonia Farms, which includes 480...

Feeding every hungry kid in a school district

Apr 2, 2021

FAYETTE, Miss. (AP) — Most mornings, children are waiting beside the road with arms outstretched by the time driver Brian Hall pulls up in the decades-old yellow school bus. As he pulls away, the bus creaking along toward his next stop on winding dirt roads, they already are breaking the plastic open to begin eating the day's offerings: barbecue chicken, fish sticks or turkey tacos with cartons...