Washington DC -April 21- Getting a Farm Bill passed yet this year is a top priority for the National Farmers Union (NFU). Tom Buis, President of NFU, told WashingtonView Radio today that the House and Senate need to come to an agreement soon.

Listen to NFU Tom Buis interview NOW at:    www.blogtalkradio.com/washingtonview

Washington DC -April 13- Consumers and producers continue to search for the best quality food to bring to the dinner table, and the growing niche market for those products is the topic of this week’s WashingtonView Radio Program.

Our guest is Mary Ellen Taylor of Endless Summer Harvest (www.esharvest.com), a hydroponic lettuce and herb producer in northern Virginia which provides consumers and upscale restaurants in Washington DC, high-quality produce grown year-round.

Listen to the program now at WashingtonView Radio

Washington DC -March 5- At the request of senior House and Senate agriculture committee staff, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided a detailed document developed from Administration analysis of impacts to current USDA programs - in the absence of enactment of a new farm bill or an extension of the 2002 farm bill past March 15, 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

Washington DC -February 13- The United States Department of Agriculture will release new 10-year agricultural projections Feb. 14 at noon EST. Read the rest of this entry »

Washington DC -February 6- USDA Secretary Mike Johanns this week released details of President Bush’s FY 2008 U.S. Department of Agriculture budget, which meets the Department’s most important priorities, while exercising fiscal discipline to meet
the President’s goal to balance the budget. Read the rest of this entry »

Washington DC -February 2- U.S. farmers must make a host of decisions relating to their farms’ operation, including what to grow, when to grow it, in what quantities, and by what methods, according to a study released this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS). Read the rest of this entry »

Washington DC -January 31- Following is a statement from National Farmers Union President Tom Bius regarding the Bush Administration’s Farm Bill proposal: Read the rest of this entry »

Washington DC -January 1- The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has revised the National Organic Program (NOP) guidelines on the submission of petitions of substances for inclusion on or removal from the National List of Substances Allowed and Prohibited (National List) in Organic Production and Handling. Read the rest of this entry »

Washington DC -November 29- In May 2006, the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) held a workshop examining issues relating to the federal regulatory system governing agricultural biotechnology—known as the Coordinated Framework—and the appropriate role for state agriculture agencies in that system. Read the rest of this entry »

Washington DC -November 14- Business Roundtable has called on Congress to act immediately to approve permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Vietnam. Read the rest of this entry »

Washington DC -November 14- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has announced it is initiating a status review of the Colorado River cutthroat trout to determine whether the species warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act. Read the rest of this entry »

Washington DC -November 3- An international group of ecologists and economists has shown that the loss of biodiversity is profoundly reducing the ocean’s ability to produce seafood, resist diseases, filter pollutants and rebound from stresses such as overfishing and climate change. Read the rest of this entry »

Washington DC -November 1- Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns has announced that the Forest Service is undertaking the most significant change to its business practices since its founding in 1905 by centralizing many of its business operations, including human capital management, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Read the rest of this entry »

Washington DC -October 31- Shifting to a risk-based inspection system will help improve food safety by targeting inspection resources at critical junctures during meat and poultry processing, according to the American Meat Institute (AMI) and the Food Products Association (FPA). Read the rest of this entry »