Washington DC - February 16 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the USDA has taken the first step toward implementing a plan to address veterinary shortages throughout rural America by repaying student loans in return for services in areas suffering from a lack of veterinarians.

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Washington DC - February 16 - The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is petitioning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider its finding that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are an endangerment to public health and welfare (“endangerment finding”).

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Washington DC - February 8 - Agriculture Secretary Vilsack announced that USDA will develop a new, flexible framework for animal disease traceability in the United States, and undertake several other actions to further strengthen its disease prevention and response capabilities.

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Washington DC - February 3 - USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced $24 million in grants to study animal heath, reproduction, breeding, genetics and nutrition.

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Washington DC - January 15 - National Farmers Union and the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association submitted a joint letter to United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk, urging a vigorous defense of the country of origin labeling (COOL) law at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

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Washington DC - January 11 - In 2009, weak profit margins for producers of beef, pork and poultry led to reductions in supply as 2010 begins which means a more favorable supply situation. However, questions still remain on the demand side of the equation, reports livestock economist John Anderson of Mississippi State University.

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Washington DC - January 8 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that USDA has already made more than $175 million in disaster payments to America’s livestock producers after implementing two new programs in 2009.

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Washington DC - December 31 - The Amazon is being cleared both by soybean growers and by ranchers, who are expanding Brazil’s national herd of beef cattle. Oftentimes, soybean growers buy land from cattlemen, who have cleared the land and grazed it for a few years, pushing them ever deeper into the Amazon rainforest.

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Washington DC - December 2 - The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced the dates and locations of joint public workshops to explore competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry.

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Washington DC - November 2 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is withdrawing the recently published interim rule  to increase fees charged for certain agricultural quarantine and inspection services.

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Washington DC - November 2 - An international team of scientists, funded with a $10 million grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), has completed the first draft of the genome of a domesticated pig. This first draft sequence will spur advancements in swine production and human medicine.

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Washington DC - October 29 - U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that China intends to re-open the Chinese market to United States pork and live swine, consistent with science-based international standards.

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Washington DC - October 26 - Speakers at Farm Bureau’s second annual commodity outlook conference painted a “cautiously optimistic” outlook for U.S. agriculture, with crop and dairy producers likely faring better than livestock producers who will still face challenges in the year ahead.

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Washington DC - October 20 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories has confirmed the presence of 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus in a pig sample collected at the Minnesota State Fair submitted by the University of Minnesota.

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Washington DC - October 19 - The National Pork Producers Council is reiterating that pork is safe to eat and handle and that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu viruses cannot be transmitted through food, including pork.

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