Farm Policy, Food Supply & Rural Coverage
201 articles · page 7 of 7
NY Dairy Workers Fight for Overtime Rights Decades Overdue
New York extended labor rights to farmworkers in 2019. Dairy workers still get fewer overtime protections than everyone else, and a new organizing push aims to close the gap.
After USDA's Local Food Cuts, Congress Pushes Back
A bipartisan bill aims to restore regional food infrastructure USDA gutted, offering small farms a direct lifeline outside the commodity market squeeze.
Paraquat Is Banned in the EU. It's Still Being Sprayed on US Farms.
A widely used herbicide linked to Parkinson's disease and childhood leukemia. EWG and advocates pushed New York to ban it — the EPA's registration stands nationwide.
AI Data Centers and Solar Farms Are Eating the Midwest's Best Land
As AI infrastructure investment surges, data centers and solar farms are competing with family farms for Midwest land — raising alarms from USDA to state legislatures.
Trump Cut H-2A Wages. Courts Backed It. Dairy Workers Are Organizing.
The Trump administration cut H-2A agricultural wages by up to $5 an hour. Courts upheld the cuts. New York's dairy workers are now pushing for state-level labor protections.
The Screwworm Is Back, and Cattle Country Is Bracing
USDA confirmed the first domestic New World Screwworm cases since the 1960s — seven reports by mid-June. Senate Democrats are pressing the agency for more action and transparency.
California Moves to Ban PFAS Pesticides That Show Up in 9 in 10 Peaches
California's AB 1603 would ban 53 PFAS pesticides by 2035, with residues of the PFAS fungicide fludioxonil turning up in 90% of tested peaches and plums.
Who Really Owns American Farmland? The Paper Trail Nobody Wants You to Follow
Foreign investors hold roughly 45 million acres of US farmland — and the federal database meant to track them is so broken even the GAO can't trust it.
The Feds Are Suing John Deere Over Your Right to Fix Your Own Tractor
The FTC and two states sued Deere over repair-restriction practices that force farmers to dealers. It's the biggest right-to-repair fight in ag — here's what's at stake.
House Farm Bill Slashes Conservation, Abandons Small Farmers
The House passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act 224–200. Farmers surveyed by NSAC say it guts the programs they actually depend on — and now the Senate has to fix it.
Wall Street Discovered Dirt: How Private Equity Turned Farmland Into a Yield Play
Pension funds and PE firms now treat US farmland like a bond that grows corn. For young farmers trying to buy in, that math is a wall they can't climb.
H-2A Grew 185% in a Decade. Enforcement Didn't Keep Up.
H-2A certifications rose 17% in the first half of FY2026. A GAO review found 84% of federal investigations uncovered fraud, trafficking, or abuse. The math doesn't work for workers.
The Debt Is Coming Back: What Rising Chapter 12 Filings Tell Us About Farm Country
Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies are the canary in the coal mine for ag debt. Here's how to read the court data — and why the squeeze is structural, not just a bad year.
Farm Credit's $86B Capital Masks a Growing Debt Stress Signal
The Farm Credit System's capital hit $86.4 billion in Q1 2026, but nonperforming assets climbed to 1.09% — a warning shot for farmers already squeezed by input costs.
Four Packers, One Price: Why Cattle Ranchers Are Fighting the Meat Monopoly
Four companies slaughter most US beef. Ranchers say that concentration rigs the price against them — and a wave of lawsuits and rules is trying to break the grip.
Budget Rider Would Defund EPA's PFAS-in-Biosolids Rule
A one-sentence rider buried in H.R. 4754 would bar the EPA from using any federal funds to finalize its PFAS biosolids risk assessment — while farms stay unprotected.
America's Biggest Pork Producer Is Chinese-Owned — and It Sits on a Lot of US Land
Smithfield, the largest US pork company, has been owned by China's WH Group since 2013. The deal still shapes the farmland and foreign-ownership debate today.
Four Companies, One Seed Aisle: How Input Consolidation Quietly Taxes Every Farmer
A handful of firms now dominate the seeds and chemicals farmers can't farm without. Here's how the Bayer–Corteva era squeezes growers — explained simply.
Forever Chemicals on the Farm: How PFAS-Laced Sludge Poisoned American Cropland
For decades, farmers spread treated sewage sludge as cheap fertilizer. Now PFAS in that 'biosolid' is contaminating fields, milk, and livelihoods. Here's the explainer.
The Hands That Feed Us Are Working in Deadly Heat — and the Rules Barely Protect Them
H-2A guestworkers pick America's food under brutal heat with weak federal safeguards. As a national heat rule stalls, farmworker advocates say lives are on the line.
The Comeback Crop: How Young Farmers Are Rebuilding Soil — and a Future — From the Ground Up
Against consolidation and climate stress, a new generation is betting on regenerative farming, cooperatives, and land trusts. The wins are real, if you know where to look.