Tag Archives: USDA

REVIEW: Lab-Grown Chicken Meat Tastes Like Chicken

The Associated Press reports: When I told friends and family I was reporting on the first chicken meat grown from animal cells, their first comment was “Eww.” Their second comment was: “How does it taste?” The short answer (you’ve probably heard this sentence before in other contexts): Tastes like chicken. The longer answer, which folds in the “Eww” response, is …

Read More »

USDA Axes Trump-Era Plan To Cut Food Stamps

CBS News reports: A Trump-era plan to cut food stamps is now off the table after the Biden administration said it is abandoning a previous plan to tighten work requirements for working-age adults without children. Those restrictions were projected to deny federal food assistance benefits to 700,000 adults, a proposal that had had drawn strong condemnation from anti-hunger advocates. USDA …

Read More »

Biden Orders To Increase Pandemic-Related Food Aid

Reuters reports: President Joe Biden on Friday will sign two executive orders aimed at speeding pandemic stimulus checks to families who need it most and increasing food aid for children who normally rely on school meals as a main source for nutrition. “Many Americans faced challenges receiving the first round of direct payments and as many as 8 million eligible …

Read More »

Food Banks Balk At Distributing USDA Boxes Because They Must Come With A Letter From Glorious Leader

Politico reports: The Agriculture Department last week began mandating that millions of boxes of surplus food for needy families include a letter from President Donald Trump claiming credit for the program. The USDA’s $4 billion Farmers to Families Food Box Program has distributed more than 100 million boxes to those in need since May, with the aim of redirecting meat, …

Read More »

USDA Sec: We’ve “Turned The Corner” On Meat Supply

“We track daily our plant openings. One of the challenges we had in protein — meat, poultry, beef, pork — had been the closure of some of our processing plants there. And we’ve had infections in those plants that caused some temporary closures. “Essentially all those plants are back open. We’ve turned the corner, and while some retailers are suggesting …

Read More »

Agriculture Sec: Trump’s Order To Reopen Meat Plants Will Give Them “Defensible” Response If Workers Sue

Bloomberg News reports: Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said he expects meatpacking plants to reopen in “days not weeks” under President Donald Trump’s executive order invoking the Defense Production Act. Slaughterhouse workers should begin receiving more protective gear and access to coronavirus testing “virtually immediately,” Perdue said Thursday in a telephone interview. The USDA has “already begun” working on orders to …

Read More »

USDA Continues Fight To Purge Food Stamp Recipients

The Associated Press reports: The Agriculture Department said Wednesday that it would appeal a judge’s ruling that it would be “arbitrary and capricious” to move forward during a global health crisis with food stamp changes that could force hundreds of thousands from the program. Federal Judge Beryl Howell, in a ruling late last week, stopped a set of changes that …

Read More »

USDA Guts Michelle Obama’s School Lunch Program

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken another whack at former first lady Michelle Obama’s signature achievement: Establishing stricter nutritional standards for school breakfasts and lunches.  On Friday, USDA Deputy Under Secretary Brandon Lipps announced new proposed rules for the Food and Nutrition Service that would allow schools to cut the amount of vegetables and fruits …

Read More »

14 States Sue Over New Food Stamp Restrictions

Politico reports: A coalition that includes attorneys general in 14 states, the District of Columbia and New York City are suing the Agriculture Department over a plan to impose stricter work requirements on millions of food stamp recipients. The lawsuit, filed Thursday by mostly Democratic-led states, argues that USDA unlawfully limited states’ discretion to exempt certain adults from work requirements …

Read More »

USDA Site Lists “Wakanda” As Free Trade Partner

Slate reports: President Trump’s trade war got more—or less—surreal this week when it was discovered the Trump administration listed Wakanda as a free trade partner on a tool created by the Department of Agriculture to track tariffs on nations signed on to a free trade agreement. Wakanda, of course, is not a real country but a fictional one in the …

Read More »

Trump Admin To End Food Stamps For 750,000 Poor

Bloomberg News reports: The Trump administration will announce a plan Wednesday to end food stamps benefits for about 750,000 Americans, issuing a new regulation that makes it harder for states to gain waivers from a requirement that beneficiaries work or participate in a vocational training program, according to people familiar with the matter. Conservatives have long sought cuts in the …

Read More »

USDA Launches Pro-Trump Propaganda Podcast

Media Matters reports: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently launched a new podcast, and the first episode was largely devoted to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue heaping praise on President Donald Trump with the help of former White House press secretary and current Fox News contributor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. During the 20-plus-minute podcast, Perdue and Sanders spent much of their …

Read More »

USDA Unveils Details Of $16 Billion Farm Aid Package

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled details of a $16 billion aid package to help farmers hurt by President Trump’s trade war with China, as soybean growers from around the country converged on Washington to tell lawmakers that rural America is ready for a cease-fire. The Agriculture Department said that the payments to farmers, which …

Read More »

Trump Administration Drops Survey On Declining Bee Populations After FDA Approves Bee-Killing Pesticide

Common Dreams reports: On the heels of the EPA’s June approval of a bee-killing pesticide, the White House said it would stop collecting data on declining honey bee populations—potentially making it impossible to analyze the effects of the chemical and the administration’s other anti-science policies on the pollinators. The USDA cited budget cuts when it said Saturday that it would …

Read More »

USDA Ends Decades Of “Cannibal” Experiments On Cats

NBC News reports: Government scientists announced Tuesday that they’re pulling the plug on a research program that’s resulted in the deaths of thousands of cats. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Services lab had been infecting cats with toxoplasmosis and then euthanizing them since 1982 as part of its effort to combat the foodborne illness. The USDA’s announcement comes …

Read More »

Tons Of Chicken Nuggets Recalled Over Rubber Bits

Yahoo News reports: Just months after recalling frozen breaded chicken tenderloins over fears they were contaminated with plastic last June, Tyson has issued an alert over its chicken nuggets. A statement issued by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service says that 36,420 pounds of the food company’s chicken nuggets may have been contaminated with rubber, resulting in a recall. …

Read More »

Trump Admin Moves To Restrict Food Stamps Eligibility

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration is setting out to do what this year’s farm bill didn’t: tighten work requirements for millions of Americans who receive federal food assistance. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday is proposing a rule that would restrict the ability of states to exempt work-eligible adults from having to obtain steady employment to receive …

Read More »

14 Tons Of Sausage Recalled Over Metal Pieces

USA Today reports: The maker of Jimmy Dean Heat ’n Serve Original Sausage Links is recalling more than 14 tons of its frozen, ready-to-eat sausage links because they may have pieces of metal inside. CTI Foods of Owingsville, Kentucky, is recalling about 29,028 pounds of Jimmy Dean Heat ‘n Serve Original Sausage Links Made with Pork & Turkey after the …

Read More »

Chuck Grassley Slams USDA For Anti-LGBT 4-H Policy

The Des Moines Register reports: Sen. Chuck Grassley said Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture should not have pressured 4-H to rescind a policy welcoming LGBTQ members into the international youth organization. “Common sense tells me that that for 100 years … 4-H has been operating as a very competent organization and I don’t know of any federal interference …

Read More »

USDA Enacts Policy Allowing Anti-LGBT Materials

Back in May, Agriculture Sec. Sonny Purdue issued a letter allowing the posting of anti-LGBT materials at USDA-inspected plants. This week that policy went into effect. Tony Perkins, of course, is thrilled: The Family Research Council praised policy guidance released today by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service that makes clear the agency will protect religious freedom and will not …

Read More »