Latest U.S. Department of Agriculture News

Honolulu revives the idea of shipping trash off island

Oct. 22, 2024 13:22 PM EDT

Honolulu’s trash could be shipped off island for 10 years until a new landfill is opened, a potential interim solution to the challenge of what to do with the waste generated by almost 1 million residents and about half a million monthly visitors. The city has begun exploring the...

Midwest chicken farmers struggle to feed flocks after sudden closure of processor

Oct. 17, 2024 19:48 PM EDT

Dozens of farmers in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are scrambling to feed their flocks after a struggling organic broiler chicken producer abruptly closed a year after getting a $39 million federal loan. Pure Prairie Poultry shuttered its Charles City, Iowa, plant after filing for...

RFK Jr. suggests he'll have a significant role on agriculture and health policy if Trump is elected

Oct. 15, 2024 17:17 PM EDT

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suggesting he will have significant influence on American agriculture policy if Donald Trump is elected president, the latest in a series of roles he has envisioned for himself in a second Trump administration. Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist and...

USDA launches an internal investigation into the deadly Boar's Head outbreak

Oct. 15, 2024 11:21 AM EDT

U.S. Agriculture Department officials have launched an internal investigation into how the agency handled reports of serious problems at a Boar's Head deli meat plant tied to a deadly listeria outbreak, a lawmaker said Tuesday. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said that USDA Inspector...

Boar's Head faces legal scrutiny over deadly deli meat listeria outbreak, USDA says

Sep. 27, 2024 15:54 PM EDT

Boar's Head, the deli meat company at the center of a deadly listeria food poisoning outbreak, is being scrutinized by law enforcement officials, the U.S. Agriculture Department disclosed in response to government records requests. Officials with USDA's Food Safety and Inspection...

US to hand over pest inspections of Mexican avocados to Mexico and California growers aren't happy

Sep. 24, 2024 22:35 PM EDT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — California avocado growers are fuming this week about a U.S. decision to hand over pest inspections of Mexican orchards to the Mexican government. Inspectors hired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been guarding against imports of avocados infected with...

Sweaty corn is making it even more humid

Aug. 28, 2024 10:33 AM EDT

Barb Boustead remembers learning about corn sweat when she moved to Nebraska about 20 years ago to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and found herself plunked down in an ocean of corn. The term for the late-summer spike in humidity from corn plants cooling themselves was...

Senators demand the USDA fix its backlog of food distribution to Native American tribes

Aug. 23, 2024 14:27 PM EDT

A bipartisan group of senators is demanding immediate action from USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack after several tribal nations reported that a federal food distribution program they rely on has not fulfilled orders for months, and in some cases has delivered expired food. Last spring,...