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Last week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the latest funds dolled out by the USDA's Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, or F-PEP.    “We're announcing an additional 7 projects that we're funding in seven states, an investment of about $35 million in expanded fertilizer capacity.”   The p...

The Agriculture Department is expecting at home food prices this year to increase by 1.2%, which is a slight increase from the 1% that USDA economists had expected.  USDA economist Meghan Schweitzer says prices for a couple of key food categories have been higher than expected, inching that rate up.   “...

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is inviting producers impacted by wildfire in Umatilla and Morrow counties to an informational meeting where agencies will answer questions.  Participants will learn about resources available for residents, landowners, livestock and agricultural producers.   ...

It's an effort within our nation going on almost a decade now.  “In 2015, USDA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set a national goal to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030,” noted Jean Busby who has been involved in these efforts for several years now as USDA’s Food Loss and Waste Liaison.    That include...

Farm operations in Oregon have been significantly impacted by recent wildfires.  To help, the NRCS-Oregon technical and financial assistance available to help farmers and livestock producers recover from these wildfire events.   A total of $2 million of FY24 funds have newly been made available to support producers in wildfire recovery. Producer...

The USDA is making funding available for businesses and organizations to remove hazardous wildfire fuels from national forests.  The program will pay groups to transport the material to be turned into wood products or services.  Hazardous fuels are typically woody material with little commercial value, but can become useful as other products, although, transportation costs are often prohibitive.  

U.S. agriculture is currently running a trade deficit of almost $19 billion and growing.  And while some say this reflects a weak noncompetitive American farm sector, one expert says that doesn’t tell the whole story.   “To look at the trade balance and say it's negative, so we're being outcompeted. It's, it's really oversim...

Thanks to the USDA Census of Agriculture, and analysis from an OSU professor, we now know that Oregon's farm real estate values are increasing at a great pace.

USDA is adding an additional $824 million in emergency funding to bolster efforts to stop the spread of the H5N1 virus.

The USDA has stepped up its regulations of the Horse Protection Act to try to eliminate the practice of horse soring.