Winrock International announced on January 31st that it was awarded a $1 million grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to pursue policies to improve health and wellness of rural workers in certain Delta communities that currently experience h
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The U.S. Supreme Court recently announced that it would hear a landmark case (Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency) relating to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and what constitiutes Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) under the act. The hearing and potential for a
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On February 3rd, USDA issued a brief update on its plans to deliver aid to producers impacted by wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, winter storms, and other eligible disasters experienced during calendar years 2020 and 2021. Phase one of the crop assistance
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On February 1, U.S. Senator John Tester (D-MT) introduced legislation (S. 3549) aimed at helping increase equipment repair access for farmers. Tester, a farmer himself, issued a press statement in which he expressed concerns for consolidation in the repai
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USDA recently made public new data regarding foreign ownership of farmland in the United States. According to the latest data, which encompasses the year 2020, foreign owned acreage of farm, ranch and forestland increased by 2.4 million acres to 37.6 mill
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U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR), Vice-Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Nutrition, will soon be recognized by American Farm Bureau with the Golden Plow award, which is the highest honor the organization gives to sitting memb
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On January 28th, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule that provided refiners relief for meeting compliance with renewable fuel standards (RFS) by delaying compliance with renewable volume requirements. The decision was critic
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On Friday, January 28th, the Arkansas General Assembly approved the one-time use of $6 million from the Restricted Reserve Fund to support two initiatives of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The funding was requested by Governor
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Gary Adams, President and CEO of the National Cotton Council (NCC), recently joined Agri-Pulse for its "Open Mic" program to discuss the current market situation facing the U.S. cotton industry. Adams discussed the cotton futures market and the challenges
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On January 26th, USDA announced that general signup for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) would run from January 31st through March 31st. The program has an acreage cap of 25.5 million, and the current enrollment totals 22.1 million acres. In additio
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On Wednesday, February 3rd, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee held a hearing to consider conservation programs under the 2018 farm bill. The hearing marked the first hearing related to specific title of the farm bill as Congress begins its review of cu
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On Monday, January 31st, Southern Bancorp, Inc., a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and holding company for Southern Bancorp Bank, announced it has entered into a merger agreement to acquire FCB Financial Services, Inc. and its wholly ow
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