The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry on Feb. 2 voted unanimously to recommend the full Senate confirm Tom Vilsack as President Joe Biden’s secretary of agriculture. Vilsack appeared before the panel today, and the committee’s favorable decision to forward his nomination was never in doubt. Because the Senate […]

In cooperation with the local department of health and Vons Pharmacy, Foster Farms began offering the first dose of the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 to 1,000 employees of its poultry processing plant located on Cherry Avenue in Fresno on Feb. 2. The company plans to complete the administration of the […]

Deemed an essential workforce during the pandemic, California’s mostly Latino farmworkers are also underrepresented in the state’s vaccination program, health officials and activists say, prompting the delivery of shots in the fields. Reuters reports that in one such campaign, public health officials vaccinated about 250 workers on Monday 1 February, […]

German Agriculture Minister Julia Klockner has announced that the culling of day old male chicks will be outlawed from next year. Speaking to mark the start of Germany’s International Green Week, Klockner said the Cabinet had signed a draft law prohibiting the mass culling of day old male chicks, making […]

In accordance with the White House memo, Regulatory Freeze Pending Review, USDA has suspended the processing and payments under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program – Additional Assistance and has halted implementation until further notice. Farm Service Agency local offices will continue to accept applications during the evaluation period, USDA says. USDA’s […]

The Biden administration will review all national security measures put in place by former President Donald Trump, including the U.S.-China Phase 1 trade deal signed in January 2020, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday. Asked if President Joe Biden viewed the deal as still in effect, she […]

With retail cage-free egg sales volume in California running just slightly higher than the US average, implementation of Proposition 12 requirements for egg sales won’t be smooth. Proposition 12 requires that all eggs sold in California, starting Jan. 1, 2022, must be from cage-free hens. According to the U.S. Census […]

Broiler operations naturally want to provide the best disease protection for the least cost, but deciding which vaccines to use and when can be a daunting task. First, there are so many variables to consider — not just disease pressure and the emergence of new variants but also geographic location, […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in many ways. One thing that hasn’t changed: America’s love for chicken wings. This is no more apparent than on Super Bowl weekend, when Americans will devour a record 1.42 billion wings while watching the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers battle […]

Jewel H. Bronaugh, Virginia commissioner of agriculture and consumer services, was nominated this month to be deputy secretary of agriculture. If confirmed by the US Senate, she would be the first African American woman to serve in the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) No. 2 position, tasked with day-to-day operations […]