Trump administration prepares to fire worker for TV interview about SNAP - The Washington Post

The Agriculture Department is preparing to fire an employee in the division that handles food benefits after she publicly warned that the shutdown could have negative impacts on the millions of Americans who rely on the federal government to put food on the table, according to documentation reviewed by The Washington Post...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/13/usda-worker-snap-benefits-interview/

Local food for schools helps farmers and kids. So why is Trump cutting funding?

Agriculture department cuts to funding for local food in school meals betrays growers, kids and collective wellbeing…

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/19/farm-to-school-meals-funding-cut

 

 

 

US agriculture department announces $100m in funding for bird flu vaccine research | Bird flu | The Guardian

Research to be funded even as health secretary RFK Jr suggested letting disease run freely for birds to develop immunity…

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/20/bird-flu-vaccine-research

 

USDA Layoffs Derail Projects Benefiting American Farmers | WIRED

The purge could also indirectly hit farmers in red states, who are the main beneficiaries of proposals such as EQIP. "It was necessary research to preserve our agricultural lands and fight climate change," says one ARS employee who was fired last week after serving more than two years of their three-year-long probation. "Compared to the rest of the government, ARS is tiny," they say. "But we were able to get a lot done with relatively little money."…

https://www.wired.com/story/usda-layoffs-throw-climate-and-crop-projects-into-chaos/

Rural areas to receive $759 million in grants for high-speed internet | PBS NewsHour

The Agriculture Department announced Thursday it is making available $759 million in grants and loans to enable rural communities to access high-speed internet, part of the broader $65 billion push for high-speed connectivity from last year's infrastructure law…

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/rural-areas-to-receive-759-million-in-grants-for-high-speed-internet

ADM sold Sonny Perdue South Carolina land worth millions for $250,000 in 2017 - Washington Post

… Later that year, ADM checked off a top lobbying goal when Congress passed a biodiesel tax credit that amounted to $1 per gallon subsidy retroactive to 2017. In early 2020, at the onset of the coronavirus crisis, Perdue announced a $100 million subsidy of biofuels, including ethanol and biodiesel...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2021/sonny-perdue-adm-land-deal/

Court Vacates Trump Administration Rule That Sought To Kick Thousands Off Food Stamps : NPR

A federal judge has vacated the Trump administration's rule that would have forced hundreds of thousands of Americans off food stamps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's rule change was capricious and arbitrary, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said.....
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/19/925497374/court-vacates-trump-administration-rule-that-sought-to-kick-thousands-off-food-s

Top Trump administration figures flout law banning partisan campaigning

The agriculture secretary is the latest of 14 political appointees to be cited by the government watchdog for violating the Hatch Act....
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/15/trump-administration-partisan-campaigning-hatch-act

Trump administration sued over decision that could cut wages for more than 200,000 farm workers | TheHill

A labor union is suing the Trump administration over a move that could allow lower wages for migrant workers, undercutting domestic workers. The United Farm Workers (UFW) union and its nonprofit advocacy arm, the UFW Foundation, filed the complaint on Tuesday, which was first reported by Business Insider, against the U.S. Department of Agriculture for cancelling a survey of farm workers’ wages in the upcoming year.....
https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/poverty/521214-trump-administration-sued-over-decision-that-could-cut-wages

These Emails Show a Trump Official Helping Her Former Chemical Industry Colleagues — ProPublica

A lobbyist turned senior Agriculture Department official repeatedly shared information with her former industry on policy and enforcement. “It’s highly inappropriate conduct,” said one ethics expert.....
https://www.propublica.org/article/these-emails-show-a-trump-official-helping-her-former-chemical-industry-colleagues

Trump Ag Secretary to Struggling Farmers: Get a Job! – Mother Jones

Prices are tanking and the trade war drags on. That’s the best advice you have, Sonny Perdue?....
https://www.motherjones.com/food/2019/11/trump-ag-secretary-to-struggling-farmers-get-a-job/

Trump’s USDA Is Letting Factories With Troubling Safety Records Slaughter Chickens Even Faster - ProPublica

Workers are getting injured, but the Department of Agriculture says their safety is not its responsibility.
https://www.propublica.org/article/line-speed-waivers-trump-usda-is-letting-factories-with-troubling-safety-records-slaughter-chickens-even-faster

Trump proposal seeks to crack down on food stamp 'loophole' - PBS NewsHour

The proposed rule change, outlined this past week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has highlighted the ideological clash between President Trump's attempts to tighten government entitlement programs and efforts in some states to widen the social safety net....
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/trump-proposal-seeks-to-crack-down-on-food-stamp-loophole

At Trump’s Agriculture Department, science is being plowed under - The Washington Post

For the second year in a row, Trump administration leadership at the Agriculture Department proposed budget cuts and took other steps that hamper agencies within the department that supply the data and science needed to inform farm and food policy.....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/07/trumps-agriculture-department-science-is-being-plowed-under/

Agriculture chief says there is no plan to extend aid offsetting tariffs for farmers - The Hill

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Monday said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is not planning to extend the up to $12 billion aid package for farmers into 2019. ....
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/413726-us-agriculture-chief-says-no-plan-to-extend-farm-aid-to-offset

A Wide-Open Door for Pesticide Lobbyists at the Agriculture Department — ProPublica

At a private meeting in September, congressional aides asked Rebeckah Adcock, a top official at the Department of Agriculture, to reveal the identities of the people serving on the deregulation team she leads at the agency. ....
https://www.propublica.org/article/a-wide-open-door-for-pesticide-lobbyists-at-agriculture-department#136957

Trump Nominee for Science Post Thinks Homosexuality is a Choice – Friendly Atheist

Donald Trump has nominated Sam Clovis, a conservative radio host, to be the “chief scientist” for U.S. Department of Agriculture. We already knew he isn’t a scientist, which is problematic enough in this position, but now we’re learning that his beliefs about homosexuality are rooted in bigotry and not evidence. ....
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/08/22/trump-nominee-for-science-post-thinks-homosexuality-is-a-choice/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

He Screams About ‘Race Traitors’—and Trump Loves Him -- The Daily Beast

Sam Clovis is good on TV, which is why President Donald Trump likes him. Whether it qualifies him for a high-level administration post, or gets him confirmed by the Senate, is another question entirely. Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill are hoping it won't be enough. And in the coming weeks they are gearing up for war against Clovis, the former Trump campaign aide whom the president nominated last month to serve as the Department of Agriculture's top scientist. ....
http://www.thedailybeast.com/he-screams-about-race-traitorsand-trump-loves-him

Trump's science pick argued same-sex marriage would lead to legalizing pedophilia

If Donald Trump picks someone to be part of his administration and they accept, there's now 100 percent chance that they're completely and utterly unfit to do whatever job they've been tapped for.....
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1692088

The Trump administration's solution to climate change: ban the term | Bill McKibben | Opinion | The Guardian

The US Department of Agriculture has forbidden the use of the words ‘climate change’. This say-no-evil policy is doomed to fail...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/08/trump-administration-climate-change-ban-usda