California Ag Network

Tag: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

  • Almond Board Announces 2025 Election Results

    The Almond Board of California (ABC) has announced the Board of Directors election results, and the names of the following nominees have been submitted to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for selection to terms of office beginning Aug. 1, 2025:

    Grower Position #1, Member:
    1-year term
    Paul Ewing, Atwater

    Grower Position #1, Alternate:
    Tobin Barth, Esparto

    Grower Position #2, Member:
    3-year term
    Brandon Rebiero, Modesto

    Grower Position #2, Alternate:
    Brad Klump, Escalon

    Handler Position #1, Member:
    3-year term (only one year of term remaining)
    Chad DeRose, McFarland

    Handler Position #3, Member:
    1-year term
    Darren Rigg, Le Grand

    Handler Position #3, Alternate:  
    Dinesh Bajaj, Orland

    Co-op Handler Position #1, Member:
    3-year term
    Laura Gerhard, Sacramento

    Co-op Handler Position #1, Alternate:
    Mel Machado, Modesto

    The Independent Handler Position #1 is normally a 3-year seat but was vacated part way through the term. The elected candidate for the member seat will only serve the remaining one year of the term. This position will be up for election again in 2026. The alternate position was not up for election.

    The ABC board is made up of five handler and five grower representatives, each with an alternate. It sets policy and recommends budgets in major areas, including marketing, production research, advertising, public relations, nutrition research, statistical reporting, quality control and food safety.

  • USDA Announces New Agricultural Marketing Service Administrator

    U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has announced the appointment of Erin Morris as the next Administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), which operates under the Department’s Marketing and Regulatory Programs mission area.

    “My fellow Fightin’ Texas Aggie Erin Morris brings a strong track record of leadership, technical knowledge, and dedication to the agricultural community,” said Secretary Rollins. “She has spent over 25 years advancing the work of AMS and has earned the trust of her peers and stakeholders across the industry. I’m confident that under her leadership, AMS will continue to deliver for farmers, ranchers, and American consumers. We are deeply grateful to Bruce Summers for his four decades of tireless service to American agriculture. His leadership has shaped AMS into a cornerstone of USDA’s mission, and his legacy will have a lasting impact on farmers, ranchers, and consumers for years to come.”

    Morris will succeed Bruce Summers, who is retiring at the end of this month following a 40-year career at USDA.

    AMS supports the fair, efficient, and transparent marketing of U.S. agricultural products across domestic and international markets. AMS delivers a wide range of services including quality grading, auditing, and laboratory testing that help producers demonstrate the value and integrity of their goods. The agency also operates the USDA Market News Service, providing objective pricing and market data to inform business decisions throughout the supply chain. AMS also enforces fair trade practices through oversight of the livestock, produce, and organic sectors, and administers the Packers and Stockyards Act and National Organic Program.

  • Secretary Rollins Leads UK Trade Delegation, Kicks Off Aggressive Travel Agenda to Promote American Ag Worldwide

    U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins will visit the United Kingdom May 12-14. This comes after President Donald J. Trump announced on the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe, a new trade agreement in principle that will lower tariffs, remove trade barriers, increase market access, and strengthen cooperation on economic security. The President secured major wins for American agriculture. This deal provides significant expansion in U.S. market access in the UK, creating a $5 billion opportunity for new exports for U.S. stakeholders, including U.S. farmers, ranchers, and producers.

    “President Trump has made a historic deal with the UK that secures increased access for American agricultural products, including unprecedented access for American beef and ethanol. The President’s trade strategy is working. We are working every day to increase American economic exceptionalism and that includes selling the bounty of American agriculture around the world,” said Secretary Rollins. “I am traveling to the UK next week on my first foreign mission to meet with my counterparts and discuss the commitments of this deal. Our strong cultural and political ties between our countries have led to incredible economic prosperity. It is our goal to achieve even closer relations, and we are thankful for a deal that benefits both countries and gives American farmers, ranchers, foresters, and food processors better access to the UK market and the ability to compete for this business.”

    Secretary Rollins will meet with senior UK government officials, visit facilities importing US agricultural products, and hear from U.S. cooperators and UK importers on how the Administration can best position U.S. agricultural products in this important and high value market.

    Secretary Rollins has made it a top priority to advocate on behalf of American agriculture. This means increasing access for American products in existing markets, opening new markets with strong demand for our products, and making sure trading partners are treating American farmers, ranchers, and producers fairly. This comes after four years of inaction by the Biden Administration that caused agriculture to go from a trade surplus under President Trump, to a significant trade deficit under President Biden.

    Following Secretary Rollins’ trip to the UK in May, she will travel to Japan, Vietnam, Brazil, Peru, Italy, and India over the next five months. Other USDA Trade Missions this year include Hong Kong, the Dominican Republic, Taiwan, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mexico.

    United Kingdom: The UK is the United States’ fourteenth largest agricultural export market. U.S. producers face disproportionately high tariffs and small tariff rate quota volumes, and unjustified non-tariff barriers when exporting to the UK.

    India: The United States is India’s sixth largest supplier of agricultural products. The U.S. has a $1.3 billion agricultural trade deficit with India.

    Brazil: The United States has a $7 billion agricultural trade deficit with Brazil.

    Japan: Japan is a top five market for many key U.S. commodities, including corn, beef, pork, wheat, rice, and soybeans.

    Vietnam: Vietnam is the United States’ tenth largest agricultural export market. The U.S. has no trade agreement with Vietnam while major competitors like China do.

    Peru: Peru is the United States’ third largest South American market for agricultural exports, and the U.S. remains Peru’s second largest agricultural supplier. Key prospects for U.S. agricultural exports to Peru include ethanol, dairy products, meat, tree nuts, and pulses.

    Italy: American farmers and ranchers face a number of arbitrary non-tariff barriers that prevent larger export opportunities to Italy.

  • USDA Secretary Rollins Works to Make America Healthy Again

    In the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has taken bold action to support the leadership of President Donald J. Trump and work to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

    “President Trump has made fixing our chronic health problems a main priority. Our farmers and ranchers produce the safest, most abundant food supply in the world, and we are working every day to ensure our kids and families are eating the healthiest foods. We have made great strides in the last 100 days to Make America Healthy Again,” said Secretary Rollins.

    On her first full day in office, Secretary Rollins sent a letter to the nation’s governors (PDF, 88.8 KB), outlining her vision for the Department and inviting them to participate in a new “laboratories for innovation” initiative to create bold solutions to long-ignored challenges. She has supported the leadership of states who are submitting waivers to Make America Healthy Again. The MAHA movement at USDA has also supported major voluntary changes to make food healthier, including applauding the dairy industry for voluntarily removing artificial colors from the National School Lunch Program.

    At the direction of President Trump, USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are ensuring programs work harder to encourage healthy eating and lifestyle habits. As part of the MAHA Commission led by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., this work will not only research and report the many reasons children face unbelievable rates of diet-related disease like obesity and diabetes but also how government can implement change through things like revised dietary policy, state innovation, and less regulation. Secretary Kennedy and Secretary Rollins collaborated on their first MAHA event during a visit to Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School in Alexandria, VA where they participated in a healthy snack time with students and met facility staff. The event was an opportunity to learn more about the impact that federally funded nutrition programs have on children and signaled their strong partnership to work together to effectuate their vision for a healthier America. The Secretaries also wrote an opinion piece in USA Today outlining their plan to MAHA.

    The Secretaries most recently visited Texas to discuss food security and learn how America’s farmers are working to Make America Healthy Again by visiting cutting-edge laboratories at the Texas A&M Norman E. Borlaug Building and receiving a briefing on the Grand Nutrition Challenge at the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA). The Secretaries then toured the Automated Precision Phenotyping Greenhouse in addition to touring the fourth-generation Sawyer Farms who are utilizing stewardship practices to ensure healthy production of a robust barley, rye, corn, and wheat crop. The visit to Texas A&M IHA included amplifying the HHS and USDA commitment to a timely and consumer-facing update to Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). On March 11, 2025, after the inaugural meeting of the Make America Healthy Again Commission, Secretary Rollins and Secretary Kennedy announced a commitment to a final DGA no later than Dec. 31, 2025.

  • USDA Approves Program to Feed Kids in California

    (Washington, D.C., April 24, 2020) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced California and Connecticut have been approved to operate Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT), a new program authorized by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), signed by President Trump, which provides assistance to families of children eligible for free or reduced-price meals dealing with school closures.

    Background:

    California and Connecticut will be able to operate Pandemic EBT, a supplemental food purchasing benefit to current SNAP participants and as a new EBT benefit to other eligible households to offset the cost of meals that would have otherwise been consumed at school. For the 2019-2020 school year, California had approximately 3.9 million children eligible for free-and reduced-priced lunch, or about 63% of children in participating schools. For the 2019-2020 school year, Connecticut had approximately 269,000 children eligible for free-and reduced-priced lunch, or about 54% of children in participating schools. Previous announcements of approvals for Pandemic EBT include: Michigan, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Arizona, Illinois, Alabama, and Wisconsin.

    Under FFCRA, states have the option to submit a plan to the Secretary of Agriculture for providing these benefits to SNAP and non-SNAP households with children who have temporarily lost access to free or reduced-price school meals due to pandemic-related school closures. State agencies may operate Pandemic EBT when a school is closed for at least five consecutive days during a public health emergency designation during which the school would otherwise be in session.

    The implementation of Pandemic EBT is in line with USDA’s commitment to keep Americans safe, secure, and healthy during this national emergency and to keep kids fed when schools are closed. USDA is working with states and local authorities to ensure schools and other program operators can continue to feed children. This latest action complements previously-announced flexibilities for the child nutrition programs that:

    • Allow parents and guardians to pick up meals to bring home to their kids;
    • Temporarily waive meal times requirements to make it easier to pick up multiple-days’ worth of meals at once;
    • Allow meals be served in non-congregate settings to support social distancing;
    • Waive the requirement that afterschool meals and snacks served through certain programs be accompanied by educational activities to minimize exposure to the novel coronavirus; and
    • Allow states, on an individual state-by-state basis, to serve free meals to children in all areas, rather than only those in areas where at least half of students receive free or reduced-price meals.

    Today’s announcement is the latest in a series of actions that USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service has taken to uphold the USDA’s commitment to “Do Right and Feed Everyone” during this national emergency. Other actions include:

    • Launching a new coronavirus webpage to proactively inform the public about USDA’s efforts to keep children and families fed;
    • Providing more than one million meals a week through public-private partnership Meals to You;
    • Increasing access to online purchasing by expanding the online purchasing pilot to more than half of all SNAP households;
    • Debuting “Meals for Kids” interactive site finder – to help families find meals for children while schools are closed across more than 38,000 locations;
    • Allowing states to issue emergency supplemental SNAP benefits totaling more than $2 billion per month to increase recipients’ purchasing power;
    • Collecting solutions to feeding children impacted through feedingkids@usda.gov; and
    • Providing more than 1,500 administrative flexibilities in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to allow for social distancing.

    These actions and more are part of USDA’s focus on service during the COVID-19 outbreak. To learn more about FNS’s response to COVID-19, visit www.fns.usda.gov/coronavirus.

    USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) administers 15 nutrition assistance programs that leverage American’s agricultural abundance to ensure children and low-income individuals and families have nutritious food to eat. FNS also co-develops the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which provide science-based nutrition recommendations and serve as the cornerstone of federal nutrition policy.

    USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

  • USDA Announces Feeding Program Partnership in Response to COVID-19

    U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced a collaboration with the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, McLane Global, PepsiCo, and others to deliver nearly 1,000,000 meals to students in a limited number of rural schools closed due to COVID-19: 
     
    “Feeding children who are affected by school closures is a top priority for President Trump and this Administration. USDA is working with private sector partners to deliver boxes of food to children in rural America who are affected by school closures,” said Secretary Perdue. “Right now, USDA and local providers are utilizing a range of innovative feeding programs to ensure children are practicing social distancing but are still receiving healthy and nutritious food. This whole of America approach to tackling the coronavirus leverages private sector ingenuity with the exact same federal financing as the Summer Food Service Program. USDA has already taken swift action to ensure children are fed in the event of school closures, and we continue to waive restrictions and expand flexibilities across our programs.” 
     
    “We are grateful to come alongside USDA, PepsiCo, and McLane Global to ensure that children impacted by school closures get access to nutritious food regardless of where they live. We know from first-hand experience that families with children who live in rural communities across the U.S. are often unable to access the existing food sites. Meal delivery is critical for children in rural America to have consistent access to food when school is out. This is one way we, as citizens of this great nation, can respond to our neighbors in need,” said Jeremy Everett, Executive Director, Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. 
     
    “McLane Global was proud to take part in the success of the summer Meals-2-You home delivery pilot program in 2019. It was a great opportunity to bring private industry best practices together with the USDA to combat rural hunger. Given the rapid disruptions driven by COVID-19, we can work together to swiftly take this model nationwide. McLane Global is ready to do its part to support the fight against hunger through this crisis,” said Denton McLane, Chairman, McLane Global. 
     
    “As schools around the country close, millions of schoolchildren now don’t know where their next meal is coming from. In the face of this unprecedented crisis, it’s critical that the private sector help ensure these students have access to nutritious meals,” said Jon Banner, Executive Vice President, PepsiCo Global Communications and President, PepsiCo Foundation. “PepsiCo is committing $1 million to help Baylor create a solution with USDA to identify children most in need and then we will help reach them with at least 200,000 meals per week—one way we are deploying our food and beverage resources to help those most vulnerable.” 
     
    Background:

    USDA will utilize best practices learned through a summer pilot program in 2019 to deliver food boxes to children affected by school closures due to COVID-19 in rural America. Baylor will coordinate with the appropriate state officials to prioritize students who do not currently have access to a Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) site and have an active outbreak of COVID-19. Initial capacity is limited, and additional vendors are requested and encouraged to ensure we can provide food to more rural children as additional schools close. USDA has created a single contact for those who have suggestions, ideas, or want to help feed kids across the country. Email FeedingKids@usda.gov.  
     
    The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, McLane Global, and PepsiCo will begin distributing next week and will quickly increase capacity of nearly 1,000,000 nutritious meals per week. In addition to distribution, PepsiCo will generously provide $1 million in funding to the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty to facilitate nationwide distribution in the coming weeks. These boxes will contain five days worth of shelf-stable, nutritious, individually packaged foods that meet USDA’s summer food requirements. The use of this innovative delivery system will ensure rural children receive nutritious food while limiting exposure to COVID-19. USDA will reimburse private sector partners for the same rate as an SFSP site.
     
    Last week, Secretary Perdue announced proactive flexibilities to allow meal service during school closures to minimize potential exposure to the coronavirus. During an unexpected school closure, schools can leverage their participation in one of USDA’s summer meal programs to provide meals at no cost to students. Under normal circumstances, those meals must be served in a group setting. However, in a public health emergency, the law allows USDA the authority to waive the group setting meal requirement, which is vital during a social distancing situation. 
     
    USDA intends to use all available program flexibilities and contingencies to serve our program participants across our 15 nutrition programs. We have already begun to issue waivers to ease program operations and protect the health of participants. USDA is receiving requests for waivers on an ongoing basis. As of today, USDA has been asked to waive congregate feeding requirements in in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico and USDA has granted those requests.