Agriculture Secretary

President-elect Joe Biden nominated Tom Vilsack to serve as Agriculture Secretary. Here are five things you need to know.

President-elect Joe Biden’s choices for secretary of agriculture are as diverse as the department of 100,000 employees that he or she would represent

President Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary said Tuesday during a stop in Wisconsin that he doesn’t know if the family dairy farm can survive as the industry moves toward a factory farm model. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters following an appearance at the World Dairy Expo in Madison that it’s getting harder for farmers to get by on milking...

Residents signing up for food stamps in Minnesota are provided a brochure about domestic violence, but it doesn’t matter if they even read the pamphlet. The mere fact it was made available could allow them to qualify for government food aid if their earnings or savings exceed federal limits. As odd as that might sound, it’s not actually unusual. Thirty-eight...

The Trump administration on Tuesday proposed tightening automatic eligibility requirements for the food stamp program, a change that could affect about 3.1 million people. The Agriculture Department said the rule would close “a loophole” that enables people receiving only minimal benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to be eligible automatically for food stamps. “For too long, this...

Puerto Rico Gov. Rosselló summoned members of his cabinet amid protests that show no sign of dissipating.

In a rare confrontation, Republican senators declared deep opposition Tuesday to President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on all goods coming into the U.S. from Mexico. But it’s unclear they have the votes to stop him, and Trump said they’d be “foolish” to try. All sides, including officials from Mexico meeting with Trump negotiators in Washington this week, remain hopeful that...

Talk about mystery meat. As plant-based protein makers like Impossible Foods and the newly public Beyond Meat take the food industry by storm, the question of whether their products are better for consumers than actual meat is still very much open, says former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. “We can’t really market it … as necessarily better for you, because...

President Donald Trump rolled out another $16 billion in aid for farmers hurt by his trade policies, and financial markets shook Thursday on the growing realization that the U.S. and China are far from settling a bitter, year-long trade dispute. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said that the first of three payments is likely to be made in July or...

Is white bread about to make a comeback on school lunch menus? After complaints about taste and costs, the Trump administration rolled back a rule that required foods like pasta and bread be made with whole grains. The cafeteria directors who lobbied for the change say they just want greater flexibility to serve foods like white bread — which are...

Storm Team4 Meteorologist Chuck Bell has your forecast for Feb. 13, 2019.

The Trump administration is setting out to do what this year’s farm bill didn’t: tighten work requirements for millions of Americans who receive federal food assistance. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday is proposing a rule that would restrict the ability of states to exempt work-eligible adults from having to obtain steady employment to receive food stamps. The move...

Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith won a divisive Mississippi runoff Tuesday, surviving a video-recorded remark decried as racist and defeating a former federal official who hoped to become the state’s first African-American senator since Reconstruction. The runoff was rocked by the video, in which Hyde-Smith said of a supporter, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on...

President Donald Trump rallied voters Monday for Republican Senate appointee Cindy Hyde-Smith who has found herself in a closer-than-expected runoff contest after comments she made about attending a public hanging drew condemnation. As Trump praised Hyde-Smith at two high-profile rallies in different parts of the state, her opponent, Democrat Mike Espy spoke at a predominantly African-American church and described his...

A Northern California sheriff says no additional remains were found Monday, but the wildfire’s death toll rose to 88 after investigators determined human remains that had been assigned to two people actually belong to three.

A white Republican U.S. senator from Mississippi said during a debate with her African-American Democratic opponent Tuesday night that she apologizes to people who were offended when she complimented a supporter by saying she would attend a “public hanging” if the supporter invited her. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s remark was caught on video that was released last week. It has brought...

A video of a white U.S. senator from Mississippi making a flip reference to a “public hanging” is incensing voters in a special election runoff, drawing attention to the state’s history of lynching and boosting Democrats’ hope of pulling off a stunner in the Deep South. Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith is facing former congressman and former U.S. agriculture secretary Mike Espy,...

The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket cast a spectacular light over the Southern California sky Sunday evening.

President Donald Trump and European leaders pulled back from the brink of a trade war over autos Wednesday and agreed to open talks to tear down trade barriers between the United States and the European Union. But the agreement was vague, the coming negotiations with Europe are sure to be contentious and the United States remains embroiled in major trade...

President Donald Trump says the US and the EU have agreed to work toward “zero tariffs” and “zero subsidies” on non-automobile goods. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says he has made a deal with Trump to try to ease trade tensions.