Grower-leaders from NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) held their fall meetings at the Hilton Minneapolis last weekend, considering new and continuing business in areas including trade, research and biotechnology, farm policy and more.

Forty major agricultural groups including NAWG wrote all Senators this week strongly urging them to oppose any effort to insert language from Sen. Ben Cardin’s (D-Md.) Chesapeake Bay bill, S. 1816, into other legislation in the lame duck session.

A recent draft report from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) underscores the importance of conservation practices undertaken by agricultural producers in efforts to improve the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Ten wheat producers from around the country will gather in mid-November to learn leadership and communications skills and more about the industry they hope to serve in the coming years.

USDA will move quickly on a series of initiatives to help incentivize biofuels production and, as a result, bolster rural economies, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Thursday in much-anticipated speech at the National Press Club in Washington.

NAWG Director of Research and Technology Jane DeMarchi represented growers at an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) stakeholder workshop this week, urging the researchers in attendance to look for opportunities to collaborate with their peers and work to communicate more effectively with lay people about their projects.

First Lady Michelle Obama will be the featured guest on episode 609 of America’s Heartland, which should begin airing around the country the week of Nov. 1.

Can wheat growers apply pesticides without a Clean Water Act (CWA) permit? The answer to that question has been largely unsettled since January 2009, when the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the Nov. 26, 2006, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Final Rule.

NAWG and other agricultural organizations joined with two sets of comments sent this week to the Environmental Protection Agency expressing deep concerns about the Agency’s water regulation strategy.

Eleven Members of the House of Representatives wrote President Barack Obama this week expressing support for changes his Administration is considering to Cuba travel restrictions and urging him to also modify onerous Treasury Department regulations that suppress U.S. agricultural trade with the island nation.

NAWG leaders joined representatives from more than 20 national food and agricultural associations in St. Louis this week to discuss creating an organization to direct a national, consumer-focused outreach campaign.

NAWG and a dozen other groups representing farmers and ranchers wrote the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) this week, urging his agency to exempt Farm Credit System institutions from a mandatory swaps clearing requirement under consideration.

The recent Russian drought and government ban on wheat exports set off a market reaction one might only imagine in a true wheat supply crisis. The lingering questions remain fixed on the supply picture in spite of the fact that world wheat production reached its third highest level for 2010/2011. Indeed, USDA’s Quarterly Grain Stocks Report this week confirmed that U.S. wheat stocks are abundant and sufficient to meet demand left after Russia closed its wheat store.

Pasta lovers around the country will be celebrating their favorite cuisine this October as part of National Pasta Month and Pasta Lovers’ Week, which begins Oct. 24.

Congress approved a continuing resolution this week to fund the government until December and then headed home to campaign for fall elections. The continuing resolution, commonly known as a CR, will fund most of the government at FY2010 levels through Dec. 3. It passed the Senate by a 69 to 30 vote and the House [...]

A scheduled House Committee on Foreign Affairs mark-up of legislation to ease trade and travel restrictions against Cuba was cancelled this week as Congress rushed to head home prior to November’s elections. The bill that was to be considered by the Committee, H.R. 4645, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, would clarify how [...]

Reps. Tim Holden (D-Pa.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) requested late last week that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) take a close look at modeling the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses to evaluate programs and create proposals with regards to the Chesapeake Bay. EPA has used what is known as the Chesapeake Bay Model to propose [...]