AgNet Weekly with Sabrina Halvorson
Each week we highlight essential legislative and policy conversations affecting agriculture nationwide. Host Sabrina Halvorson is a 30-year media veteran known nationally for her award-winning, balanced, and accurate reporting. For more than 10 years, she has specialized in agriculture news focused on political issues. While most agriculture news podcasts focus primarily on Midwest crops, we uniquely understand specialty crops, their regions, and their related industries. AgNet Weekly also traverses the legislative issues of the livestock industry and other matters related to California and Southeast agriculture.
Episodes
There’s a call to reevaluate the required minimum pay for ag labor and the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) Rule . Michigan’s current minimum wage is $10.10 for workers who don’t get tips, but the minimum wage that farmers can pay their H2A workers is $17.34. The Executive Director of the Michigan Asparagus Association, Jamie Clover Adams, says the true cost is even more. She joins host Sabrina Halvorson on this episode of the AgNet...
Find out why Congressman Dan Kildee (D-MI) says 'don't touch' the nation's sugar policy. He joins host Sabrina Halvorson in this week's AgNet Weekly.
The Farm Bill, progress on current agreements, and campaign promises. There’s a lot going on in the world of trade. Brian Kuehl, Executive Director of Farmers for Free Trade joins us this week to talk about all of those things.
The battle over the EATS Act continues. We started this two-part series last week with Mary-Thomas Hart, Chief Council with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which is in support of the EATS Act. This week we hear from the opposition. Marty Irby, President of Competitive Market Action and Board Secretary at the Organization for Competitive Markets tells us why he and his organizations are against the act.
Things are heating up over the EATS Act. Supporters of the bill say the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act would prevent states from regulating farmers and ranchers nationwide. But opponents turned up the fire this week when a bipartisan group of more than 150 lawmakers sent a letter to House Agriculture Committee Chair G.T. Thompson (R-PA) and ranking member David Scott (D-GA).
This week and next week, we are focusin...
How much of our U.S. ag land should belong to our adversaries? About three percent of agricultural land in the United States is owned by foreign entities. But U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, says even that may be too much. He’s a cosponsor of the FARM Act, or the Foreign Adversary Risk Management Act. Senator Cramer joins host Sabrina Halvorson on the phone this week to talk about the issue, and why he’s...
This week host Sabrina Halvorson had the opportunity to meet in person with Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, John Boozman of Arkansas, along with Ranking Member of the Agriculture Appropriations Committee Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota. It was at a Farm Bill roundtable held in Fargo, and hosted by Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. She got to talk with all three of them afterwards. Also joining were the a...
The Growing Access to Environmental Sustainability (GATES) Act seeks to reduce barriers that producers face in accessing agricultural conservation programs. Congressman John Duarte, a farmer from California, is on the coalition behind the act. He says current adjusted gross income (AGI) limitations of $900,000 disproportionately limit producers with high input costs from participating in certain USDA conservation-focused programs. ...
This week, Sabrina reported on a proposed amendment to the ag appropriations bill. The amendment states that none of the funds made available by the bill may be used to carry out commodity checkoff programs. Several industry groups came out against the amendment, and she spoke with a representative of one- Vice President of Government Affairs with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Ethan Lane. She also spoke to the Congress...
Many people in farming already know the benefits of precision agriculture but Curt Blades, Senior Vice President of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) says a new study by the association aims to help the public understand. Blades joins us this week to talk about the benefits of precision agriculture and precision ag in the farm bill.
Some car makers have decided to not include AM radio in new vehicles. A number of groups have spent months fighting that decision, including emergency management organizations, former members of FEMA, and the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. NAFB president Joe Gill joins us this week to discuss why the organization believes this is an important issue.
Congress is looking into farm labor needs around the nation, but it is a challenging task. The House Agriculture Committee recently announced the creation of the bipartisan Agricultural Labor Working Group, which will focus on the workforce issues faced by agricultural producers around the nation. Congressman and farmer Doug LaMalfa of California joins host Sabrina Halvorson to discuss the group and the nation’s ag labor needs.
Fruit and vegetable plant breeders who use gene editing are now facing more regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA recently increased oversight of some gene-edited crops and added to the workload and waiting time for those breeders. Dr. Margaret Worthington is an Associate Professor of Horticulture at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and she believes the new requirements will be a big...
Congressman Dan Kildee of Michigan says if Mexico’s president wanted to restrict GMO corn from the U.S., the time to do that was more than three years ago, before he agreed to the terms of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Sabrina Halvorson talks with the congressman to get insight into the trade dispute.
We spoke last month with Congressman John Duarte of California when he was one of only two Republicans to vote against H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. He has now given his support to the Dignity Act and we catch up with him this week to find out why he feels it is the right approach to immigration.
The Senate Ag Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research held a hearing June 7 on how the farm bill works for Specialty Crop producers. The Vice President of U.S. Government Relations at the International Fresh Produce Association, Rebeckah Adcock, was in attendance. She joined Sabrina Halvorson afterward to discuss the association's message to lawmakers about the farm bill.
He says it’s an act with a cute name and an important purpose. This week, Congressman Dan Kildee (D-MI) joins Sabrina Halvorson to talk about the Beagle Brigade Act and how it will benefit agriculture around the United States.
Kenneth Smith Ramos, former Mexican Chief Negotiator for the NAFTA and USMCA trade deals and current partner at AGON, was one of the speakers at this week’s USMEF Spring Conference. He sat down with Sabrina Halvorson after his presentation to talk about a number of topics, including specialty crops in trade deals, and how U.S. immigration discussions can affect trade relations.
The Biden Administration this week announced the availability of nearly $11 billion in grants and loan opportunities to help rural energy and utility providers. They say the funding will help bring affordable, reliable, clean energy to communities across the country. Sabrina Halvorson talks with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to get more details.
H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, passed in the House this week with a vote of 219 to 213, with all Democrats opposed and all but two Republicans in favor. Those Republicans were Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Representative John Duarte of California.
Representative Duarte joins host Sabrina Halvorson this week to discuss why he voted against the bill.
Popular Podcasts
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.
NFL.com's "Around the NFL" crew (Gregg Rosenthal, Dan Hanzus and Marc Sessler) break down the latest football news, with a dash of mirth.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.