WASHINGTON, D.C. (RFD NEWS) — New details are emerging around federal agriculture spending as the White House releases a proposed budget targeting the U.S. Department of Agriculture. President Donald Trump’s latest budget proposal calls for cutting USDA spending by nearly 20 percent, or just under $5 billion, in the next fiscal year.
The plan describes parts of the agency as a “bloated Washington bureaucracy” and outlines reductions across several areas.
Some of the largest cuts would impact international food aid programs, including Food for Peace and the McGovern-Dole Food for Education program. The administration argues that those programs are costly and slow to deliver assistance.
The proposal also supports previous efforts to move USDA staff out of Washington, D.C., and into regional hubs, saying the shift would better align with an America-first agriculture policy.
Corn inspections remain strong year-to-date, while China’s soybean and sorghum movement remains important to late-season export demand.
NRCS leadership affects how conservation dollars, technical assistance and working-lands priorities reach farmers and ranchers.
At the center of the announcement is the Blue Point Project in Louisiana, a $3.7 billion ammonia facility, USDA says, that will become the world’s largest ammonia plant once completed.
Southern Plains wheat shippers face higher rail fuel surcharges as hard red winter wheat production falls toward a nearly 70-year low.
USDA says both crops remain ahead of the five-year average as farmers continue monitoring dry Corn Belt conditions.
Texas Farm Bureau takes us behind the scenes at USDA’s sterile fly facility, considered a first line of defense against New World Screwworm, a fight Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller fears is “futile.”
