American Farm Bureau Federation, Senate leadership introduced the Health Economic Assistance Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act. The HEALS Act is the latest in response to the COVID-19 national emergency and would provide an additional $20 billion to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help farmers and ranchers. The following […]

Oregon Congressman Greg Walden, Representative Greg Walden released a statement after the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) announced a new rule to update the agency’s special-use regulations to improve the reliability of the electrical grid and reduce the threat of wildfires. This rule builds off of a fix Walden helped secure […]

By Kevin Hecteman California Farm Bureau, Photo/Kevin Hecteman: Dan Garcia, warehouse manager at Produce Express in Sacramento, looks over boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables awaiting pickup at the wholesaler’s drive-through. Produce Express began selling boxes directly to the public at the onset of the first round of pandemic-related shutdown […]

By National Cattlemen’s Beef Association The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Executive Director of Natural Resources and the Public Lands Council (PLC) Executive Director, Kaitlynn Glover, today released the following statement in response to the passage of the Great American Outdoors (GAO) Act by the House of Representatives: “This is […]

Matt Cyrus, Oregon Family Farm Association The Oregon Family Farm Association requested two bills be introduced into the 2017 Oregon Legislature that could have saved NORPAC farmers tens of millions of dollars. Unfortunately, Senate Bills 523 and 524 were blocked. Agricultural cooperatives can be invaluable to farmers and ranchers, so […]

By Natural Resource Note, Messages telling tourists to leave Joseph and “Don’t Come Back” because of fears about carrying coronavirus to citizens crossed the line from protected free speech into criminal behavior by vandalizing public property, said Larry Braden, Joseph city administrator. For weeks people have posted paper signs such […]

By Oregonians For Food and Shelter, On the Legislative Front The state’s response to COVID continues to evolve and change on a daily basis. Earlier, the Governor’s office required face coverings to be worn in public when Oregonians are outdoors and unable to maintain a distance of six feet from […]

On July 9, 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a list of additional commodities that have been added to the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) and indicated that additional commodities could be announced as eligible in the coming weeks. Durum and hard red spring (HRS) wheat classes are […]

California Farm Bureau, The COVID-19 pandemic has changed just about the whole world—except, it seems, farmers’ struggles to keep their operations fully staffed. Even with the state unemployment rate at 16.3% as of July 10, harvest employees have been hard to find. “We’ve got the same manpower, the same people, […]

By Rachel Dawson  “The vast disparity between the rich and the poor is, in large part, designed by the disparity between those who have electricity and those who scrape by on small quantities of juice or none at all.” – Robert Bryce Electricity is at the epicenter of modern life, […]