USDA

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced on Sunday that the U.S. is halting imports of livestock at ports of entry along the southern border in response to the “continued spread” of the “New World screwworm” (NWS) in Mexico.

The move comes after NWS was detected in remote farms as far north as Oaxaca and Veracruz, approximately 700 miles from the U.S. border, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has suspended imports of live cattle, horses, and bison through ports of entry along the southern border, effective immediately, according to a Sunday press release from the federal agency.

The decision comes as the New World Screwworm (NWS), a deadly parasitic fly, continues its rapid northward spread through Mexico, now detected approximately 700 miles from the U.S. border in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz.

Republican governors in Arkansas and Indiana moved Tuesday to ban soft drinks and candy from the program that helps low-income people pay for groceries, becoming the first states to ask the Trump administration to let them remove such items from the program long known as food stamps.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said her state’s request is aimed at improving the health of nearly 350,000 residents who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Indiana will ban food stamps from paying for soda and candy, joining West Virginia and Arkansas as states at the forefront of President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun on Tuesday ordered that sugary drinks and treats be removed from the taxpayer-funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which is commonly called food stamps.

Three GOP-led states are moving to strip unhealthy items from their food stamp programs that help low-income Americans afford groceries. 

Arkansas became the first state Tuesday to submit a waiver to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) asking for permission to change its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to ban soda and candy.

The Agriculture Department has halted millions of dollars worth of deliveries to food banks without explanation, according to food bank leaders in six states.

USDA had previously allocated $500 million in deliveries to food banks for fiscal year 2025 through The Emergency Food Assistance Program. Now, the food bank leaders say many of those orders have been canceled.

Talk about going to egg-stremes.

Border agents are seeing a sharp rise in the number of egg smuggling attempts by travelers coming from Mexico and Canada as prices in the US have surged to as high as $10 a carton.

US Customs and Border Protection reported a 36% increase in egg interceptions this fiscal year — with certain border regions in Texas experiencing a 54% spike, while cases in San Diego have more than doubled, according to the Wall Street Journal...

Egg prices have fallen sharply so far in March on some progress in ending a shortage, giving consumers some much-needed relief with the supermarket staple.

The cost of white large shell eggs declined to $6.85 per dozen, on average, last week, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That represents a decline of $1.20 per dozen, and a 15% pull back the USDA’s prior update on Feb. 28.

After months of sticker shock from the nationwide egg crisis, relief might finally be on the way.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Friday that the national average wholesale price of eggs has been steadily declining since late February. In other words, the cost that distributors are charging retailers is going down.

According to the latest USDA report, the average wholesale cost of large white eggs was $4.15 per dozen — about half of what it was just a few weeks ago...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that its Local Food for Schools (LFS) program is ending. The initiative, started in 2023, financially supported schools buying food from local farms.

The USDA awarded up to $200 million to states for the purchase of domestic local foods for distribution to their schools. Maine's Department of Education estimates that through January 2025, the state spent a little more than $740,000 through the LFS program.