Nation’s First Coast-to-Coast Railroad Merger Proposed: The proposed $85 million merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, announced Tuesday, joins 50,000 miles of railroad tracks and would create a company that for the first time in history would control coast-to coast rail shipments.
Union Pacific officials say the merger would speed up shipping and make supply chains more efficient and that is an argument proponents of the deal will lean on.
Less handoffs do cut costs, admits Mike Steenhoek of the Soy Transportation Coalition, but he says combining the two railroads would also decrease competition and raise rail rates.
This is not normally favorable for farmers and it could result in lower grain prices.
New Trade Pact with EU: The European Commission says that around $8.7 billion of U.S. agricultural exports will receive “better market access” to Europe through allocation of tariff-rate quotas under a new trade pact.
President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland on Sunday outlined contours of an agreement to soften the tariff blow Aug. 1. Under the deal, U.S. tariffs on most EU exports will be capped at 15% -- lower than the 30% Trump threatened – and the sides committed to reducing agricultural trade frictions, although details were sparse.
USDA SNAP Privacy Lawsuit: A coalition of 21 states and Washington, D.C. filed a lawsuit Monday against the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the federal agency told states to turn over the detailed, personal information of food assistance applicants and their household members.
The USDA has told states they have until July 30 to turn over data about all applicants to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, over the last five years, including names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and addresses. Last week, the agency broadened the scope of information it is collecting to include other data points, including immigration status and information about household members.
USDA has suggested states that do not comply could lose funds.
- U.S. Dairy Industry Calls for Action Against Disruptive Trade Practices: When it comes to global dairy trade, ensuring fair competition and market access for U.S. dairy producers remains a significant challenge. This complexity was brought to light during a recent testimony before the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) by Jaime Castaneda, executive vice president for policy development and strategy for U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), and Will Loux, senior vice president for global economic affairs. Their discussions highlighted the pressing need for the U.S. government to address international policies that disrupt markets and harm American dairy interests.
- Omaha Meatpacking Company Struggles to Continue Operations After ICE Raids: For more than a decade, Glenn Valley’s production reports had told a story of steady ascendance — new hires, new manufacturing lines, new sales records for one of the fastest-growing meatpacking companies in the Midwest. But, in a matter of weeks, production had plummeted by almost 70 percent. Most of the work force was gone. Half of the maintenance crew was in the process of being deported, the director of human resources had stopped coming to work, and more than 50 employees were being held at a detention facility in rural Nebraska.
Renewed Interest in Guest Worker Visa Programs: The U.S. has an important choice to make regarding agriculture.
It can import more workers to pick crops and do other kinds of agricultural labor, it can raise wages enough to lure more U.S. citizens and immigrants with legal status to take these jobs, or it can import more food. All three options contradict key Trump administration priorities: reducing immigration, keeping prices low and importing fewer goods and services.
The big tax-and-spending bill President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025, included US$170 billion to fund the detention and deportation of those living in the U.S. without authorization. And about 1 million of them work in agriculture, accounting for more than 40% of all farmworkers.
As the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants ramps up, one emerging solution is to replace at least some deported farmworkers with foreigners who are given special visas that allow them to help with the harvest but require them to go home after their visas expire.
Such “guest worker” programs have existed for decades, leading to today’s H-2A visa program. As of 2023, more than 310,000 foreigners, around 13% of the nation’s 2.4 million farmworkers, were employed through this program. About 90% of the foreign workers with these visas come from Mexico, and nearly all are men. The states where the largest numbers of them go are California, Florida, Georgia and Washington.
USDA Disaster Assistance for Virginia Farmers: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins today announced additional U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) assistance to help producers in the Commonwealth of Virginia recover from Hurricane Helene. Secretary Rollins signed a block grant agreement with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) that provides recovery assistance for Virginian farmers. Virginia is the second state to receive this disaster aid. Last week, Secretary Rollins announced the first disaster block grant in Florida.
In this agreement, VDACS is receiving $60.9 million in funding to administer a program covering infrastructure, timber, and plasticulture losses in addition to market losses and future economic losses. This funding is part of the $30 billion disaster assistance relief effort authorized by the American Relief Act, 2025. USDA is working with 14 different states, including Virginia, to develop and implement block grants to address the unique disaster recovery needs for each state.
- FDA and USDA Take On Ultra-Processed Foods: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture are accelerating federal efforts to address the growing concerns around ultra-processed foods and the current epidemic of diet-related chronic disease that is plaguing America. The agencies are announcing a joint Request for Information (RFI) to gather information and data to help establish a federally recognized uniform definition for ultra-processed foods—a critical step in providing increased transparency to consumers about the foods they eat.
USDA Reorganization Details Emerge: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced July 24 that the USDA would reorganize, representing consolidation and elimination of programs and personnel.
Dubbed the “USDA Department Reorganization Plan,” the move will include moving more than half of the agency’s Washington, D.C.-area staff to five different hubs across the country, “refocusing its core operations” on USDA’s founding mission, and reducing overall staff. According to the announcement and plan document, the move is intended to “improve the internal management” of the department.
Today, the Senate Ag Committee is holding a hearing on the reorganization proposal.