USDA

“It tears you apart mentally and physically”: The Health Crisis Afflicting Black Farmers

At 43 and 45 years old, husband and wife farmers Angie and Wenceslaus Provost, Jr., hope they live to see age 70.  They don’t fear terminal illness or a farm accident that could consign them to an early grave.  Instead, they fear stress could do them in. Years of trying to protect family land from encroaching banks and government agencies have worn …

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Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Northern Valley Labor Council Distributes Food to Families in North Dakota and Minnesota

Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. The Northern Valley Labor Council in North Dakota, led by President Mark Froemke (BCTGM), plans …

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Murray, DeLauro Call on USDA to Reject Chicken Council’s Petition to Increase Line Speeds

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Ranking Member of the House Labor Appropriations Committee, today sent a sharply worded letter to Carmen Rottenberg, acting head of USDA’s Food Safety Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) calling on the agency to reject a petition …

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Poultry lobbyists hope Trump will okay dangerous chicken processing speed-up Obama rejected

The poultry industry really, really wants to process the chickens you eat at rates of more than 140 per minute. Under former President Obama, the USDA considered and then backed off of an increase to 175 chickens per minute going down the line being eviscerated and inspected. Under Donald Trump, the National Chicken Council hopes that the …

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Trump targets USDA with some of the deepest proposed budget cuts

President Donald Trump ran on a platform of giving a voice to rural voters who felt forgotten by politicians in Washington. But his proposed budget, released on Tuesday, proposes deep cuts to crucial Department of Agriculture programs that many rural residents, and farmers, depend on. The budget proposes an almost 21 percent cut to the USDA, the third-largest percentage …

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Madeline Messa

Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.