Tag Archives: usda
Under Mindy Brashears’ Leadership, USDA Will Let Swine Slaughter Facilities Go Hog Wild
An inspector at a special deregulated hog plant told the Observer that the USDA’s new pork slaughter proposal that eliminates maximum line speeds is a “recipe for disaster.”
On March 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s top food safety official delivered good news to the pork industry. The official was Mindy Brashears, a forme...Read More
Sid Miller’s Ag Department Knew About Dangerous Pesticide Violations in 2015, Did Nothing for Two Years
A state inspector found that USDA's fever tick teams broke state and federal rules by indiscriminately spraying poison and dumping toxic pesticides on ranchland.
On August 17, 2015, Harlingen rancher Danny Davis called in a complaint to the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA). Like many others who raise cattle and hors...Read More
Documents Show Financial Entanglements Between Trump’s USDA Pick and Agribusiness
Mindy Brashears, a Texas Tech animal scientist nominated by Trump to lead the food safety arm of the USDA, is deeply embedded in the agribusiness industry.
Trump’s nominee to head the food safety division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is deeply entangled with agribusiness. According to ethics documents ob...Read More
Texas Congressmen Plow Billions into Agribusiness While Proposing to Cut Food Stamps
Mike Conaway and Jodey Arrington are pushing for stricter work requirements for food stamp recipients while helping big commodity farmers rake in billions in government cheese.
The Republican congressmen charged with writing the nation’s Farm Bill like to jabber about how people on food stamps need to get back to work. But those same...Read More
Stalled Program to Stem Farmer Suicides Gets a Second Chance in Congress
A USDA program to help farmers with mental health issues was authorized a decade ago but never funded. Now the U.S. Senate is proposing $2 million for the initiative.
Compared to the general population, farmers and ranchers are seven times more likely to take their own lives, a possible result of social isolation, financial s...Read More
Texas Tech Professor with Close Ties to Big Ag Nominated by Trump to Regulate the Industry
Mindy Brashears could profit from the same industry she’s regulating if she doesn’t divest herself from potential income associated with her patents, a watchdog group says.
A Texas Tech University professor and food scientist with close ties to the agriculture industry has been tapped by President Donald Trump to oversee food safet...Read More
In Washington, D.C., Republicans are Writing the Recipe for a Smoldering Panhandle
A plan to increase the number of acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program but cut staff to enforce program rules spells trouble for the fire-prone region.
If you thought wildfires in the Texas Panhandle were bad before, just wait. Proposed changes to a U.S. Department of Agriculture land conservation program, comb...Read More
Congress Never Funded Program to Prevent Farmer Suicides. Now It’s an Epidemic.
With farmers’ suicide rates higher than some veterans, rural advocates are pushing Congress to fund mental health care supports for agricultural producers.
After Judith McGeary discovered that several dozen sheep had been slaughtered by a mountain lion on her 160-acre ranch near Waco in 2015, she unexpectedly found...Read More
Top 1 Percent of Texas Commodity Farmers Get Quarter of $1.6 Billion in Subsidies
Subsidy program reforms were supposed to save taxpayers billions, but corn and sorghum farmers in Texas are getting more money than they have in a decade.
Jen Reel Last year in Nueces County, sorghum farmers raked in $10.9 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies. Corn farmers in Castro County took $12.6 million. In D...Read More