Tom Vilsack

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is debating cuts to the federally subsidized crop insurance program as it considers a massive farm bill this week. The Obama administration said Monday it wants to see more cuts to crop insurance and farm subsidies in...

First Lady Michelle Obama on April 4 planted wheat by hand in the White House kitchen garden and then watered it. Crouching by signs reading "club wheat" and "bread wheat," the first lady scratched rows in the dirt so she and the children could put...

WASHINGTON — The drought that caused record wildfires in California and other Western states last year is expected to persist through the summer, but fewer firefighters will battle this year's blazes in other regions because of federal budget cuts,...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The southern New Mexico plant that has been fighting for more than a year for permission to slaughter horses will open soon, unless Congress reinstates a ban on the practice, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. In a...

America sends about $1.4 billion a year in emergency food aid to needy people around the world through the Food for Peace Program. By law, practically all that aid is produced in the U.S. and shipped by U.S. companies to far-flung places, where it is...

For almost 60 years, a bag of life-saving food etched with the American flag has served as one of the purest expressions of our country's generosity and compassion around the world — from the earthquake devastated streets of Port au Prince to the...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and nearly a dozen other members of Congress this week asked for an update from the Department of Defense on sending surplus military aircraft to the U.S. Forest Service, aircraft that could assist in fighting wildfires....

The battle over the opening of the nation’s first domestic horse slaughterhouse since a government ban six years ago has ramped up as a company in Roswell, N.M., moves closer to reinstituting the practice. Activists throughout the West say they...

Terrorism insurance I respectfully disagree with several points in "Insuring against terror; The law is about to lapse; Congress should let it" (Editorial, April 25). The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program provides much needed economic stability and...

WASHINGTON -- Sarah Bittleman, the new agriculture counselor at the Environmental Protection Agency, is determined to improve communications between rural America and an agency that many farmers consider both economically and culturally threatening. "My...

In 1999, President Bill Clinton set out to right a wrong: the government's widespread discrimination against black farmers, particularly in the South. The victims had applied for farming loans but, owing to bias on the part of federal loan officers, had...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced the re-establishment of the Forestry Research Advisory Council and is seeking nominations for new members. "This council will play a critical role as USDA continues to lead the way...