Join NAWG’s advocacy campaign to engage with legislators on increasing Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) programs authorized in the Farm Bill. MAP’s authorized funding has not changed since 2006 and FMD funding has remained the same since 2002. Inflation and sequestration have significantly eroded our ability to compete with other countries who are steadily investing more in their agricultural export promotion efforts. Please visit NAWG’s website to participate in the grassroots efforts to make your voice heard.

USDA’s Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation wants to give reference prices a boost in the next farm bill. During a forum on the farm bill and ag policy issues at Minnesota Farmfest Tuesday, Undersecretary Robert Bonnie said reference prices in the Commodity Title of the farm bill have not kept up with the current ag economy. “I think we all agree that we need to invest more in agriculture, whether it’s on the Title I side, research side, all those things. The challenge going into the farm bill is how do we pay for it.”

The Idaho Wheat Commission (IWC) takes a wheat variety survey twice a year, spring and winter, to gather data on variety usage. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey. Your responses are anonymous and aggregated across multi-county reporting districts.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Aug. 1 that farmers are well-represented in the mediation taking place on the lower Snake River dams. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Aug. 1 that farmers are well-represented in the mediation taking place on the lower Snake River dams. “There’s an inter-agency process in which the Department of Agriculture is making sure that folks who are making decisions which could impact agriculture are taking agriculture’s interests and concerns under consideration,” Vilsack said.

Customers of U.S. wheat and the U.S. wheat industry gathered in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the 2023 U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) Latin American and Caribbean Wheat Buyers' Conference. Organized and presented by four USW offices, it is the first buyers' conference held in the region since 2018. Some scenes from the first day of the conference (August 2) can be seen in this short video.

Mental health is a critical aspect in various fields of work, yet the agricultural industry tends to overlook its significance and the negative consequences of neglecting mental well-being. Recently, an interview conducted by Agri-Pulse brought together NAWG CEO Chandler Goule, American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall, Jeanette Jeffery with HomePorts, and Rural Minds CEO Jeff Winton to discuss the state of mental health in rural areas and the agricultural sector. Rural communities and agriculturalists face a distinct array of challenges that contribute to higher rates of mental health issues.

USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) has developed an interactive tool to explore trends in U.S. and international wheat markets. Now available on the ERS website, the Wheat Data Visualization tool works on all types of devices with many mobile-friendly options. The tool provides graphic overviews of the wide array of data ERS publishes each month in the Wheat Data product—a resource that includes statistics on the five classes of wheat: hard red winter, hard red spring, soft red winter, white, and durum, all by year and by quarter.