The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that beginning this week, many of the 1.7 million farms that enrolled in either the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs will receive safety-net payments due to market downturns during the 2015 crop year.


"This fall, USDA will be making more than $7 billion in payments under the ARC-County and PLC programs to assist participating producers, which will account for over 10 percent of USDA's projected 2016 net farm income. These payments will help provide reassurance to America's farm families, who are standing strong against low commodity prices compounded by unfavorable growing conditions in many parts of the country," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "At USDA, we are standing strong behind them, tapping in to every resource that we have to help. So far in 2016, this has included creating a one-time cost share program for cotton ginning, purchasing about $800 million in excess commodities to be redirected to food banks and those in need, making $11 million in payments to America's dairy farmers through the Dairy Margin Protection Program, and reprogramming Farm Service Agency funds to expand credit options for farmers and ranchers in need of extra capital. As always, we continue to watch market conditions and will explore opportunities for further assistance in the coming months. For producers challenged by weather, disease and falling prices, we will continue to ensure the availability of a strong safety net to keep them farming or ranching."

Read more about ARC and PLC payments being made to US farmers.

With the word from USDA that the payments are being rolled out- the National Association of Wheat Growers quickly cheered the news- "This has been a rough marketing year for farmers, with wheat prices dropping lower than we've seen in decades," said NAWG President Gordon Stoner. "It's years like this that a viable farm safety net is critically important, and I applaud Secretary Vilsack's quick action to roll out these programs this new fiscal year."

Click here for the complete Wheat Grower statement.

Click here to read more about the findings from the Purdue/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer study.

The National Pork Board announces the debut of Pork Quick Facts and the Pork Checkoff Photo Library, two new online resources to help build transparency and trust in the U.S. pork industry. Pork Quick Facts provides a snapshot of the pork industry through statistics and infographics, while the Pork Checkoff Photo Library shares images of pig farms across America.


"Today, farm and ranch families make up only 2 percent of the U.S. population, with most of the other 98 percent two or more generations removed from the farm," said National Pork Board President Jan Archer, a pig farmer from Goldsboro, North Carolina. "That makes it even more important to share how we raise safe, high-quality pork. The Checkoff's new online resources will help bridge the gap as consumers increasingly ask how their food is raised."


The Checkoff's Quick Facts is designed to provide information for consumers, media, educators, students and others looking for an overview of the pork industry. It also provides statistics on everything from top U.S. pork export markets to state rankings for pork production, and from U.S. pork expenditures to the attributes of a typical market hog.


The images available from the new Pork Checkoff Photo Library were taken on farms across the country and are designed to help the public learn how pigs are raised today. More than 1,000 photos are housed on Flickr, a popular, free online storage system.

Our nation's farm families provide us with the safest, most abundant, most affordable food and fiber supply in the history of the world. A fact that is so true it has become a cliché.


These families are leading the way in productivity while using fewer land and water resources, as well as other inputs. This is critically important for a growing world population that will soon reach 9 billion people. This ability to produce our food and fiber is a real source of peace and stability for our country and much of the world.


Yet, the libertarian right and the extreme left relentlessly attack vital U.S. farm policies through think tanks in Washington that have degenerated into front groups for high dollar donors with their own legislative agendas. In this case, that agenda is to eliminate the farm safety net and jeopardize our secure national food and fiber supply.


The most recent example is from the Heritage Foundation, which published a couple of papers recycling some of their old ideas and followed up with a briefing on Capitol Hill to tout the papers' purported findings. At the Hill briefing, the risks of farm and ranch families were actually compared to the risks of a singer whose music might one day fall out of fashion.

Click here to continue reading Farm Policy Facts' editorial supporting America's farm and ranch families.