Agribusiness Update for Monday 4/08/13

Agribusiness Update for Monday 4/08/13

This is the Agribusiness Update...I’m Greg Martin...

Farm Bureau’s first Semi-Annual Marketbasket Survey shows shoppers paid about two-percent more for food at the grocery store at the beginning of 2013 compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. The informal survey shows the total cost of 16 food items that can be used to prepare one or more meals.

DTN has reported that USDA will reduce direct payments for all crop farmers by 8.5-percent this year rather than requiring some 350-thousand producers to refund a portion of the payments they already received through other programs. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack had previously stated that sequestration would require USDA to ask farmers to pay back 151-million dollars received.

USDA is accepting applications for Rural Energy for America program funds to help with the installation of blender pumps - which allow gasoline retailers and consumers to choose the blend of ethanol they want from no ethanol content to 85-percent ethanol by volume. For those interested in applying - the Blend Your Own Ethanol Campaign will offer free grant writing services.

That’s today’s Agribusiness Update from the Ag Information Network.
 

 

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