In a letter to USDA leaders, policy groups with diverse positions on federal spending are calling on the department to ensure any ad-hoc aid to farmers focuses on need and uses clear eligibility standards to reduce the risks of waste and fraud.
"Those who are skilled in archery bend their bow only when they are preparing to use it; when they do not require it, they allow it to remain unbent, for otherwise it would remain unserviceable when the time for using it arrived. So it is with man. If he were to devote himself unceasingly to a dull round of business, without breaking the monotony by cheerful amusements, he would fall imperceptibly into idiocy, or be struck by paralysis."
Chinese scholar Yunqing Jian pled guilty to smuggling crop pathogen Fusarium graminearum into the U.S. She was sentenced to time served and returned to China.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing new paraquat data showing higher vapor pressure than previously assessed, raising volatilization concerns.
