Ag News: USDA Adds to School Meal Funding

**Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced USDA made an adjustment in school meal reimbursements to help schools continue serving children healthy meals.

The move will add an estimated $750 million more into school meal programs across the country.

The goal is to make sure that federal reimbursements keep pace with food and operational costs, while ensuring children can continue to get healthy meals at school.

**R-CALF calls the White House action plan for the meat supply chain progress but isn’t convinced yet.

The effort includes government funding intended to slowly rebuild competitive marketing channels for cattle and beef, which has created what the administration calls a "bottleneck" in the nation's food supply chain.

R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard says, we recognize this level of government involvement is unprecedented, and critical for reversing decades of nonenforcement, but he remains skeptical about the strategy.

**For only the second time since May, the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer rose in December, climbing nine points from November to 125.

The Index of Current Conditions and the Index of Future Expectations rose in December, attributable mostly to an improved perspective on current conditions.

However, farmers are concerned about rising input costs, with nearly half of producers choosing it as a top concern for 2022, along with supply chain issues.