Ag News: USDA Relief for Timber Industry / ASF in Dominican Republic

**Timber harvesting, hauling and processing businesses can now apply for grants to offset financial losses suffered during the pandemic.

The USDA is providing up to $200 million in total relief to help timber businesses.

Firms that suffered revenue losses of 10% or more in 2020 may apply for grants until October 15th of this year.

**The recent confirmation of African swine fever in the Dominican Republic was the first in the Western Hemisphere in 40 years.

U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Dan Halstrom says while the ASF findings are concerning, the U.S. is well-prepared and extensive safeguards are in place to protect the health of our swine herd.

But, Halstrom emphasizes this does heighten the need for U.S. regionalization protocols that allow exports from non-impacted areas to continue in the event of a U.S. outbreak.

**USDA's Economic Research Service, which does an annual assessment of global food security, estimates there are 1.2 billion food-insecure people this year, an increase of 32% from 2020.

www.agrimarketing.com reports, this means about 31% of the population in the 76 countries covered by the study aren't getting the 2,100 calories they need on a daily basis.

About 72% of them were in Asia, with 21% in Africa.

ERS forecasts the food-insecure population will drop to 638 million people by 2031.

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