Dairy Checkoff Spending Reports and June Rural Mainstreet Index

**The USDA is partnering with states to offer a grant program to build resilience across the food-supply system, responding to lessons learned from supply-chain disruptions and food shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The USDA’s “Resilient Food System Infrastructure Program” is meant to create new revenue streams for producers and to strengthen local and regional food systems.

The program was discussed during a recent California State Board of Food and Agriculture session on protecting America’s food supply.

**Farm Action and the National Dairy Producers Organization sent a letter to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack calling for immediate release of federally mandated annual dairy checkoff spending reports.

They say the reports, “mandated by the same legislation that authorizes the dairy checkoff program,” have not been submitted to Congress in 2020, 21, or 22.

The reports describe “activities conducted, all fund receipt and disbursement, and an independent analysis of the effectiveness of the program.”

**After dropping below growth neutral in March, the June Rural Mainstreet Index went above the threshold for a third-straight month to its highest point since May of last year.

That’s according to the June monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas dependent on agriculture.

The overall June reading is 56.9, up from May’s 55.8.

CEOs ranked Federal Reserve rate hikes as the greatest challenge for the year ahead.