Vilsack Confirmed and Pilgrims Pride Guilty of Price Fixing

**Tom Vilsack was confirmed to return as Secretary of USDA in a 92 to 7 Senate vote last Tuesday, the job he held during the Obama Administration.

According to www.agweb.com, while farm groups praised Vilsack’s nomination, the returning Ag Secretary will face political headwinds in farm country.

In the first Farm Journal Pulse gauging support for the Biden Administration, only 14% of the 1,459 farmers surveyed approve of the job he’s done so far. 75% strongly disapprove.

www.agweb.com/news/policy/politics/vilsack-confirmed-return-usda?mkt

**Pilgrim's Pride has pleaded guilty and sentenced to pay over $107 million in fines for its participation in a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products.

www.agrimarketing.com reports, in a plea agreement entered in the U.S. District Court in Denver, from as early as 2012, thru at least 2017, Pilgrim's participated in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition for sales of broiler chicken products that affected at least $361 million in Pilgrim's sales.

www.agrimarketing.com/s/135065

**The dry winter could mean a very dry summer for Californian farmers of the Central Valley.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says it expects to provide only 5% of contract water supplies for many agricultural customers of its Central Valley Project.

The Fresno-based Westlands Water District, a large CVP customer, described the allocation as “no surprise” but “devastating nonetheless” for water-short farmers and communities.