Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

Jack Smith is the new state director of USDA Rural Development in Arizona.

The federal government is warning irrigation districts in Pinal County that using a $20 million state loan to drill new wells to replace Colorado River water they are losing as part of the drought contingency plan could cost them.

A new federal law legalizing the growing of hemp comes not a moment too soon as Arizona farmers are likely to be looking for crops that don't need as much water.

The Arizona Department of Agriculture plans to move its laboratory from the Capitol Mall to a building in Chandler, despite opposition from lawmakers and the industry.

If the Fourth of July just isn't a holiday without a burger on the grill, you're in luck.

Arizona may be more known for its cattle, citrus and vegetables, but dairies and dairy farmers produce the state’s No. 1 commodity with nearly 200,000 cows producing more than $750 million worth of milk.

State lawmakers are moving to keep medical marijuana dispensaries in the rural areas of the state.

The number of H-2A visas issued to agricultural workers in the state has more than doubled in the past five years, mirroring a national increase in the temporary “guest worker program” for noncitizens.

Food advocacy groups said Apache County children had the least reliable access to healthy food in the nation in 2014, when 41.5 percent of children in the county were deemed to be “food insecure.”

Traditional veterinary medicine for large food animals in rural Arizona has all but vanished, leaving the state’s livestock industry increasingly vulnerable to disease and even death.