Agriculture

NOAA issued its three-month U.S. Spring Flood Outlook today, highlighting a moderate risk of flooding in the Ohio River Valley basin and lower Mississippi River where streamflows and soil moisture are well above normal after major flooding from recent heavy rainfall. Drought is forecast to persist or worsen in the southern and central Plains, Southwest and California, according to the NOAA forecast as warmer and drier-than-normal weather is likely to engulf the region this spring. [node:read-more:link]

But for pipeline opponents in the Cornhusker State, the view from the ground is far from hopeless. Last November, in a perplexing three-to-two vote, the Nebraska Public Service Commission (NPSC) rejected TransCanada’s preferred route. Instead the commission okayed the company’s alternate choice, a path that differs from the original 63 miles in northeast Nebraska. Those 63 miles could make all the difference: a new route means new easements and likely a host of pricey new lawsuits. The decision was such a blow that the company requested the NPSC modify the wording of its decision. [node:read-more:link]

As if our country’s dairy producers don’t have enough stress with the current economic situation of the industry, they also had to deal with being the primary target of extreme animal rights activist groups throughout the month of February. Now is the time for the meat industry to review the tactics used against dairy and prepare for its turn in the crosshairs. The primary group declaring war on dairy in February was Direct Action Everywhere. [node:read-more:link]

An hours-of-service waiver has been put in place for agriculture haulers for 90-days. The waiver, issued by U.S. Transportation Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, gives that agency more time to release guidance on regulations related to agriculture. [node:read-more:link]

International Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne gathered with his counterparts from 10 other countries March 8, 2018 in Santiago, Chile to sign the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), also referred to as TPP11. Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) Vice President David Haywood-Farmer, a beef farmer from Savona, British Columbia, was present to witness the signing. [node:read-more:link]

In a precedent-setting food safety case, an Arizona federal court jury on March 1 returned a verdict in the amount of $6.5 million in favor of a 5-and-a-half-year-old child who suffered a brain injury in 2013 as a result of a Salmonella Heidelberg infection from what was believed to be chicken produced by Foster Poultry Farms. [node:read-more:link]

The report has been out for a couple of months, but I am just not seeing the press that it should have generated. Is that because the never-ever, organic, cage free and anti-CAFO groups have nothing to crow about? For the very first time since FDA started tracking sales in 2009, there was a drop; and not a small one either. The sales of medically important antibiotics, those used in both human and animal health, dropped 14 percent!Shouldn't there be a headline or two about this change? And this was for the year 2016, not 2017 when Guidance 213 went into effect. [node:read-more:link]

German conglomerate Bayer won EU antitrust approval for its $62.5 billion buy of U.S. peer Monsanto, the latest in a trio of mega mergers that will reshape the agrochemicals industry. [node:read-more:link]

Syngenta AG agreed to pay more than $1.4 billion to U.S. farmers who complained that the marketing of the company’s genetically modified corn seeds shut them out of the Chinese market, according to people familiar with the deal. The settlement with more than 100,000 farmers was announced Tuesday in a Minnesota class-action trial. It resolves all farmers’ litigation in the U.S. but doesn’t include Canadian lawsuits, according to Paul Minehart, a Syngenta spokesman. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that real gross domestic product increased 2.3 percent nationally between 2016 and 2017, but agriculture subtracted from overall economic growth in every state in the Midwest — most notably Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. “It’s a big deal in Nebraska when our farmers are hurting,” says Tony Fulton, the state’s tax commissioner and a former state legislator. [node:read-more:link]