Agriculture News
Growing number of struggling U.S. dairy farmers look to supply management, as Trump urges Canada to kill it
National Post | Posted on July 30, 2018It’s a favourite grievance in President Donald Trump’s Twitter blasts at his northern neighbour: “Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. Farmers … Canada has treated our Agricultural business and Farmers very poorly.”The source of Trump’s ire is the supply-management system that controls milk production in Canada and limits imports from the U.S.; America’s NAFTA negotiators want it dismantled.Even in Canada, critics view supply management as an anti-competitive tool that artificially inflates consumer prices, while other trading partners have also complained. But in the United States’ troubled dairy heartland, where low prices are forcing farm after farm into bankruptcy, many producers have taken a much different view lately — they’re actually embracing supply management as a potential saviour.Representatives of the Ontario dairy marketing board toured Wisconsin in March and Michigan last month, drawing hundreds of farmers eager to learn how the system works. More trips are planned for later this year to Ohio and Pennsylvania.“We had over 350 people participate in those five (Wisconsin) meetings — three of those meetings were standing room only,” said Darin Von Ruden, president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union. “We ended up way underestimating the amount of interest.”
Soybean farmers anxious, even with $12 billion in aid, and EU promises
CBS | Posted on July 30, 2018Veteran farmer Ron Heck, who produces 100,000 bushels of soybeans a year on his family farm in central Iowa, likes President Trump's big-picture plans to negotiate a fair trade deal with China that would improve market access and lower export fees. And he hopes the U.S. tariffs on China will hasten that outcome. But Heck also fears that such a deal could exact a crippling cost from farmers like him. He has relied on China's sizable appetite for U.S. soybeans -- it's the biggest importer of soybeans in the world -- but the 68-year-old said now his crops are caught up in the ongoing trade dispute with Beijing."We're all upset. We're all losing money," Heck told CBS News. "We're raising a great crop and our biggest customer comes along and says we don't want to buy it."The tariffs, along with an extremely productive growing season this year have resulted in oversupply, as well as decreased demand."They have gone down by two dollars a bushel. It's a really, really big deal," Heck said.Mr. Trump seemed to announce a potential solution Thursday. "The European Union is going to start, almost immediately, to buy a lot of soybeans -- they're a tremendous market -- buy a lot of soybeans from our farmers in the Midwest, primarily," Mr. Trump said, as he stood next to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
Feds: Backyard chickens sicken people in 44 states
CBS | Posted on July 26, 2018ive poultry in backyard flocks are linked to several multistate outbreaks of salmonella infections that have now sickened 212 people in 44 states, federal health officials warned. The most recent illnesses began on June 21, with 88 of the cases reported in the last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, said in an advisory. The federal agency is working with multiple states in investigating several outbreaks of salmonella infections linked to contact with live poultry in backyard flocks, it said.
More Than 3 of 5 Bankers Report Negatives from Trade Skirmishes
Creighton University Economic Outlook | Posted on July 26, 2018For a sixth straight month the overall index rose above growth neutral. Almost one-third of bank CEOs recommended that the Federal Reserve leave short-term interest rates at their current levels for the rest of the year. More than three of five, or 78 percent, of bank CEOs reported that current trade skirmishes and rising tariffs have had a negative impact on their local economy. Approximately 75.6 percent of bankers reported negative impacts of trade rifts and tariffs on grain farmers in their area. Economic confidence plummeted among bankers for the month.
State Ag Officials Praise FDA For Produce Safety Funding
NASDA | Posted on July 26, 2018Members of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) today praised the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their expanded $32.5 million commitment to 46 states and one territory to support the proper implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule. “NASDA Members have a long history of successfully working with farmers to grow our safe food supply,” said NASDA CEO Dr. Barbara P. Glenn. “We praise the FDA for making their largest funding commitment to date as we work cooperatively towards the proactive and integrated food safety system envisioned by Congress in 2011.”FDA received funding to initiate the integrated food safety system in 2016. The number of states receiving funding to implement the Produce Safety rule has grown from 42 in 2016 to now 46 and one territory. Funding has steadily grown from $21.8 to $32.5 million. The state agency cooperating with FDA in 44 of the states is the department of agriculture. The vast majority of funding recipients are operating education and outreach programming as well as compliance and enforcement. FDA will have a presence in states and territories who have not applied to cooperatively implement the rule.
CRISPR plants now subject to tough GM laws in European Union
Nature | Posted on July 26, 2018Gene-edited crops should be subject to the same stringent regulations as conventional genetically modified (GM) organisms, Europe’s highest court ruled on 25 July. The decision, handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) in Luxembourg, is a major setback for proponents of gene-edited crops, including scientists. They had hoped that organisms created usingprecise gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR–Cas9 would be exempted from existing European law that has limited the planting and sale of GM crops. Instead, the ECJ ruled that crops created using these technologies are subject to a 2001 directive. That law was developed for older breeding techniques, and it imposes high hurdles for developing GM crops for food.
Data show the tapering of pork exports to China, Mexico
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on July 26, 2018Weekly export data from USDA point to a slowdown in pork shipments to Mexico and the effective closing of the Chinese market to U.S. products in the wake of new tariffs.
Western Growers, California Farm Bureau oppose ag workforce bill
The Hagstom Report | Posted on July 26, 2018Coalitions of farm groups are at odds over whether the House should vote this week on a bill introduced last week by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., to replace the H-2A visa program with an agricultural guestworker program, known as the H-2C program. A coalition of more than 200 agriculture groups including the American Farm Bureau Federation has endorsed the bill, but Western Growers, the largest representative of fruit and vegetable growers in the country, and the California Farm Bureau Federation have come out in strong opposition.The H-2C program would be available to both seasonal and year-round agricultural employers and provide a visa allocation, but would would also require employers use the E-Verify system to make sure workers are legally in the United States.
2.5 billion pounds of meat stack up in cold storage
Washington Examiner | Posted on July 26, 2018It is a good time to fire up the grill domestically and a bad time to export globally. Because of the trade war, around 2.5 billion pounds of meat is just sitting in U.S. cold storage. The meat won’t spoil. It will go on sale in domestic markets, meaning cheaper hams and steaks. This will be good for restaurants and for consumers, especially anyone already stocking up for a Labor Day barbecue.
USDA Announces Deregulation of Herbicide-Resistant GE Cotton
USDA | Posted on July 26, 2018The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announces today the deregulation of Bayer CropScience’s cotton variety genetically (GE) engineered for resistance to the herbicides glyphosate and p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD)-Inhibitors such as isoxaflutole. As part of the petition process, APHIS prepared a draft plant pest risk assessment (PPRA), draft environmental assessment (EA), preliminary finding of no significant impact (FONSI), and a preliminary determination of nonregulated status. APHIS made these documents available for a 30-day public review and comment period on June 7, 2018. After considering the public comments, APHIS has determined it is unlikely to pose a plant pest risk and is deregulating this variety of GE cotton.Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), APHIS conducted a thorough review of the potential environmental impacts and prepared a final EA. APHIS concluded in its final PPRA that this variety of GE cotton is unlikely to pose a plant pest risk to agricultural crops or other plants in the United States.