Asian wheat buyers aren’t phased by U.S. discovery of rogue GMO wheat
Unlike earlier incidents, Asian customers for wheat grown in the U.S. Northwest did not bat an eye at the USDA announcement that GMO wheat was found growing in the wild in Washignton state. "At this point there is no trade disruption and we do not expect any," said U.S. Wheat Associates, the export promotion arm of the wheat industry, on Monday.
More changes in store as USDA assesses wet planting season
The USDA took a 9 percent whack out of its projected U.S. corn harvest last week and economist David Widmar said on Monday that more adjustments will be forthcoming due to a remarkably rainy and prolonged planting season in the Farm Belt. "The implications of the slow, wet spring will take a while to be fully realized," wrote Widmar at the Agricultural Economic Insights blog.
Perdue and lawmakers compete in USDA relocation race
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue fired the starting gun for a sprint to move two USDA science agencies to Kansas City before opponents in Congress can stop him. In seven weeks, or possibly sooner, the first of the relocated employees are to report to work in their new offices, according to a USDA timeline, with the remaining 447 of them to be in place by Sept. 30.
Time for a deal with China, say farm-state senators
Half a dozen farm-state senators urged Trump trade officials on Thursday to speedily resolve the Sino-U.S. trade war that is compounding hard times on the farm. Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts brushed aside assurances of a rosy future when trade deals are completed. “Some farmers aren’t going to make it,” he said.
USDA announces Kansas City region as new home of NIFA and ERS
In a highly anticipated announcement, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Thursday that the Kansas City region would be the new home of the agency’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Economic Research Service.
‘Kids eat local’ bills may be part of child nutrition overhaul
Companion bills introduced in the House and Senate would make it easier for schools to buy locally produced foods to serve to their students, said sponsors on Thursday.
Perdue chooses new homes for two USDA research agencies
Ten months after he announced the initiative, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue will meet with USDA employees privately Thursday and then announce to the public the new homes for two research agencies now sited in Washington.
Forest Service to scale back environmental reviews
In the name of greater efficiency, the U.S. Forest Service said on Wednesday that it would modernize its procedures for complying with the National Environmental Policy Act, the bedrock federal environmental protection law.
As soggy fields prevent planting, U.S. corn production set to drop 5 percent
NIFA employees vote to unionize by large margin
First the Trump tariff payments and then the trade deals, says president
White House calls for light regulation of low-risk gene-edited crops and livestock
Dutch seed breeder wins the ‘Nobel of agriculture’
Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, credited with saving a billion people from starvation through the Green Revolution of high-yielding grain crops, created the World Food Prize to recognize stellar achievements in improving the world's food supply. Sixth-generation seedsman Simon Groot is the 2019 winner of the $250,000 prize, sometimes called the Nobel of agriculture, officials announced on Monday.
Enviva, a giant in wood pellets, shifts tree-sourcing policy
Enviva, the largest industrial wood-pellet manufacturer in the world, launched what it calls an “enhanced and expanded global sourcing policy” last week in partnership with Earthworm Foundation, a non-profit that helps businesses reform their supply chains. The announcement came a few weeks after the publication of a report by FERN, in collaboration with The Weather Channel, spotlighting the company’s environmental practices.
Maybe a ‘minimal’ Trump payment on prevented plantings, Perdue says
The USDA will not make Trump tariff payments on farmland that is not planted this year, because it's not allowed by law to do so, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Monday. But there may be a way to provide some assistance to growers from the $14.5 billion in Market Facilitation Program (MFP) funds allotted for this year's crops, Perdue said, ahead of President Trump's visit to Iowa.
With millions of acres unplanted, U.S. corn crop could be smallest in six years
The United States could be headed for its smallest corn crop – 13 billion bushels – since the scorching 2012 drought, according to estimates circulated ahead of USDA projections due today at noon ET. One of every six acres intended for corn, or 15.7 million acres, is yet to be planted because of a cold and persistently rainy spring, and yields per acre drop precipitously for late-planted corn.
Rogue GE wheat found in U.S. Northwest for fourth time since 2013
The USDA has never approved cultivation of genetically engineered wheat, yet for the fourth time since April 2013 a wheat strain resistant to the weedkiller glyphosate was found growing wild in the northwestern United States. The discovery could disrupt wheat exports and it raises questions about USDA's ability to police agricultural biotechnology.
Mexico to buy ‘large quantities’ of U.S. ag exports, says Trump
Without providing details, President Trump said on social media over the weekend that Mexico, the largest U.S. food and ag trade partner, would "immediately begin buying large quantities of agricultural product from our great patriot farmers." Purchases were not mentioned in a joint declaration by the North American neighbors to avert temporarily Trump's threat to impose tariffs on all imports from Mexico unless it acted to restrict crossings at the southern U.S. border.
Trump signs disaster bill with $3 billion for agriculture
A flooding reprieve for 25,000 acres of Louisiana farmland
A spillway on the Mississippi River designed to prevent the river from overflowing its levees and inundating towns and cities in Louisiana will likely be opened for only the third time in history this Sunday, flooding 25,000 acres of farmland in the Atchafalaya basin and all but guaranteeing a total crop loss for farmers in the area.