With eye on China, Canadians will plant more wheat, less canola
Canadian farmers plan to slash canola plantings by 7 percent this year because of a trade clash with China and to greatly expand their sowings of spring wheat, said Statistics Canada on Wednesday.
Many water wells in Iowa tainted by farm runoff, report finds
More than 40 percent of private wells tested positive for coliform bacteria at least once over a 16-year period, according to a new study of Iowa state records by the Environmental Working Group and the Iowa Environmental Council.
Nutritional quality of school food surges under 2010 reforms
With Congress in the early stages of updating child nutrition programs costing $30 billion a year, researchers say the nutritional quality of school meals increased by more than 40 percent following a 2010 mandate to serve healthier food. The first comprehensive study of the 2010 reforms also found that student participation rates were highest in the schools that served higher-quality meals.
Farmers could see “very low returns” on corn and soybeans
Grocers ask Supreme Court to keep SNAP data secret
In a case testing the limits of public-records laws, a trade group for grocers asked the Supreme Court on Monday to bar the release of store-by-store sales data for the $65 billion-a-year food stamp program. A South Dakota newspaper has fought since 2011 for the data, arguing taxpayers deserve to know how and where the government is spending their money.
House bill mirrors Senate on farm bankruptcy update
The so-called Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy rules would be revised by companion bills in Congress that would triple, to $10 million, the amount of debt that could be reorganized. A House version of the bill is sponsored by six representatives, including House Agriculture chairman Collin Peterson. It was filed three weeks after a Senate bill whose sponsors include Finance chairman Chuck Grassley.
Small ag banks mitigate the risk of rising demand for farm loans
In an indirect sign of stress in the farm sector, small agricultural banks are making adjustments, such as syndicating loans and charging higher interest rates, to offset risk in the face of high demand for farm loans, said the Federal Reserve in its quarterly Ag Finance Databook. The Fed's Beige Book, meanwhile, said spring floods in the northern Plains and western Corn Belt could put an additional burden on a farm sector coping with low commodity prices.
Dicamba has sparked a civil war in soybean country
The controversial weedkiller dicamba, which has wreaked havoc in soybean country over the last two years, is dividing communities and pitting neighbor against neighbor as the 2019 growing season gets underway. FERN's latest story, a radio piece produced with Reveal and the podcast Us & Them, takes listeners inside these divided communities in Arkansas.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Court gives EPA 90 days to decide fate of chlorpyrifos
The federal appeals court in San Francisco ordered the EPA to decide within 90 days — by mid-July — whether to ban agricultural use of the insecticide chlorpyrifos, already barred from residential use. Environmental groups have campaigned for years to take the organophosphate pesticide out of use in the United States.
U.S. wins again at WTO, though compliance by China may be months away
The WTO ruled in favor of the United States in its complaint that China had rigged its tariff system to constrict entry of foreign-grown grain. The ruling was the second U.S. victory in seven weeks against trade-distorting Chinese agricultural practices.
Rep. Pingree highlights role of farmers in fighting climate change
Maine Democrat Rep. Chellie Pingree rolled out a five-point plan to “support farmers in the fight against climate change,” offering a contrast to the Green New Deal announced earlier this year, which largely sidestepped agricultural issues and came under criticism for not engaging with farmers.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Report: The ‘new NAFTA’ will boost ag exports by 1.1 percent
U.S. food and agricultural exports would increase by $2.2 billion, or 1.1 percent, with full implementation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the successor to NAFTA, said the U.S. International Trade Commission in a report issued Thursday.
SNAP starts small, will go national, in test of online grocery shopping
The USDA launched a test of online grocery shopping for food stamp recipients in New York State on Thursday, with plans to expand the pilot to nine states across the nation.
Corn sweetener loses its luster, and its customers
A brawl between brewers over a Super Bowl ad last winter was not just a market-share battle between beer-making giants. It also offered a revealing look the reduced role corn sweeteners are playing in the food and beverage industry. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Two more rounds of Sino-U.S. trade talks planned
U.S.-China negotiations to resolve the trade war are “moving along quite well,” said President Trump on Wednesday. Meanwhile, published reports said two rounds of talks were scheduled for late April and early May.
Bill would ban chlorpyrifos residues in school meals
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, announced a bill on Wednesday to effectively ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos from school food.
Amid decline in commodity prices, farmland values could fall too
U.S. farm real estate values rode the express elevator to the penthouse during the commodity boom, gaining an average $860 an acre in five years. They are still at elevated levels despite the sharply lower farm income of recent years but may drift lower in the near term, according to two examinations of the farm economy.
The big customer for U.S. animal protein: Mexico
‘Flat-lining’ of U.S. gasoline use may hurt ethanol sales and corn farmers
For years, larger and larger sales of corn ethanol were almost a given. For one thing, the Renewable Fuel Standard guaranteed biofuels a share of the gasoline market, and car-happy Americans used more gasoline every year. The joyride, however, may be ending, says a University of Illinois economist.
In public lands proposal, Warren seeks moratorium on drilling leases, free entry to national parks
Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren announced her public lands policy platform on Monday, which includes an end to new fossil fuel drilling leases and an expansion of renewable energy production. Meanwhile, candidate Bernie Sanders said he supports imposing a moratorium on agribusiness mergers.