Wanted: Office space in a city with a ‘critical mass of intellectual capacity’
The Agriculture Department is willing to go far into the countryside to find office space for two agencies that it wants to move out of Washington. The new headquarters can be near an airport with as few travelers as Salina, Kansas, or Sidney, Montana, but it must have robust internet service, a "critical mass of intellectual capacity" to tap for its workforce, and an overall high quality of life, according to a USDA announcement appearing today.
New study finds glyphosate in oat, wheat products
Trade war could cost U.S. fruit and nut industries $3 billion a year
The U.S.'s current trade war expands beyond China—India, Mexico and Turkey also have placed tariffs on U.S. fruits and nuts. The cumulative effect of the tariffs could cost the U.S. fruit and nut industries $2.64 billion per year directly and an additional $700 million by reducing prices in alternative markets, says a study by the Agricultural Issues Center at the University of California.
EPA should set a lower application rate for dicamba, says North Dakota official
Doug Goehring, the state agriculture commissioner in North Dakota, says "90 percent of the problems with off-target movement" of dicamba "may go away" if regulators set a lower application rate for the herbicide. In an interview, Goehring told the Capital Journal that he might allow a lower application rate for crops in his state even if EPA does not revise its rules for the controversial chemical.
Two Trump officials back thinning of forests
Interior Secretary and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue advocated the thinning of forests and removing brush to eliminate fuel for wildfies during a roundtable discussion in northern California, said the Redding Record Searchlight. The cabinet members said thinning the tree stands in foressts did not mean clear cutting the land.
Perdue takes control of USDA’s economics agency
The Economic Research Service, the USDA’s self-described “honest broker of economic information,” is being placed under the control of the agency’s top political appointee, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. The move, announced on Thursday, would make the ERS part of the office of Perdue’s chief economist.
Farm bill negotiators prodded to resolve SNAP work rules
With the Senate returning early from its August recess, a panorama of farm, conservation, ag retailer, insurer, lender and antihunger groups said on Monday that urban and rural America needs prompt passage of the 2018 farm bill. The groups did not mention by name the major issue facing farm bill negotiators – the House proposal for broader work requirements for SNAP recipients – but analysts say the House plan could be a legislative poison pill.
Farm economy weakens in Plains and Midwest, fall outlook grim
The slump in commodity prices that has accompanied the ongoing tit-for-tat trade war has sapped the farm economy this summer and poses financial risks going into the fall, said Federal Reserve banks in Chicago and Kansas City on Thursday.
Ranchers expand lawsuit against checkoff to 13 states
A group of independent ranchers has expanded its lawsuit against the federal beef checkoff to include 13 more states, arguing that the checkoff violates the First Amendment by requiring ranchers to fund the "private speech" of state beef councils. The Ranchers-Cattlemen Legal Action Fund (R-CALF) filed a supplementary pleading on August 9 that expands its existing lawsuit against Montana's beef checkoff program to include beef checkoff programs in Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
Appeals court tells EPA to ban pesticide in 60 days
On Thursday, the U.S Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals gave the federal government 60 days to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which is widely used in agriculture but criticized as a risk to children and farmworkers.
California avoids the SNAP snafu engulfing farmers markets
California offers an example of how to avoid the electronic equipment snarl that threatens SNAP sales at 40 percent of farmers markets across the nation, says The New Food Economy. "Their method? Creating a system partially, if not fully independent of the federal system."
Final fruit of USDA suit: A fund for American Indian agriculture
The landmark 1999 Keepseagle class-action lawsuit against the USDA for systemic discrimination in its farm lending programs resulted in tens of millions of dollars in payments directly to Native American farmers and ranchers for mistreatment. One of its most lasting legacies may be the endowment of the Native American Agriculture Fund with $266 million left over from the 2011 settlement of the case, said the lead attorney in the case on Monday.
Produce safety rule will weigh heaviest on small growers
The smallest fruit and vegetable growers will pay comparatively more than big operators to comply with the so-called Produce Rule from the FDA — as much as 6.8 percent of their sales compared with less than 1 percent for big farmers, said three USDA economists on Wednesday.
Revenue insurance now available for milk producers
The USDA announced a new insurance policy on Wednesday to shield dairy farmers from unexpected declines in revenue from milk sales. The insurance “will bring an extra level of support to a dairy sector that has been battered by losses over the past four years,” said the American Farm Bureau Federation.
New buyers elusive, U.S. builds a mountain of soybeans
U.S. farmers will reap a record-large soybean crop in the middle of a trade war with China, ordinarily the No. 1 export customer for the most widely grown U.S. crop, with no replacement buyer on the horizon. As a result, said the USDA, farmers can expect the lowest season-average price for soybeans in 12 years and the largest soybean stockpile ever, which likely will hold down prices in the future.
With tariffs in place, China slows pace of soybean imports
Chinese imports of soybeans during July were 8 percent smaller than in June as the nation digested a soy glut at its ports, said AgriCensus on Wednesday. Imports tumbled at the same time that China imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in the escalating tit-for-tat trade war with the United States.
House Ag chairman was among investors in Innate Immunotherapeutics
In early 2017, House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway was among U.S. representatives who purchased stock in the Australian biomedical company that's at the center of insider-trading charges against New York Rep. Chris Collins. The comparatively wealthy Conaway bought shares of Innate Immunotherapeutics in January and February 2017 through a Merrill Lynch account that he owns jointly with a family member, said the good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
Outlook for corn and soy farmers in 2019 ‘simply is not good’
Midwestern farmers will likely need large reductions in rental rates on cropland in 2019 to have a chance of making money on corn or soybeans, said economist Gary Schnitkey of the University of Illinois.
Jury awards groundskeeper $289 million in Roundup trial
A California state court jury awarded $289 million to terminally ill Dewayne Johnson on grounds that Roundup, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, gave the former school groundskeeper cancer. The maker of the herbicide, Monsanto, said it would appeal the verdict "and continue to vigorously defend this product, which has a 40-year history of safe use," reported CNN.
‘Right to farm’ is a state issue, says Senate Judiciary chairman
Although leaders of two national farm groups called for a federal shield to protect farmers from lawsuits by neighbors, chairman Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Tuesday that states should decide land use questions. "At least at first blush, based upon states' rights—I could be maybe convinced otherwise—right now, I'd have to stick to what is a pretty general philosophy that I have on being against federal land use, both from the standpoint of what can be done and what can't be done," said Grassley, from Iowa, the top hog and egg-producing state.