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Today’s Topics
CFTC
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Senate confirms USDA and CFTC nominees

On Tuesday, the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee announced that three of President Trump’s nominees have received Senate approval to begin work at the USDA and the CFTC.

Senate ag panel set to vote on CFTC and USDA nominees

Members of the Senate Agriculture Committee are scheduled to vote Tuesday on two Trump administration nominees, Dan Berkovitz to be a CFTC commissioner and James Hubbard to be agriculture undersecretary for natural resources.

For CFTC commissioner, Trump chooses the agency’s former lawyer

President Trump selected Dan Berkovitz, who was general counsel at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Obama era, as his nominee for commissioner of the agency, said the White House.

Trump remolds watchdog agency for futures markets

The Republican-controlled Senate put President Trump's stamp on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees the futures markets, by approving his choice for CFTC chairman and two of his nominees for the five-member board. The nominations were approved by unanimous consent and give the CFTC board a majority for the first time in months.

Trump bailout
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ERS: Nearly $58 billion to farmers in pandemic year

When crop insurance indemnities and unemployment benefits are counted, the government sent $57.7 billion to farm operations and farm households in 2020, while the pandemic sent the U.S. economy into recession, said a working paper by USDA economists. It was the highest estimate yet of federal assistance to farmers last year and the most inclusive.

Small share of coronavirus package for food aid and farmers

The final coronavirus aid package of the year would direct 3 percent of its $900 billion in funding to food assistance and relief for agricultural producers, according to its Democratic and Republican sponsors. "It's a deal that must come together," said one of the sponsors, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, on Sunday.

Coronavirus aid limits will be higher than initially proposed

Farmers and ranchers will need assistance from the federal government beyond the $16 billion in cash payments that were promised a month ago, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. During a broadcast interview, Perdue said producers will be eligible for more than the $125,000 per commodity that was proposed by the USDA.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>

Trump tariff payments went to big farm operators

When the Trump administration poured billions of dollars into rural America to mitigate the impact of trade war, "most of it bypassed the country's traditional small and medium-sized farms that were battered by the loss of their export market," said the CBS News program 60 Minutes on Sunday. It's just as likely big farmers will benefit in a big way when the USDA disburses $16 billion in coronavirus-relief cash to farmers and ranchers, said the program.

no paywall
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EPA relationship with Monsanto under scrutiny in Roundup trial

In new court filings, plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit that claims Roundup causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other cancers are alleging that there has been collusion between the EPA and Monsanto, the maker of the weedkiller. The plaintiffs have petitioned to depose Jess Rowland, the EPA’s recently retired deputy division director.

Bird flu on the move in Europe and Asia, with poultry and human victims

Strains of the influenza virus that decimated Midwestern turkey and egg production in 2014 and 2015 are now wreaking havoc in poultry production in several parts of the world, including China where the virus has jumped species and infected and killed humans.

With $25 million, Kind’s founder backs research into influence on nutrition policy

Since their first appearance in health-centric stores more than a decade ago, the Kind company’s fruit-and-nut bars have become ubiquitous, occupying an ever-expanding sprawl of shelf space in big box stores and gas stations across the country. The company has thrived on a do-gooder ethos that encourages not just healthy eating, but righteous living. Employees who witness “random acts of kindness” are encouraged to bestow the company’s products on good samaritans. Kind is now a $1-billion company.

White House hires opponent of free school lunch

For those trying to read the political tea leaves, there's a connection between a new hire at the White House and congressional action on public nutrition programs. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, hired as chief of staff Renee Hudson, who held the same job with Indiana Rep. Todd Rokita, said the Washington Post. An advocate of school choice, Rokita was sponsor of the 2016 child nutrition bill that would have slashed a program allowing free meals for all students at schools in poor neighborhoods.

sexual harrassment
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‘Harassment has no place’ in the Forest Service, says USDA nominee

Lifelong forester James Hubbard told senators on Tuesday that if he is confirmed as agriculture undersecretary for natural resources, he will personally combat sexual harassment in the 32,000-member Forest Service.

Sexual harassment complaints against second Humane Society official

The Humane Society of the United States “finds itself ensnared in a widening controversy over sexual harassment in the upper levels of the nonprofit’s management,” said Politico Magazine. The publication describes complaints by six women of improper behavior by Paul Shapiro, an HSUS vice president.

Head of Humane Society accused of sexual harassment

Wayne Pacelle, the scourge of the U.S. meat industry in his role as chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, is the subject of three complaints of sexual harassment, said the Washington Post.

House committee vows to address discrimination and harassment in Forest Service

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform heard conflicting testimony Wednesday during a hearing on longstanding allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination within the Forest Service. The agency, part of the USDA, has faced litigation for discrimination and harassment against female employees for over 40 years.

Survey: Female fast-food workers are frequent victims of sexual harassment

Forty percent of women working in fast food said they had experienced sexual harassment on the job, and 42 percent of those said they felt they had to accept the inappropriate treatment or else lose their jobs, according to a survey by Hart Research Associates.

corn ethanol
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Farmers to get $10 billion in economic assistance

President Biden signed a stop-gap government funding bill over the weekend that calls for speedy payment of $10 billion to farmers to buffer lower commodity prices and high production costs. Congress voted to fund the government through March 14 after a fight that showed the limits of President-elect Trump's control over Republican lawmakers.

Carbon pipeline regulation, trophy hunting, and a CAFO ban are on November ballot

A "voter veto" of a state law regulating carbon dioxide pipelines is on the general election ballot in South Dakota and residents of Sonoma County, in California's wine country, will decide on Nov. 5 whether to ban large-scale livestock farms. The handful of state and local referendums across the nation that involve agriculture also include a vote whether to ban slaughterhouses in Denver.

EPA issues waiver allowing summertime sales of E15

Pointing to war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East, the Biden administration announced an emergency waiver allowing summertime sale nationwide of E15, a higher blend of ethanol into gasoline than the traditional 10 percent.

Less corn land is needed than soy to satisfy SAF goal

Soybean plantings would have to increase nearly 50 percent if soybean oil became the only feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), said two analysts from UC-Davis. With its higher yields per acre, corn ethanol as the sole feedstock would result in an increase in area of around 9 percent.

Ethanol is just inefficient solar energy. Time to bring the real thing to Iowa.

tariffs
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Equipment sales falter as farm income slows, tariffs a concern, say regional Feds

Farm equipment sales are slowing alongside the downturn in farm income, creating a headwind to overall U.S. investment activity, said the Beige Book, a summary of economic conditions in Federal Reserve Bank districts. In discussing agriculture, the St. Louis Fed said some businesses were building inventory in anticipation of potential tariffs on imported goods.

Negotiate before applying tariffs, Farm Bureau says

The largest U.S. farm group would prefer negotiation, rather than a salvo of tariffs, as the first step in resolving U.S. disputes with other nations, said the American Farm Bureau Federation’s chief economist on Wednesday. “I think it’s important, when we’re talking about friends like Mexico and Canada, that we talk first,” said economist Roger Cryan. “And think about shooting later.”

‘Tariff man’ Trump picks trade hawk to run USTR

President-elect Donald Trump, who declared, "I am a tariff man," in 2018, selected Jamieson Greer, an important figure in the Sino-U.S. trade war, to serve as U.S. trade representative (USTR) in his second term. Trump announced the choice during a string of days in which he threatened high import duties on a dozen countries, including Canada, Mexico, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa.

Voracious U.S. demand means biggest food and ag trade deficit ever

Americans are consuming ever-larger amounts of imported fruits, vegetables, wine, alcohol, coffee, and beef, an appetite that will drive the food and ag trade deficit to a record $45.5 billion this fiscal year, estimated the Agriculture Department on Tuesday. Imports would be a sizzling $9.3 billion larger than in just-ended fiscal 2024, while food and ag exports decline for the third year in a row due to lower commodity prices.

food away from home
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Inflation aside, Americans spend more for food

Americans opened their wallets to spend a record amount on food last year, even when inflation is considered, partly because they like the convenience of take-out and restaurant food, said two USDA economists. Outlays on food away from home grew by an inflation-adjusted 11 percent last year at the same time inflation was driving up prices.

Americans’ spending on food plunged during pandemic

The pandemic and its accompanying economic slowdown prompted a dramatic 7.8 percent cutback in consumer spending on food in 2020, said two USDA economists. The reduction was more than double the impact of the Great Recession on food sales, partly because the pandemic temporarily shut down most of the food service sector.

Three meals a day, if you include work or TV

Americans are devoting less time to meals than they did a decade ago and waiting longer before eating them, according to two USDA analysts. The old idea of three meals a day applies to 21st century America only if you include food consumption that is secondary to something else, such as working or watching TV and movies.

On food spending, recession hit middle-income households the hardest

If they didn’t tighten their belts, Americans certainly pinched their pennies on food during the 2008-09 recession and the recovery that stretched far into this decade, say USDA economists. Middle-income households continued to spend less on food through 2016.

Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
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Interior agency will ‘maximize water deliveries’ to Southern California

State officials are expected to fight the Trump administration’s proposal to “maximize water deliveries” through the Central Valley Project to Southern California, including farmers in the Westlands Water District, the largest agricultural water district in the nation, says the Sacramento Bee.

Ag district refuses to pay for California’s twin-tunnel water project

The board of the largely agricutlural Westlands Water District voted 7-1 against taking part in Gov. Jerry Brown's twin-tunnel project "to remake the fragile estuary that serves as the hub of California's water delivery network," reports the Sacramento Bee. The decision, by the first water agency to vote on the project, is "a potentially fatal blow" to the $17-billion project.

U.S. wrongly paid a third of planning cost of twin-tunnel project

An audit by the Interior Department's inspector general says the government improperly spent $84 million to help plan the mammoth twin-tunnel project to ship water to Southern California from northern parts of the state, reported The Associated Press. The audit said the expenditures meant the Bureau of Reclamation paid for one-third of the cost of project planning through 2016, when California water districts were supposed to bear the costs.

Congress approves revision of California water rules

By a 3-to-1 margin, the Senate passed and sent to President Obama a water infrastructure bill that changes how much water is shipped to Southern California and San Joaquin Valley farmers from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The bill was criticized by environmentalists and the fishing industry, reports the Los Angeles Times, and a court challenge is likely if Obama signs the bill into law.

rural teens
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Income inequality is the major cause of higher rural child poverty

The child-poverty rate in rural America was 26.7 percent in 2012, the highest rate in more than four decades, according to Census Bureau data. An analysis by the USDA's Economic Research Service says income inequality was the primary reason for the increase, far outweighing the effect of the overall decline in rural family income due to the recession of 2007-09.

Rural teens more likely to abuse prescription painkillers

Rural teenagers are more likely to receive medical care in emergency rooms than their urban peers, a possible explanation for why they also are 35-percent more likely to have abused prescription painkillers in the past year, says the Daily Yonder, citing a study published in the Journal of Rural Health.

Rural youth suicide rate is nearly double urban rate

The suicide rates for young people in rural areas "are almost twice as high" as those for city kids, says the Washington Post, summarizing a study by researchers at Ohio State University.

Rural schools less likely to offer Advanced Placement classes

Research by the University of New Hampshire says rural students have far less access to Advanced Placement classes than suburban or urban students.

Jose Andres
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Dean to lead year-old Global Food Institute

Stacy Dean, a key Biden administration figure in public nutrition policy, was named executive director of the Global Food Institute, announced George Washington University on Tuesday. Dean will join the institute in mid-July.

‘A day without immigrants’ protests hit several cities

Protests highlighting "A day without immigrants" are planned in several cities across the United States on Thursday in a show of opposition to Trump administration immigration policies. A flier advocating the protest, which harken back to demonstrations in 2006, calls on immigrants to stay out of work, close their businesses, avoid buying gas, and not attend class nor send their children to school.

Celebrity chef sounds the call: ‘Food is politics’

José Andrés, co-owner of a dozen U.S. restaurants, urged foodies to stand up to painful food and immigration policies that he expects to see from the Trump administration. Speaking at the Food Tank Summit, Andrés told the overflow crowd "Food is politics," reported Quartz.