USMCA panel rules Mexico ban on imported GMO corn violates trade rules

A day after losing a USMCA decision on GMO corn imports, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico would enact a law against the planting of transgenic corn in order to protect the country's biodiversity and cultural heritage. A three-member USMCA panel ruled unanimously in favor of the United States that Mexico's 2023 ban on imported GMO corn was an unjustified trade barrier. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Presidential election in Mexico could change corn policy, says Vilsack
Mexico might review, and potentially remove, its ban on imports of genetically modified white corn following its presidential election on June 2, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Sunday. "That would be my hope," said Vilsack. The new president, likely to be a woman for the first time, would take office on Oct. 1.
U.S. files USMCA challenge to Mexico’s corn import rules

Putting its warnings into action, the Biden administration officially accused Mexico on Thursday of violating North American trade rules by prohibiting imports of genetically modified white corn used in making tortillas, a staple of the Mexican diet. Mexico, the birthplace of corn and a top U.S. trade partner, said it was ready to defend its ban before a USMCA dispute panel.
U.S. ratchets up corn dispute with Mexico
The Biden administration asked for USMCA consultations with Mexico over its ban on imports of GMO corn for human consumption, the last step before filing a trade complaint in the long-running dispute.
Less land, higher risk for disadvantaged farmers
Socially disadvantaged farmers, a group that includes racial and ethnic minorities, women, and producers with limited resources, are more likely to operate smaller farms and face greater financial stress than the white farmers who dominate U.S. agriculture, said a USDA report.
Bills would disclose race, gender of farm subsidy recipients
The USDA would be obliged to disclose the race and gender of farm subsidy recipients as well as how much money they received under companion bills filed by two Black members of the House and Senate Agriculture committees on Wednesday.
She stakes her claim: the story of the Ladies Homestead Gathering
The notion of living self-sufficiently off the land has long been an American ideal, particularly in times of crisis. So it’s no surprise that the turmoil of recent decades— from 9/11 and the breakdown of the financial system to continuous war and the existential threat of climate change—has spurred another such movement. In FERN's latest story, published with Virginia Quarterly Review, Michael Meyer takes us inside the National Ladies Homestead Gathering, which Cyndi Ball founded in 2011 at her home in Georgia. The organization has since grown to 34 chapters in 17 states located all across the country, and the goal is someday to have a chapter within 30 minutes of every woman in America.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Initiative will use the ‘power of poultry’ to lift farmers from subsistence

A new project, dubbed “Hatching Hope,” aims to improve the livelihoods of 100 million people, focusing on women farmers, in the coming decade through chicken farming, which is seen as a quick way to produce food at home and for sale in town.
California bill would protect ‘socially disadvantaged’ farmers
A new bill in California aims to better support the state’s minority and female farmers. The Farmer Equity Act of 2017 “applies to producers that have been federally classified as ‘socially disadvantaged,’ which includes people in groups whose members have been subject to racial, ethnic, or gender prejudice,” says Civil Eats.
California fishing faces a terrible ‘new normal’
California’s coastal ecosystem is in the midst of a massive “disruption” because of climate change, says the San Francisco Chronicle. For example, warmer waters have stalled the growth of kelp forests, causing sea urchins, which depend on kelp as their main food source, to mature abnormally. Their spiky shells are nearly hollow, and North Coast divers have brought in only one-tenth of their normally lucrative catch.
New rule to protect West Coast forage fish
A new federal rule bans fishermen from catching eight kinds of forage fish in a 200-mile zone off the coasts of Oregon, Washington State and California, reports The Seattle Times.
West Coast sardines are in for another bad year
The West coast summer sardine population is expected to fall 93 percent from to its 2007 peak, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
USDA spending falls as White House envisions transformational farm bill

Agriculture Department spending would fall 14 percent in the new fiscal year, due almost entirely to reduced SNAP benefits with the end of the pandemic, said the White House on Thursday. It proposed relatively modest initiatives at the USDA for fiscal 2024, such as offering free school meals to more poor children, while seeing golden potential in the new farm bill for broad-scale change.
USDA puts part of its climate windfall into land stewardship

Four popular USDA land stewardship and working lands programs will receive an additional $850 million this year to handle the perennial crush of applications for assistance, said the Biden administration on Monday. The outlay will be the Agriculture Department's first use of the $19.5 billion earmarked for its conservation programs in the climate, health and tax law passed last summer.
Lawmakers ask for $200 billion for USDA climate work
Thirty Democrats in the House and Senate, in a letter to congressional leaders working on broad-scale climate and infrastructure legislation, called for "a substantial investment in farmers, ranchers, and rural communities as part of the climate solution."
‘You cannot do climate on the backs of the American farmer’

Farmers expect to be paid for climate mitigation, and not at the expense of the traditional farm subsidies, said the president of the largest U.S. farm group during a discussion of President Biden's goal of an agriculture sector that achieves net-zero emission of greenhouse gases by 2050. Other ag leaders on the panel organized by USDA agreed there must be a financial payoff for the voluntary, incentive-based practices espoused by the administration to succeed.
Booker’s plan: Stewardship on 100 million acres, plant 15 billion trees
Presidential aspirant Sen. Cory Booker proposed a climate change program on Thursday on the scale of FDR’s New Deal to underwrite voluntary soil and water conservation on more than 100 million acres of farmland and the planting of 15 billion trees across the country.
GOP powers House committee passage of farm bill with $53 billion in new ag spending

The Republican-controlled House Agriculture Committee, with four Democratic crossovers, approved a farm bill early Friday that increases crop subsidy and crop insurance spending by one-third, cuts SNAP by $30 billion, and repudiates a Biden administration initiative on climate mitigation. Democrats said the bill has no chance of becoming law and might not survive a vote on the House floor because it lacks bipartisan support. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Some consumers okay with higher prices if Prop 12 is the reason

While price is the key concern for grocery shoppers at the meat case, a Purdue survey indicates that consumers are more willing to accept higher pork prices if they are the result of meeting animal welfare standards such as California’s Proposition 12, which requires farmers to give breeding sows more room to stand up, lie down, and turn around.
Bet the farm on Prop 12? NPPC leader isn’t.

The president of the National Pork Producers Council, which fought California’s Proposition 12 animal welfare law all the way to the Supreme Court, said on Tuesday he won’t convert his Missouri hog farm to satisfy the California rules. Scott Hays told reporters that it wasn’t clear if making the required renovations, meant to give breeding sows more room to move about, would pay off.
Farmers skeptical of farm bill as Prop 12 slayer

Large-scale farmers and ranchers are slightly more optimistic than they were last month that Congress will pass a farm bill this year, but they doubt it will be a vehicle for overturning California’s Proposition 12 animal welfare law, said the Ag Economy Barometer on Wednesday. The pork industry is seeking a legislative override of Prop 12 after losing a Supreme Court challenge to the voter-approved law in May.
Undercover investigation finds animal abuse at JBS supplier

An undercover investigation by the farm animal welfare group Mercy For Animals recorded multiple instances of animal abuse and extreme confinement on Tosh Farms, a pork producer and supplier to JBS, the largest meat company in the world. The investigation coincides with an approaching ballot measure in California that would outlaw such practices for products sold in the state.
Demand for humane practices raise questions for pig industry
Consumers want more humanely raised meat and food companies want to provide it. Now pig producers are promising more humane measures in the way they raise pigs. But just what those measures will be remains a question in an industry still dominated by the sow gestation crate, says the San Francisco Chronicle.
Christie says he wants USDA leader with “real life experience”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, seeking the Republican nomination for president, says if he had the chance he would "put someone in charge of USDA who actually has done this before," says Agri-Pulse in a story from a GOP pig roast near Camanche, Iowa.
Keeping agriculture in an urbanizing county
Weld County, just northeast of Denver, "is the epicenter of urban growth and changing land use in Colorado," says public broadcaster KUNC.
Oregon county delays enforcement of GMO crop ban
Officials in Jackson County, Oregon, won't enforce a voter-approved ban on genetically engineered crops until there is a U.S. District Court decision, says the Medford Mail Tribune.
Missouri “right to farm” amendment survives recount
A recount showed the "right to farm" constitutional amendment was approved by Missouri voters last month, although by a slightly smaller margin. "The final results of the recount confirmed the passage of Amendment 1," said the secretary of state's office in a statement. The winning margin was 2,375 votes, compared to the 2,490 votes initially announced, out of nearly 1 million ballots. The amendment was popular in rural counties and opposed in urban areas.
Ten RECs get $4.4 billion in New ERA clean energy funding
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $4.37 billion in grants and loans to 10 rural electric cooperatives on Thursday for clean energy projects that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1.1 million tons a year. With the awards, the USDA has allocated nearly $9 billion of the $9.7 billion available in the Empowering Rural America program.
Power cooperative gets $2.5 billion in USDA funding for clean energy
A power cooperative based in the Denver suburbs that supplies electricity to more than a million consumers in the West will receive $2.5 billion in USDA grants and loans for a mammoth solar, wind, and battery energy project, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will announce on Friday.
White House announces $7.3 billion for clean energy in rural America

President Biden announced $7.3 billion in funding for clean energy projects at 16 rural electric cooperatives on Thursday, part of the largest federal investment in rural electrification since the New Deal. The projects, at co-ops from Florida to Alaska, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by harnessing wind, solar, and hydro power and by buying power from a now-idle nuclear plant in Michigan.
Solar farms, clean energy projects get $375 million in USDA aid

The Agriculture Department will provide more than a quarter-billion dollars of low-interest loans for five clean energy projects from Kentucky to Alaska, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday. With the announcement, the USDA has awarded half of the $1 billion available through its Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program.
USDA issues fair play rule on livestock marketing, part of White House competition drive

Farmers will have stronger protections against deceptive contracts and retaliatory tactics from meat processors under a new USDA rule on market integrity, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The new rule, which takes effect on May 6, is part of a USDA initiative for transparency and fair play in livestock marketing.
Senate committee approves two livestock marketing reform bills

The Senate Agriculture Committee quickly approved legislation on Wednesday that would require meatpackers to buy a portion of their slaughter cattle on the cash market — a step intended to ensure fair prices — and create a USDA special investigator to enforce fair-play rules in the highly concentrated meat industry.
House votes to create USDA meat investigator

Over the objections of Republicans, the House passed legislation on Thursday to create a USDA special investigator to enforce fair-play rules in the highly concentrated meatpacking industry. It was the most significant livestock marketing reform to advance in Congress this session.
House Republicans oppose USDA meat investigator as poison pill

Biden nominates Torres Small for No. 2 USDA post

President Biden chose Xochitl Torres Small, the granddaughter of migrant farmworkers, as his nominee for Agriculture deputy secretary, the second-ranking post at the USDA, announced the White House on Wednesday. Torres Small has served as USDA undersecretary for rural development since October 2021.
Senate confirms U.S. ag negotiator and USDA food safety chief
In some of its final actions of the year, the Senate approved by voice vote on Thursday the nominations of Doug McKalip as chief agricultural negotiator at the U.S. trade representative’s office and Jose Esteban as Agriculture undersecretary for food safety.
Senate confirms Taylor as USDA trade chief
On a voice vote on Wednesday, senators approved the nomination of Alexis Taylor, Oregon state agriculture director for the past six years, as USDA undersecretary for trade. Taylor has said her priorities would be opening foreign markets to U.S. farm exports and the diligent enforcement of trade agreements.
Senate confirms Logan to FCA, USDA nominees wait
Despite having the support of the Senate Agriculture Committee, two Biden nominees to the Agriculture Department must wait until mid-November, at the earliest, for a Senate vote.
Half of USDA’s undersecretary posts are yet to be filled
Nearly a year after Tom Vilsack became agriculture secretary, his corps of sub-cabinet executives, the eight undersecretaries who oversee each wing of the USDA's activities, is just half filled. The White House has yet to announce candidates for two of the posts, and two other nominations await Senate action.