Roberts endorses Marshall as his successor: Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts endorsed second-term Rep. Roger Marshall in the four-candidate Kansas GOP Senate primary election to be held on Aug. 4. Kris Kobach, who lost a race for governor in 2018, also is running. (Kansas City Star)
Duvall gets his zip back: The president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Zippy Duvall, “hopes to be fully back in the saddle next week” after battling Covid-19 for the past two weeks while quarantining at home, said a spokeswoman. (FERN’s Ag Insider)
‘Don’t bail out ethanol’: While ethanol makers have suffered losses due to the coronavirus, they are much smaller than claimed, and aid in the form of payments from the USDA “would misuse legislation that was intended to aid farmers, not downstream industries like ethanol,” wrote former USDA chief economist Joe Glauber in an essay. (The Hill)
Iowa underreported outbreak: The first coronavirus outbreak at a meat plant in Iowa was far bigger than state officials initially announced. Although the state reported that 221 workers at the Tyson plant in Columbus Junction had tested positive for the virus, the company said that 522 workers had been infected, according to documents released under the public records law. (Associated Press)
Florida cancels oyster harvest for up to five years: State wildlife commissioners voted unanimously to shut down the Apalachicola oyster fishery, long the major source of oysters in Florida, for up to five years to give the oyster reefs time to recover from drought and other pressures. (National Public Radio)