China

With China and the United States trying to improve trade relations, White House press secretary Sean Spicer announced the publication of the USDA’s final details for beef exports to China, which have been barred since the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, in 2003.

In the wake of President Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, California is teaming up with China and Germany to fight climate change.

In Kansas City, a class-action lawsuit says Syngenta should be held liable for corn shipments rejected by China early this decade. And in Elk Point, South Dakota, Beef Products Inc. (BPI) is seeking billions of dollars in damages from American Broadcasting Companies Inc. (ABC) for reporting that used the name "pink slime" to refer to BPI's "lean finely textured beef."

After almost completely removing the growth-promoting drug ractopamine from its pigs, Canada is outpacing the U.S. in pork sales to China, where the drug is banned. Canada has only beat out the U.S. in pork sales a handful of times in the last 20 years, says Reuters.

On an 82-13 roll call, the Senate confirmed Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as the U.S. ambassador to China. The longest-serving governor in U.S. history has said he will push China, the No. 1 customer for U.S. ag exports, to admit American beef and to remove barriers to other U.S. farm exports.

The new trade deal announced last week between China and the U.S. is expected to remove a major barrier to the sale of GMO seeds, reports Reuters. As part of the deal, China has agreed to review eight GM crops from the U.S., ending a years-long delay in the approval process by America's top export market for agricultural products.

Millions of pounds of corn and soybeans imported to the United States in the past year were labeled “organic” but actually did not meet the requirements of the USDA label, according to The Washington Post.

Farmers in part of Shanxi Province in northern China flew drones over their orchards to spray pesticides on the trees and saved money in the process, according to the state news agency, Xinhua. It quoted a 60-year-old farmer as saying the drones "are a godsend."

Air, water and soil quality in China are improving, but unevenly, with certain areas faring worse from pollution, says the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection. The state of agricultural land quality in the country ‘does not allow for optimism’ and ‘the problem of soil pollution for industry, companies and nearby land is prominent,’” said Chen Jining, head of the MEP,

The seventh-longest river in the world, the Yellow River, irrigates 15 percent of China's farmland, such a broad dissemination of water that it has a measurable effect on temperature, says a team of scientists. In a paper published in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters, they said that when irrigation is in use, air temperatures are lower.

Smithfield Farms, the world’s largest pork producer, is launching a bioscience arm to ramp up company sales of pig parts for medical procedures. The $14-billion subsidiary of China’s WH Group hopes to one day offer pig organs for human transplants.

After abnormally small exports last year, U.S. cotton shipments are booming this year and are headed for 14 million bales, the fourth-largest volume ever, says USDA's monthly WASDE report. The U.S. share of the world cotton market would stand at nearly 40 percent, according to USDA, compared to 26 percent in the previous marketing year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump are to meet face to face for the first time today in Florida, with analysts saying trade issues offer the most likely area for agreement. Three dozen senators wrote to Trump ahead of the two-day bilateral meeting to call on the Chinese to admit shipments of U.S. beef.

The Paris climate treaty is a “bad deal” for the U.S. said Scott Pruitt, while adding that the country should stay “engaged" in international climate discussions.

In the past it’s been the U.S. pushing China to clean up its energy portfolio and lower emissions, but under Trump the tables could turn, says The New York Times. China has publicly called on all signatories, including the U.S., of the Paris climate treaty to respect the pact. Trump has said he will back out of the deal and this week signed an executive order to reverse the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which lowered carbon emissions from coal plants.

U.S. officials repeatedly have prodded China for a faster and more open system for deciding whether to approve the import of new genetically engineered strains of crop. A U.S. business group says China is headed in the opposite direction by taking longer to approve a smaller number of GMO varieties — only one in 2016, reports Reuters.