USDA corn estimates are accurate overall, says review
The government often is the best source of information about U.S. corn plantings, yields per acre, production and likely season-average prices, said three researchers who analyzed 80 studies on the accuracy and market impact of USDA reports involving corn. "USDA helps uncover these market conditions for all market participants, thereby providing a level playing field for all, even though the process is sometimes bumpy," they concluded.
At marathon NAFTA hearings, ag sector speaks in many voices
Farm groups were among the first to testify at three days of hearings called by the Trump administration as it decides how to modify the North American Free Trade Agreement. Agriculture has been an overall winner under NAFTA.
Nebraska governor says NAFTA is a benefit to farmers
In a preview of the message they’ll give to lawmakers later this week, U.S. farm groups and a delegation of grain and industry officials from Mexico used a news conference in Nebraska to emphasize the value of the U.S.-Mexico ag trade partnership, reported AgDaily.
Corn growers glad to see WOTUS go, but ‘we need to have some regulation’
The EPA overstepped with its Waters of the United States rule, said leaders of the National Corn Growers Association, who are happy the Trump administration will withdraw it. At the Commodity Classic, NCGA chairman Chip Bowling said, "[W]e do know we need to have some regulation and this group will be front and center when that time comes," reported DTN.
After voting heavily for Trump, rural America wants to change his mind
President-elect Donald Trump carried almost all of the farm states, from the Carolinas across the Midwest into the Plains, rolling up a 2-to-1 margin against Democrat Hillary Clinton with promises of lower taxes and less regulation. Farm groups, with a politically conservative membership, said they hoped to educate him on the importance of exports for farm prosperity.
No-GMO pledge is ‘marketing puffery,’ farm groups tell Dannon
Six U.S. farm groups challenged Dannon USA's pledge to switch to non-GMO ingredients in its yogurt as "the exact opposite of the sustainable agriculture you claim to the seeking." The chairman of the National Milk Producers Federation, Randy Mooney, said, "This is just marketing puffery, not any true innovation that improves the actual product offered to consumers."
EPA: Widely used weedkiller atrazine is risk to birds, mammals, fish
The second-most widely used weedkiller in the country, atrazine, poses potential chronic risk to birds, mammals and fish due to runoff and spray drift, said a draft ecological-risk assessment by the EPA. The assessment is part of a review that started in 2013 on whether to extend use of the broad-spectrum herbicide in the U.S. for 15 years.
Backers ask, ‘Will EPA hit re-set on biofuel targets?’
With the EPA nearing a decision on the biofuel mandate for 2015 and 2016, ethanol makers and corn farmers worry that the agency could trigger an override of ambitious targets written into law for ever-increasing use of renewable fuels through 2022. The so-called re-set, also referred to as an "off ramp," would give the agency the discretion to set the yearly targets at whatever levels it chooses.
EPA eases biofuels mandate that aided farmers
Months behind schedule, the EPA said it would set the biofuels share of the gasoline market well below the level specified by law because the fuel market is saturated with corn-based ethanol and second-generation biofuels are in scant supply. Farm groups and the ethanol industry said the agency was being short-sighted in its decision, and that the move would allow the oil industry to throttle a home-grown competitor. The American Petroleum Institute called for congressional repeal of the 2007 biofuels mandate.
EPA withdraws interpretive rule for Waters of United States
The government withdrew the so-called interpretive rule for its Waters of the United States proposal, a step that farm groups said was required by the omnibus appropriations bill enacted at the end of 2015.
Doggett is named Corn Growers executive vice president
The National Corn Growers Association promoted Jon Doggett, its vice president of public policy since 2002, to the post of executive vice president, starting Jan 1.