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READ the NAFB’s National Ag News for Monday, September 11th
USDA Restructuring Efforts Move Forward
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue last week announced further Department of Agriculture restructuring under his plan announced in May. Perdue says the work streamlines bureaucracy, improves efficiency and makes the federal agency more customer friendly. The actions involve innovation, consolidation and the rearrangement of certain offices into more “logical organizational reporting structures,” according to USDA. The most notable change is the moving of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration into one agency, the Agricultural Marketing Service. Other changes include: moving the food standards Codex office from the Food Safety and Inspection Service to the trade mission area, merge the International Food Commodity Procurement program from the Farm Service Agency with the domestic Commodity Food Procurement program, and merging the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion with the Food and Nutrition Service.
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GMO-Free Labeling Fear Based
The National Milk Producers Federation says manufactures are raising consumer fears with GMO-free labeling, along with fears over synthetic animal-growth hormones and high fructose corn syrup. The federation has launched a “Peel Back the Label” campaign as 70 percent of American consumers look at food labels when making purchasing decisions, and says some labels are misleading. For instance, one company has labeled its table salt as “GMO-free,” when it could never have been GMO in the first place because salt has no genes to modify. USA Today reports that similar marketing practices have taken place with dairy products. Additional products with mislabeling, according to the Federation, include tomatoes, peanut butter, and even bottled water. Find more about the campaign online at www.peelbackthelabel.org.
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Monsanto Urging Against Arkansas Post Emerge Dicamba Ban Proposal
Monsanto is urging Arkansas to reject a recommended ban on dicamba herbicide use after April 15th. The Arkansas Plant Board and Governor Asa Hutchinson are considering the ban as the state has received near 1,000 complaints of alleged drift and misuse of dicamba herbicides. The company says the ban and others passed by the state don’t “stand on sound science and are influenced by bias.” In a letter and petition to Arkansas, Monsanto writes: “While investigation of the 2017 reports is not complete, the available evidence establishes that Arkansas farmers can use new, low-volatility dicamba formulations safely and effectively to control resistant weeds.” The Arkansas Plant Board has received the petition from Monsanto and will review it in a September 12th Pesticide Committee meeting and again September 21st at the full State Plant Board meeting.
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Vilsack says Clovis Lacks Experience for USDA Post
Former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says Sam Clovis doesn’t have credibility for the post Clovis is nominated to serve at the Department of Agriculture. Clovis is the nominee for the undersecretary for research, education and economics, commonly known as USDA’s chief scientist position. Vilsack said recently that Clovis’ positions on things like climate change “create a barrier for him that will make it hard for him to have the credibility, the connection with land-grant universities, and the connection with the science community,” according to Politico. Clovis, a co-chair of the Trump campaign, helped lead the USDA transition team and is now serving as the department’s liaison to the White House. He was nominated to the undersecretary post in July.
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South Korea Trade Teams Tour U.S. Agriculture
The U.S. Grains Council says trade teams from South Korea visiting the U.S. over the last three months helps solidify trade between the U.S. and Korea under the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, known as KORUS. The Council has been hosting trade teams this summer from South Korea, visiting U.S. farmers and grain suppliers in eight states. USGC says South Korean grain buyers, end-users and government officials “value the marketing information and discussions on quality that the Council helps to provide and facilitate.” South Korea is the third largest importer of U.S. corn and U.S. dried distillers grains thus far in the 2016-2017 marketing year, and South Korea has purchased 42 million gallons of U.S. ethanol this marketing year. KORUS provides duty-free access for U.S. corn, sorghum, DDGS and ethanol exports. The agreement, which went into effect in 2012, also included a 2,500-ton duty-free quota for U.S. barley.
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NAFTA Renegotiation Could Send Avocado Prices Soaring
Avocado prices have reached a record high and a new North American Free Trade Agreement could have U.S. consumers paying even more for the fruit. A group of avocado companies recently wrote the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office predicting prices could rise, depending on whether the Trump administration, in renegotiating NAFTA, changes rules on anti-dumping and countervailing duties. The letter states: “Once seasonal tariffs are put in place for tomatoes, for example, Mexico or Canada may initiate trade cases of their own on any of a wide range of U.S. agricultural products, beginning a tit-for-tat cycle that could broadly limit agricultural trade.” In the winter, when California isn’t growing avocados, Mexico supplies 75 percent to 80 percent of all the avocados Americans eat. The rest come from Peru, Chile, the Dominican Republic and California. And Americans eat a lot of avocados, more than seven pounds of them, per capita last year, according to Bloomberg.
SOURCE: NAFB News Service
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A Full Plate Awaits in Washington
Gov. Hickenlooper orders flags lowered Monday to observe Patriot Day, annual remembrance of 9/11
