Senate Agriculture Committee Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., is sounding upbeat about her farm bill proposal after releasing a detailed summary of what’s in it.
“I've heard really positive things in the House from Democrats and openness from Republicans. We've not seen any comments that would be attacks or negative from Republican colleagues,” she told Agri-Pulse’s Rebekah Alvey on Thursday.
She reiterated that the bill was intended to “jump-start a final conversation” about a new bill. “We’re running out of time.”
Keep in mind: Stabenow isn’t planning committee action on her draft, but she insists she’s open to moving a bill, if she can get agreement with Republicans on a compromise. There has been no real movement, however, between the two parties on the key issue of how to pay for the legislation.
“It's very important to be successful that this be bipartisan, and so I don't have a timeline, but we need to do it as fast as possible. I know once we have agreement on a bipartisan basis we’ll take it right to committee.”
The GOP take: “We're negotiating and trying to trying to figure out a path forward. Our thing has always been we need more ‘farm’ in the farm bill,” the Senate Ag Committee’s top Republican, John Boozman, told reporters.
Biden rule rush continues
The Biden administration continues to roll out new regulations, some of which have been in the works for many years. The latest is the FDA’s new regulations for water that’s used to irrigate fruits and vegetables.
The agency was required to issue the rule under the Food Safety Modernization Act, enacted in early 2011, but has struggled for years with the regulations, backing off from an initial plan based on water testing.
Interior officials defend conservation rule
Interior Department officials are fending off Republican criticism of a recently finalized Bureau of Land Management rule that would allow conservation leases on its land, alongside other currently allowed purposes like grazing and energy development.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., challenged the rule in a Senate Appropriations hearing Thursday, claiming conservation easements would take BLM lands "out of multiple use” for solely conservation purposes. He added that he expects to see lawsuits arguing it is a violation of the agency’s multiple use mandate. “This is one that will end up litigating,” he said.
Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis said the mitigation and restoration leases will be “time-bound” and “specific to an activity.” She added that conservation leasing may actually be complementary to some currently used practices, such as grazing.
“I don’t think they’re being taken out of multiple use,” she said of BLM lands, “and certainly not for all time."
Business outlook: Corteva shares up, Mosaic’s down
Shares of Corteva Agriscience rose significantly after the company released first-quarter results Thursday that beat analysts’ expectations.
“We continue to see record-setting demand for grain, oilseeds, feed and biofuels,” Corteva CEO Chuck Magro told investment analysts on a call Thursday.
The company’s stock increased about $3 a share after it reported $4.49 billion in revenue for 2024’s first quarter, down from the previous year’s first quarter by 8%. But earnings of 89 cents per share beat Wall Street expectations.
By the way: Magro said the company expects its Enlist soybeans will be planted on about 60% of all soybean acres this year, “quite an impressive feat in less than five years.”
As for Corteva’s crop protection business, Magro said “ample supply and residual effects of destocking are creating a more competitive environment.” Farmers also are making purchases “much closer to the application window, resulting in a delay in volumes,” he said.
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Looking ahead: Magro said “all signs point to volume growth in the second half, particularly in Latin America.”
Price decline weighs on Mosaic: Lower input prices are welcomed by farmers, but fertilizer manufacturer Mosaic said its revenue for the first quarter was $2.7 billion, down 26% from the year-ago period, “reflecting the impact of lower selling prices.”
Net earnings were $45 million for the quarter, down from $435 million in 2023’s first quarter, the result in part of the “after-tax impact of notable items totaling $165 million, mainly from a foreign currency transaction loss.”
Canadian railway strike looms
Nearly 10,000 Canadian rail workers could go on strike May 22 amid an impasse in negotiations with Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City. Teamsters Canada Rail Conference warns a strike “would disrupt supply chains on a scale Canada has likely never experienced.”
Why it matters: While the strike would only affect Canada, Soy Transportation Coalition Executive Director Mike Steenhoek warned in an email it could also hinder delivery of agricultural goods coming from or into the U.S., including a “substantial volume of fertilizer” that rail carriers deliver to the U.S. from Canada.
Conductors, locomotive and yard worker voted 97.6% to authorize a strike at CN and 99% at CNKC. Rail traffic controllers voted 95.3% for a strike.
Biden names new FCA member
President Biden has nominated Marcus Graham to be a new member of the Farm Credit Administration. He’s served as USDA’s deputy administrator for field operations since January 2021. He oversees the Farm Service Agency’s network of more than 2,100 state and county offices.
FCA regulates the Farm Credit System.
He said it. "It's like Soylent Green.” – Senate Ag Committee member John Fetterman, D-Pa., to reporters Thursday, comparing lab-grown meat to the 1973 dystopian sci-fi film. "It's just bizarre. It's something like the Matrix or something."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a ban on lab-grown meat in Florida, and Fetterman registered his approval on social media: “Pains me deeply to agree with Crash-and-Burn Ron, but I co-sign this.”
