USDA and the White House will host selected farm groups for meetings today with government officials to discuss the Biden administration’s key ag and rural investments.
The “Farmers and Ranchers in Action” meeting will feature remarks from Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, White House policy adviser Neera Tanden and Doug McKalip, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s chief ag negotiator at the White House.
Discussions will center on the “transformative investments the Biden-Harris administration has made to support family farms and rural communities” through the American Rescue Plan Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, according to a USDA spokesperson.
“Farmers and ranchers are feeling the benefits of the historic investments made by this administration,” National Farmers Union President Rob Larew told Agri-Pulse. “Our Farmers Union members are ready to engage in conversations about how to build upon the success and ensure a sustainable path for the future.”
Larew will accompany 12 NFU members to the White House.
National Corn Growers Association President Kenneth Hartman said he’ll center his message on expanding markets for corn growers by making it possible for farmers to “access tax credits for sustainable aviation fuels, completion of a five-year farm bill and providing year-around access to higher blends of ethanol,” he said.
Kenneth Hartman, NCGA PresidentFarm Action President Angela Huffman told Agri-Pulse she plans to commend the Biden administration on “a job well done on agricultural competition issues, including closing the ‘Product of U.S.A.’ meat labeling loophole and issuing new merger guidelines to stem consolidation.”
She also plans to “urge the administration to endorse Senator Warren's Price Gouging Prevention Act and clean up the corruption in USDA's checkoff programs."
American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall will “press the White House to recognize the need for a modernized five-year farm bill this year that addresses threats to interstate commerce and the need to move quickly on disaster assistance to farmers ravaged by everything from low prices and high supply costs to wildfires, hurricanes and flooding.”
Vilsack also plans to disclose “a series of competition-related announcements to lower food prices” during the meeting, according to a USDA spokesperson.
Exclusive attendance: Not all producer groups received an invitation. The National Association of Wheat Growers and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, among others, were not invited to the event.
Wildfires blaze through western, central North Dakota
Wildfires burned through more than 2,500 acres of western and central North Dakota over the weekend, destroying fences and scattering livestock.
Fire crews fought eight separate blazes in the state. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum said during a press conference Monday that the fires' impacts may top 50,000 acres.
Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said his department is still working with North Dakota State University and state agriculture groups to determine the damage, including potential livestock deaths. He reported “a lot of fence and wire that’s no longer there or down.” He also expressed concern about potential smoke-caused pneumonia in surviving animals.
“Sometimes it’s a week or two afterwards when you start losing livestock and that’s simply because of the event that took place previously,” Goehring said in the press conference.
Early assessments of Helene’s Virginia impacts peg damage at $125M
Hurricane Helene may have done more than $125 million worth of damage to livestock, crops, farm buildings, equipment, feed and hay, water cisterns and other agricultural assets in Virginia, initial estimates from the state’s cooperative extension service indicate.
Forty-six percent of this estimated damage occurred in Grayson County, which saw an estimated $58 million in losses. Wythe, Carroll, Smyth and Washington counties also saw significant damage.
“It’s catastrophic,” Grayson County extension agent Kevin Spurlin said in a release. “I’m 47 years old, and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The flooding was unprecedented and caused so much loss.”
Paraquat ban sought by members of Congress
More than 40 congressional lawmakers are asking EPA to ban paraquat, a herbicide that studies have linked to the development of Parkinson’s disease.
“Numerous studies have found that paraquat causes serious health risks for workers who use the substance as well as the surrounding communities,” says a letter sent Tuesdayto EPA Administrator Michael Regan, led by Agriculture Committee member Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas. “These health risks include a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease, with some studies finding a 64% increase in the likelihood of developing Parkinson’s, non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, thyroid cancer, and other thyroid issues.”
In an interview, Casar noted the herbicide has been banned elsewhere, including Brazil and China, and cannot be used in certain areas in the U.S. The letter says “dozens” of countries prohibit use of paraquat, including all 27 in the European Union.
“If you can't have paraquat on your golf course, then it's probably not good for you to be working with paraquat on a daily basis as a farmworker,” Casar said.
EPA is working to finalize preliminary scientific findings it issued in January. Among them: “Parkinson’s disease is not an expected health outcome of pesticidal use of paraquat.”
A number of environmental and farmworker groups, as well as advocates for people with Parkinson’s, also signed the letter. All the lawmakers are Democrats.
Syngenta’s take: The paraquat manufacturer has consistently rejected claims of a causal link between paraquat and Parkinson’s disease “because it is not supported by scientific evidence,” the company says. “This view is endorsed in science-based reviews by regulatory authorities.”
WSJ: Oil companies are pushing Trump to keep parts of the IRA
Some executives of large oil companies are concerned former President Donald Trump may gut the Inflation Reduction Act and are urging his campaign to spare parts of the climate law, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Representatives of Exxon Mobll, Phillips 66 and Occidental Petroleum have touted the benefits of the IRA in conversations with the Trump campaign and some Republican members of Congress.
Specifically, they point to tax credits that have allowed the industry to invest in costly technologies like hydrogen, carbon capture and renewable fuels, the Journal reports.
Final word: “We know this is going to be a long haul. We're here to be with all of you for that long journey.” — Agriculture Department Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation Robert Bonnie on a webinar Monday for producers impacted by Hurricane Helene. Resources are available at www.usda.gov/hurricane-helene.
Rebekah Alvey, Lydia Johnson and Noah Wicks contributed to today’s Daybreak.
