Category Five Hurricane Milton is set to make landfall in the Tampa and St. Petersburg area late Wednesday or early Thursday. It will be the fourth hurricane to strike the Florida farming community in 14 months.
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency closed select Florida offices Monday with plans to tentatively reopen by noon Thursday or as local conditions allow, USDA said.
The Florida Department of Transportation has suspended the size and weight restrictions for divisible loads on any vehicles transporting emergency supplies and agricultural food commodities, including citrus, sod, avocados and tomatoes, among others.
“We understand that Florida’s farmers have suffered significant loss, and many are still recovering from Hurricanes Idalia, Debby and most recently, Hurricane Helene,” the Florida Farm Bureau said in a statement to Agri-Pulse. “Another hurricane will further compound the stressors our Florida farms face to produce the food and fiber that the nation depends on.”
A Hurricane Relief Fund for Agriculture was established to assist farmers and ranchers who have been impacted by the storms. Anyone can make a tax-deductible contribution to this fund to support Florida’s farmers and ranchers.
Read more on Hurricanes Milton and Helene in today’s newsletter, as well as stories on sustainable aviation fuel, renewable natural gas, the European Union’s deforestation rule and the dietary guidelines. We’ve got you covered with the latest ag and food news!
USDA unveils fair competition efforts
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced efforts to promote fair and competitive markets on Tuesday, including an advance notice of proposed rulemaking under the Packers and Stockyards Act that seeks comments on possible interventions to set new benchmarks for Alternative Marketing Agreement base prices.
The announcement was met with mixed reactions from the industry. Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts called it an effort to “assert government control over the free market to the detriment of cattle producers, packers and consumers.” In a statement, Potts said this effort signals a desire to end the use of AMAs. These arrangements reward producers who invest in their herds’ genetics or raise cattle using some sustainable practices.
“AMAs offer producers the very benefits USDA says it wants to support: choice, flexibility, transparency and, yes, even higher prices,” Potts said in the statement. “And most importantly, AMAs provide consumers with more choices and a consistent supply of higher quality beef at stable prices.”
Farm Action President and co-founder Angela Huffman said in a statement that the vast majority of cattle sales are made through AMAs, which has thinned the cash market and left farmers and ranchers vulnerable to practices by dominant firms.
“Corporate power has infiltrated all sectors of our food and agriculture system,” Huffman said. “From the limited seed options that farmers have to choose from to the limited number of meatpackers a cattle rancher or poultry grower can sell their products to – small, midsize, and independent farmers and ranchers have little to no control over their economic viability.”
Keep in mind: Cattlemen have been enjoying record profits, unlike their commodity grower brethren in recent months. Cash receipts for animals and animal products totaled $249.6 billion in calendar year 2023.
Vilsack made his comments at a White House event focusing on farmers and ranchers. Read more in our story here.
EPA OKs test road containing phosphogypsum, pending comment
EPA has approved a small-scale road project using phosphogypsum, a radioactive byproduct of phosphate ore processing, pending public comment.
Major phosphate manufacturer Mosaic had requested permission to perform the project at its New Wales, Florida, facility in Polk County. The company plans to build four sections of test road that have “varying mixtures of phosphogypsum in the road base.”
In a Federal Register notice, EPA said “the potential radiological risks” of the pilot project meet current regulatory requirements. “That is, the project is at least as protective of public health as maintaining the phosphogypsum in a stack.”
“There are currently about 1 billion tons of phosphogypsum stacked in 24 stacks in Florida and about 30 million new tons are generated each year,” according to the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute.
Antitrust expert: McDonald’s lawsuit likely an ‘opt-out’ from other class actions
By filing its own price-fixing lawsuit against the nation’s four largest beef processors, fast-food giant McDonald’s is likely trying to split itself from past class-action lawsuits that have made similar allegations, according to University of Wisconsin law professor Peter Carstensen.
The price-fixing claims made in McDonald’s recent lawsuit against Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill and National Beef resemble allegations previously made in other lawsuits, including one filed by Quirch Foods and other food retailers last fall.
"I think MacDonald’s is an “opt-out” from the class of direct buyers and is seeking to pursue its claim separately,” Carstensen told Agri-Pulse. "In doing so, it seems to have added some of its foreign subsidiaries, which would not have been part of the original class action."
Take note: "For me, the most interesting aspect is that MacDonald’s is represented in this case by Cadwalader, which is a very large firm that usually does defense work,” Christensen said. "But here they are being aggressive plaintiff’s counsel."
Cattle dead, crops burned in North Dakota fires
North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring believes up to 13 different fires blazed across at least 50,000 acres in the western and central parts of the state since Saturday, killing two people and burning through farmsteads, fences, pastures and cropland. While some have been extinguished, other fires continue to burn.
Goehring reports seeing the carcasses of at least 50 dead livestock as he traveled across the impact zone. But since he only visited a portion of the 50,000 acres, that number could be far higher. He said calculating cattle losses is also difficult due to the large number of animals that went missing during the blaze.
“Everything was just black,” he told Agri-Pulse, describing what he saw as he flew over some impacted rangeland. “It looked like a moonscape because there’s just nothing left there."
Row crop fields were also hit, though some had been harvested before the fires. Goehring said it’s hard to determine exactly what crops were hit based on first glances. “You have no idea what was there because there’s just nothing left,” he said.
Elizabeth Hasenwinkel, communications director for the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association, said it was still too early to assess the extent of the damage, but added, “We know the losses are significant and come in the form of lost pasture, stored feed, fences, outbuildings, farmsteads, livestock and, sadly, two human lives.”
"Some fires are still burning, and fire will be a risk until significant rain or snowfall,” she added.
Final word: "They all took their own path, had their own personality, and did their own amount of damage." -- North Dakota Ag Commissioner Doug Goehring on the fires scorching Western and Central North Dakota since Saturday. While eight different fires have so far been confirmed, Goehring believes there may have been up to 13.
