Donald Trump has reclaimed the presidency, and Republicans will take charge of the Senate in January. Those results have big implications for a lot of issues, including trade and immigration as well as tax and regulatory policy that are critical to agriculture.
Trump increased his margins from 2020 in rural areas across the country but also in cities and with minority voters, especially with Hispanics.
Trump’s victory was ensured when the outcome of Pennsylvania became certain. Fox News called the state about 1:20 a.m. EST.
Republicans flip the Senate
The GOP was assured control of the Senate after Republican Bernie Moreno defeated Senate Ag member Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Ag Committee Republican Deb Fischer, won her re-election race in Nebraska. Earlier in the night, Republicans flipped the West Virginia seat vacated by the retiring Joe Manchin.
Republicans will pick a new majority leader next week. Senate GOP Whip John Thune, R-S.D., is running for majority leader against Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Rick Scott of Florida. Thune’s the only one of the three on Senate Ag. Thune said in a post on X early this morning, “The Biden-Harris admin has forced Americans to endure four years of high prices, open borders, and chaos on the world stage.”
Growing Climate Solutions sponsor wins governorship
Senate Ag Republican Mike Braun had no trouble winning the governorship in Indiana. Braun co-sponsored the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which is intended to accelerate the development of ag carbon markets. USDA is now in the process of implementing Braun’s bill. The department announced in August that it was seeking nominations for the carbon credit verifier advisory council.
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., easily won the race for Braun’s Senate seat. Banks won his House seat in 2016 after a primary win over Kip Tom, who went on to serve as ambassador to the UN food and ag programs in the Trump administration. Tom, who has been leading Trump’s ag coalition this year, was in Mar-a-Lago for Trump’s watch party.
Treasury Department expands CFIUS's authority to review foreign land purchases
The Treasury Department has finalized a rule allowing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to expand its ability to review certain land purchases near 60 military installations that were not on its previous list.
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The rule comes amid heightened interest by lawmakers in foreign purchases of U.S. land, which was among the subjects brought up at a House Ag Committee hearing earlier this year.
“This final rule will significantly increase the ability of CFIUS to thoroughly review real estate transactions near bases and will allow us to deter and stop foreign adversaries from threatening our Armed Forces, including through intelligence gathering," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a release.
CARB, airline industry group ink deal to accelerate SAF use
The California Air Resources Board has joined Airlines for America in an initiative to produce 200 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel by 2035.
Airlines for America (A4A) represents nearly a dozen major airlines, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, FedEx and United Airlines. The 200 million gallons represents about 40% of California’s intrastate air travel demand.
CARB and A4A will work with SAF producers, stakeholders and the federal government to ensure the gallons of cost-competitive fuel are available. The partners will create a Sustainable Aviation Fuel Working Group to meet annually, monitor progress and address barriers to the goal. To get there, the partners will look for new policies and actions, including possible incentives for investment and timely permitting to accelerate the availability of SAF.
SAF producer Phillips 66 said in a statement that “collaborations between public and private sectors can drive the innovation needed in hard-to-decarbonize industries like aviation. Progress is also made possible by California’s climate programs, particularly the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which incentivizes the development of renewable fuels and technologies.”
Keep in mind: Airlines have committed to using a total of 3 billion gallons of SAF by 2030.
AGCO reports lower sales, income in Q3
Net sales and income were down for ag equipment manufacturer AGCO in the third quarter, the result of a contraction in the ag industry overall. CEO Eric Hansotia told analysts on a call Tuesday, “Compared to the highly profitable years farmers saw from 2021 to 2023. the significant contraction is not uncharacteristic of prior downturns.”
The company has responded by “reducing inventory and cutting production faster than in prior downturns. We have been much more aggressive in reducing costs to better align our operations with the weak market environment,” Hansotia said.
AGCO’s net sales were $2.6 billion for the third quarter ending Sept. 30, a decrease of 24.8% compared to the same quarter a year ago.
CAST coming out with report on ag’s potential to be GHG-negative
The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) is releasing a report next week called the “Potential for U.S. Agriculture to Be Greenhouse Gas Negative.” A webinar to release the report is set for Tuesday.
“CAST will host a dedicated landing page for the report, which will include all resources related to it,” the group said.
The report is the result of work by a team of scientists: Jerry Hatfield of the National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames, Iowa; Ying Wang of US Farmers and Ranchers in Action in Chesterfield, Missouri; Marty Matlock at the University of Arkansas, and Charles Rice of Kansas State University.
