Lawmakers continue what’s described as “intense negotiations” over what’s going to be included with a one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill. It’s not clear yet that GOP leaders will agree to add a package of market relief for farmers.
The latest Democratic counteroffer, obtained Tuesday night by Agri-Pulse, would provide nearly $10 billion in “economic assistance” for farmers, including $8.8 billion in payments to producers for crop year 2024. Another $1 billion would go toward reimbursing 15% of premiums and fees paid for crop insurance and NAP coverage.
The Democratic proposal would roll Inflation Reduction Act conservation funding into the farm bill to create permanent baseline, although the climate sideboards would be retained for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The proposal also calls for funding orphan farm bill programs at existing levels for one year and creating baseline for the Office of Urban Agriculture.
Take note: House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., told Agri-Pulse earlier Monday that there were “intense negotiations underway [over the farm bill extension], and they're ongoing.”
“I and certainly all the Republican members of the Ag Committee would be concerned if there is not economic assistance,” he said. Thompson said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Pa., is “very supportive” of providing aid to farmers.
Dietary advisers punt on MAHA issue
The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is out with its final recommendations and has largely punted on the issue of ultraprocessed foods. The committee said it was unable to draw conclusions due to a lack of research.
But, but, but: That hardly means the issue is going away, given the concerns being raised about the food industry by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his allies in the Make America Healthy Again movement.
Jerold Mande, a USDA official during the Obama administration and now CEO of Nourish Science, called the DGAC’s decision not to answer the UPF question a “missed opportunity bordering on a gross dereliction of duty.”
Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the lack of conclusions should spur research into these foods. Meanwhile, he noted that the DGAC strengthened recommendations to limit foods high in added sugar and sodium, which may include ultraprocessed foods.
What’s next: The recommendations now go to USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services, which will craft the final Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030 after a public comment period. That creates the distinct possibility that Kennedy, Donald Trump’s choice to be HHS secretary, could exert a great deal of influence over the final product.
Go online for stories about the scientific report from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the blocked Kroger-Albertsons merger, and a proposal to list the Monarch butterfly as threatened. And check out this week’s newsletter for stories on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, the 45Z clean fuels credit and the Water Resources Development Act
Ag senators gear up for RFK Jr. meetings
Members of the Senate Ag Committee say they’re eager to meet with Kennedy to discuss some of his comments on the food and agriculture industry, including his criticism of pesticides.
On Tuesday, POLITICO reported that Kennedy has scheduled 20 meetings with senators next week to discuss his nomination to lead HHS.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he is planning to meet with Kennedy in January. Kennedy originally didn’t set up a meeting but reached out to the senator offering to talk if he has any concerns. The Ag Committee’s top Republican, John Boozman, also said he hopes to meet with Kennedy.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said he has a meeting planned and voiced concern about the costs of restricting pesticides for farmers.
“There's lots of great things we can focus on, though, to Make America Healthy Again,” Marshall said, arguing that farmers already are using fewer chemicals. “Let’s accentuate the positive, and I think there's room for both of us.”
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North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, the top Republican on the Appropriations subcommittee that writes FDA’s annual budget, wants to discuss Kennedy’s plans for that agency and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
U.S. to probe Nicaragua rights abuses, weigh trade restrictions
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is going to probe potential labor and human rights abuses in Nicaragua and consider whether to levy tariffs or other trade actions.
In a statement announcing the Section 301 investigation, USTR Katherine Tai cited reporting indicating President Daniel Ortega’s government had violated labor rights, human rights, and dismantled the country’s rule of law, hurting the Nicaraguan people and undermining fair competition for U.S. businesses.
The U.S. is Nicaragua’s largest export destination, with the U.S. buying almost half of the country’s coffee exports and more than 80% of the country’s tobacco product exports.
Nicaragua currently enjoys duty-free access to the U.S. market through a trade agreement involving six Central American countries. These agreement concessions can be suspended following a Section 301 probe, however.
Commerce adjusts how it determines which ag subsidies could warrant tariffs
The Commerce Department will update the way it determines whether imports are eligible for tariffs to offset foreign agriculture subsidies, according to a final rule made public today.
International trade rules dictate that governments can only apply countervailing duties — tariffs designed to offset subsidies provided by foreign governments — if the subsidies are provided to specific industries or companies.
Since the 1980s, the Commerce Department has not regarded a subsidy as being specific if it was generally available to an entire agriculture sector because Commerce considered the agriculture sector as more than a single group of industries. That will soon change, however.
Moving forward, Commerce will determine whether a foreign agricultural subsidy is sufficiently specific to warrant countervailing duties on a case-by-case basis. The move, Congress said, would make the process more consistent with U.S. trade remedy law.
Final word
“This opens the door for an important dialogue about farmers as caretakers and cultivators of the land. Our farm families treasure that responsibility.” – Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, on the Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan to list the Monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The agency’s use of a rule that allows certain agricultural practices to continue without running afoul of the ESA “acknowledges the work farmers are undertaking to protect the monarch while recognizing the need for flexibility in conservation efforts between diverse regions and crops,” Duvall said.
Rebekah Alvey, Lydia Johnson and Oliver Ward contributed to this report.
