The Trump administration’s budget-cutting is ending support for those therapeutic foods that are used to save malnourished kids overseas.
Payments to the two nonprofits that produce the peanut-based foods had been caught up in the freeze in foreign aid. Now, Navyn Salem, founder and CEO of Edesia Nutrition, tells Agri-Pulse the State Department canceled orders with the group worth $26 million on Thursday. “We have not been paid. No one has been paid,” she said.
The other organization, Mana Nutrition, lost a third of its orders. Mana co-founder and COO David Todd Harmon tells Agri-Pulse that orders that had already been partially filled were spared, however. “The back and forth is maddening,” he said.
The administration has cancelled some 5,800 USAID contracts.
Trump says US-UK to negotiate trade deal
President Donald Trump says his administration will work on a trade deal with the United Kingdom.
“I think we're going to end up with a great trade deal with you,” Trump told UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer after their meeting in Washington Thursday. “It’ll happen very quickly.” Under such a scenario, Trump added, the UK may avoid U.S. tariffs.
USDA anticipates larger ag trade deficit in FY2025
A U.S.-UK deal won’t be easy to do, but farm groups would welcome any progress on new agreements. USDA forecast Thursday that the ag trade deficit would widen to $49 billion for fiscal 2025. That’s more than $3 billion higher than projected in November.
USDA adjusted import forecasts up by $4 billion. By contrast, U.S. export projections were only increased by $500 million.
The report, released in conjunction with USDA’s annual Agriculture Outlook Forum, says higher than expected corn volumes are set to drive grain and feed exports up by $1.4 billion on the November estimate. Larger corn, feed and fodder exports are offset by lower wheat, sorghum and rice exports, however. Livestock, poultry and dairy export projections are also up slightly on November’s figures.
Export projections to major markets like Canada and China were trimmed on weaker-than-expected shipments and reduced demand for soybeans, grains and cotton.
Meanwhile, adjustments to horticultural products, sugar and tropical goods are driving the increased import projections.
Ag credit holding up — for now
Credit conditions in agriculture remain relatively strong even as USDA forecasts that commodity prices will move lower in 2025.
Nathan Kauffman, senior vice president and Omaha branch executive for the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, said at the Ag Outlook Forum that ag credit is “quite solid, even with some of the increases in financial stress, slight reductions in repayment rates, and obviously the tighter profit margins that we're seeing with decreased commodity prices and elevated input costs.”
He noted that farm income will be underpinned this year by $31 billion in government payments authorized by Congress in December. But he said that raises the question of what the ag economy will look like a year from now.
Take note: USDA on Thursday forecast that farm-gate prices for corn, soybeans, sorghum, wheat and rice would all fall this year.
USDA Chief Economist Seth Meyer is our guest this week on Agri-Pulse Newsmakers, available today at Agri-Pulse.com.
EPA files motion to dismiss RVO deadline lawsuit
EPA has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit from Clean Fuels Alliance America, effectively delaying a highly watched deadline setting renewable fuel volumes.
Under the Renewable Fuel Standard, EPA was required to issue 2026-2028 renewable volume obligations by Nov. 1. However, the Biden administration’s unified agenda released in July punted the timeline to this year.
In July, Clean Fuels filed a notice of intent to sue over the delay and later filed a lawsuit in December. EPA is now pushing the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss this complaint, arguing that the alliance needed to wait until 60 days after the Nov. 1 deadline.
Paul Winters, director of federal communications for Clean Fuels, said this “unfortunate delay” essentially pushes the timeline back by another 60 days and could create more uncertainty in the industry. The group plans to file another notice of intent as a protective measure as the court considers the motion.
Senate Ag member to offer Democratic SOTU response
Senate Agriculture Committee newcomer Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., will offer the Democratic rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Slotkin, who filled former Senate Agriculture Chair Debbie Stabenow’s seat following her retirement from Congress, previously served on the House Agriculture Committee. Democratic leadership hailed Slotkin as a rising star in the party.
“The public expects leaders to level with them on what’s actually happening in our country,” Slotkin said in a statement. “From our economic security to our national security, we’ve got to chart a way forward that actually improves people’s lives in the country we all love, and I’m looking forward to laying that out.”
East, Gulf coast dockworkers approve six-year contract, ending strike threat
Unionized port workers have overwhelmingly approved a new contract, halting the threat of a strike at ports along the East and Gulf coasts for six years.
Nearly 99% of the International Longshoremen’s Association voted in favor of the new agreement, which is retroactive to Oct. 1 of last year, according to a press release.
The agreement will be formally signed March 11.
Trump trade, domestic policies may mean ‘seismic shift’ in thinking
The second Trump administration is making changes both globally and domestically that may require a shift in thinking by farmers, the head of the Farm Foundation said at the Outlook Forum.
Shari Rogge-Fidler said producers are “trying to figure out the implications and the cost associated with” tariffs Trump is placing on trade partners.
But more than that, she said of the majority of farmers, “We grew up in the age of globalization and the age of partnerships. If we're actually changing the mindset and changing the landscape of these global trade relationships and geopolitical relationships … that's just a very huge seismic shift that farmers aren't quite ready for because we grew up in a very different mindset.”
Take note: Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins is scheduled to speak at the forum this morning.
Final word
“Will there be any new contracts, or is that simply not the role of the government anymore?” – Shari Rogge-Fidler, president of the Farm Foundation, referring to the DOGE-led budget cutting.
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