WASHINGTON, June 7, 2016 - We could be getting closer to a
landmark agreement in Congress on GMO labeling. Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat
Roberts tells Agri-Pulse that he hopes to reach an agreement this
week with ranking member Debbie Stabenow on a biotech labeling bill that can
pass the Senate. The legislation needs 60 votes to break a filibuster.
“This has gone on long enough. …. We’ll be meeting to see if we can get this
worked out - finally,” Roberts said Monday evening. Roberts said he was trying
to nail down final language on the outstanding issues, including an exemption
for animal products and how small, regional businesses would be treated under
the bill.
The legislation is expected to mandate that companies provide a method of
disclosing the presence of biotech ingredients.
Asked if there could even be a vote this week, Roberts said that it would be
“pretty tough to do, but you could get an agreement that we’re going to have a
vote.”
USDA unveils program to help cotton. The USDA on Monday announced a $300
million assistance package for the cotton industry, which continues to suffer
from depressed global prices.
The Cotton
Ginning Cost-Share program, a one-time assistance package, is not the long-term
assistance that farmers originally asked for, but U.S. farm groups said the aid
is much appreciated.
"The U.S. cotton industry commends Secretary Vilsack for his efforts on
making possible a program that will provide much-needed marketing assistance
for our nation's cotton producers," said National Cotton Council Chairman
Shane Stephens in reaction to the assistance.
Farm groups originally asked USDA to make cottonseed eligible for the Price
Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage programs in the 2014 farm
bill. But USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack argued earlier this year that he did
not have the authority to do that.
For more, check out the full story from Agri-Pulse’s Phil
Brasher.
Speaker rolls out anti-poverty proposal. House Speaker Paul Ryan will roll
out proposals today to overhaul federal assistance to low-income Americans. The
plan is the first of six planks to an election-year agenda that Ryan calls “a
Better Way.” One big question is how much of the agenda Ryan can get Donald
Trump to buy into.
Ryan released no details of his anti-poverty plan ahead of this morning’s
event. But Democratic congresswoman Rosa DeLauro took a preemptive strike at
the proposals, saying that Ryan was unfairly attacking programs such as the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that were vital to the poor.
DeLauro cites data showing that SNAP lifted 4.7 million people out of poverty
in 2014, including 2.1 million children. “Congress should pursue policies that
continue to lift people out of poverty, rather than instituting cuts,” DeLauro
says.
Hostess has a peanut problem. Hostess, the renowned maker of Twinkies, is recalling 710,000 cases of
Ding Dongs, Zingers and other snack and donut products after two children had
allergic reactions to bits of peanuts that should not have been present in the
food.
The FDA and Hostess blame the unwanted presence of peanut particles in the
flour on the company Grain Craft, which also supplies other producers of bakery
goods.
Grain Craft confirmed last week that it found peanut residues in the soft red
winter wheat flour it was producing and shut down production, the FDA said.
Rising feed costs putting damper on pork profitability. Nearby meal
futures are now more than $400 per ton, up significantly from an average of
about $276 per ton in the first quarter of the year and that’s putting pressure
on pork margins, according to a new analysis by Chris Hurt, a professor of
agricultural economics at Purdue University.
Pork is still riding high because of rising import demand from China, but feed
is getting more expensive because of production shortfalls in South America,
Hurt said in an article posted
on farmdoc Daily.
“Both pork prices and feed prices seemingly are in a period of upward dynamics
right now,” he said. “How these two issues ultimately work out will have a
great deal to do with margins for the remainder of 2016 and 2017.”
Groups seek House vote to kill USDA catfish inspection. Twelve tax and
business groups have sent a letter to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, asking
for a floor vote on the Senate-approved measure to take catfish inspection away
from the USDA and give it back to the FDA.
“Eliminating wasteful federal spending and burdensome regulation is a very
difficult task, especially when proceeding one program at a time,” the groups
wrote. “But the value to taxpayers of doing so is undeniable. Thus, we
strongly urge you to have a floor vote and follow the Senate’s lead as quickly
as possible in order to close the book on this now infamous and embarrassing
example of government waste.”
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance, FreedomWorks, Heritage Action for America,
Independent Women’s Forum, Independent Women’s Voice, Institute for Liberty,
Less Government, National Taxpayers Union, R Street Institute, Campaign for
Liberty, Center for Individual Freedom and Small Business &
Entrepreneurship Council signed onto the letter.
On May 25 the Senate voted 55 to 43 to reject provisions of the 2008 and 2014
farm bills that gave domestic and foreign catfish to the USDA.
Vilsack kicks off 2016 Summer Food Service Program. Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack and Education Secretary John King will travel today to an
elementary school in Petersburg, Va., to draw attention to the start of summer
feeding programs at schools across the country.
Virginia First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and Virginia
Secretary of Education Anne Holton will join the cabinet members as they serve
breakfast to students and then hold a press conference.
Millions of meals are served throughout the summer months to low-income
children that rely on free or reduced-price meals as part of USDA’s Summer
Food Service Program.
He wrote it: “In America, we enjoy access to the world’s safest, highest
quality, and most abundant food supply. This is not by accident, but through
the hard work of America’s farmers and ranchers and as the result of policies
designed to promote the safety and stability of the nation’s food supply.” That
was House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway in an op-ed published
Tuesday on the Bloomberg Government blog.
Phil Brasher contributed to this report.
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