WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2016 - The agriculture sector remains
one of the biggest sources of support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP),
but the Obama administration isn’t taking that support for granted. Darci
Vetter, the chief agriculture negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative and former USDA deputy under security for Farm and Foreign
Agricultural Services, will be talking up the 12-nation trade pact in a radio
interview with AgNet West on Wednesday.
The broadcast will be aimed at reaching farmers in California, the largest
agricultural state in the country. It won’t be the first time this year that
Vetter reached out to the largest fruit and vegetable producing region in the
world.
In April, she met with farmers in Fresno, according to reporting
by Valley Public Radio. Vetter said: “The return that goes back to the
pockets of farmers and ranchers is $4.4 billion annually based on TPP, almost
$6 billion in new exports themselves.”
As one example of the market-opening advantages, she said Canada will eliminate
tariffs on whey. “California farmers could ship north, but also unprecedented
access into Japan and elimination of every dairy tariff in Vietnam and Malaysia.”
In recent months Vetter has crisscrossed the country, talking about the
advantages of TPP to events by the American Soybean Association, the American
Farm Bureau Federation, the Western Growers Association and many others.
Vilsack warns Congress not to focus on savings in next farm bill.Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack is warning farm groups that they are going to have to
work together to tell Congress what producers need in the next farm bill and
steer lawmakers away from focusing on spending cuts.
Vilsack said in an audio
posting: “The conversation in 2011 and 2012 started with ‘We have to save
money.’ The first way to start this conversation should be, ‘What is the need?
What is the total need?’”
Farm groups lost out in the 2014 farm bill because they competed with one
another as lawmakers looked for savings, according to the USDA posting.
“My hope is that the conversation starts the right way and that it moves
expeditiously to a conclusion so there is not the uncertainty that we had in
2011, 2012 and 2013,” Vilsack said.
Good forage and prices behind low feedlot numbers. USDA’s latest
“Cattle on Feed” numbers took some by surprise because of the low
number of animals that came in to feedlots from cow calf operations in
September. USDA livestock analyst Shayle Shagam said good forage conditions and
the quest to boost profits are two explanations.
There were just 1.91 million head of cattle placed in feedlots throughout
September, a 2 percent drop from September last year and the lowest total for
the month since USDA began collecting the data in 1996, according to the report
released Friday.
“The continued availability of forage is encouraging some cow calf operators to
continue to hold cattle before placing them in feedlots,” Shagam said in a USDA audio posting.
“Cattle feeders have been under pressure in terms of their returns and have
been obviously trying to push the price of feeder cattle down. And as cow calf
operators have seen their returns diminish, they may be a little more resistant
to selling the cattle at prices that the feedlots are offering if they have
alternatives.”
Industry input sought for second $20 million cheese purchase. The USDA is
preparing to begin buying surplus cheese off the market under the
second $20 million purchase that it announced earlier this month in
order to help boost low dairy prices.
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service announced on Friday it will
hold a Nov. 9 teleconference “to facilitate feedback from industry suppliers,
promote increased participation of suppliers offering products, and discuss the
timing of purchases, product types, and commercially available consumer pack sizes
to be solicited.”
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, speaking about the purchase earlier this month,said,
“While our analysis predicts the market will improve for these hardworking men
and women (in the dairy industry), reducing the surplus can give them extra
reassurance while also filling demand at food banks and other organizations
that help our nation's families in need.”
USDA cracks down on horse soring. The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service wants to make it clear that it’s taking seriously its
responsibility to stop the painful practice of horse soring. The agency on
Friday released an
update on its efforts under the Horse
Protection Act, showing it has disqualified hundreds of horses from shows
across the country this year.
USDA inspectors were able to inspect 3,044 of the 11,348 horses on display at
80 events this year, according to the online FY 2016 Activity Report for the
Horse Protection Program. Of that total, 716 were disqualified.
Soring is
a common practice in which owners purposely inflict pain to a horse’s legs or
hooves to make the animal perform an exaggerated gait, according to the
American Veterinary Medical Association.
“By taking these measures, we have begun the very real process of making good
on the goals in our strategic plan,” said Bernadette Juarez, deputy
administrator of USDA Animal Care. “We remain steadfast to the commitments in
our strategic plan – building relationships and promoting animal
welfare.”
Walking away from RINs. Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta,
apparently was happy to leave behind the complexities of the Renewable Fuel Standard
program, according to a recent dump of hacked emails posted by WikiLeaks.
David Marchick, managing director at the global private equity firm The Carlyle
Group, praised Podesta for his government service early last year, telling him,
"You really did great things – China agreement, immigration, climate,
etc.," but then added, jokingly, "all except RINS," using the
abbreviation for Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, which are used as
the "currency" of the RFS program.
Podesta seemed happy not to have to deal with the RFS any longer, telling Marchick,
"RINs was the only thing that I was completely happy to walk away
from."
Steve Davies contributed to this report.
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