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Congress must pass a new stopgap spending bill this week to avoid a government shutdown ahead of the Thanksgiving break, while House Democrats look to nail down a deal with the White House to clear the way for approval of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

There won’t likely be enough sugar in the U.S. market to comfortably supply all the bakers, candy makers and food manufacturers that need it at a reasonable price, so USDA will soon be announcing a plan to allow for more imports, the department announced Friday.

China is lifting its four-year ban on U.S. poultry, opening the way for hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. exports and demonstrating a further thaw in U.S.-China trade relations.

House and Senate negotiators will have to sort through some sharply different priorities and spending targets for USDA and other departments and agencies important to agriculture.

For U.S. red meat exporters, it's been touch and go with their major markets for two to three years, yet their foreign sales keep growing robustly, and they hope to set records again in 2020.

Meat exporters’ scouts abroad describe plant-based meat substitutes as popular in spots, a curiosity or absent in others, and too pricey so far in most places.

Call it what you want — a “plateau” or a “slow-motion recession” — the ag economy is not performing well, and successful producers will be those who can innovate and manage their farms well, speakers at the annual Agricultural Bankers Conference in Dallas said this week.

The largest dairy milk producer in the U.S. has begun Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, citing “a challenging operating environment marked by continuing declines in consumer milk consumption.”

An agreement 24 years in the making is set to come to fruition as the Brazilian government prepares to implement a tariff rate quota to allow an increase in duty-free wheat imports.

USDA’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report fell in line with trade expectations when it lowered corn ending stocks as producers struggle with a challenging harvest.