News Update
August 5, 2013
August Recess a Chance to
Hammer Home Need for Farm Bill
With most lawmakers in their home states for at least part of Congress’ month-long August recess, farmers and ranchers are seizing the opportunity to tell them in person just how important passage of a new five-year farm bill is.
Work on the legislation stalled in mid-July after the House passed a farm bill without a nutrition title. While the Senate has begun the process of appointing conferees, House leaders are unwilling to appoint conference committee members until the House takes up the nutrition title of the legislation.
The House’s first go at a farm bill failed, largely because so many lawmakers were unhappy with nutrition title provisions related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). House leaders brought the bill back to the floor after they stripped it of the nutrition title and added language to repeal what’s known as “permanent law,” which triggers farm programs to revert to 1949 price levels if a new farm bill is not passed.
Although the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) opposed the removal of the nutrition title and the inclusion of the permanent law repeal, when the House passed its farm bill, farmers and ranchers made it clear they are committed to seeing through to passage balanced legislation that provides much-needed risk management tools and a viable economic safety net.
“While we don’t yet know what the next steps will be, we will be working with both sides of the aisle and both chambers of Congress to ensure passage of a new five-year farm bill,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman.
For more information, please view the full release here.
United States Wins Trade Enforcement
Case for American Farmers
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced Aug. 2 that the United States won a major case at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on behalf of American chicken producers, proving that China’s imposition of higher duties on chicken “broiler products” — which was followed by an 80% drop in American exports of those products to China — is unjustified under international trade rules. A WTO dispute settlement panel agreed with the United States, finding that China violated numerous WTO obligations in conducting its investigations and imposing anti-dumping (AD) duties and countervailing duties (CVD) on chicken imports from the United States.
The Monitoring and Enforcement unit of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and other USTR staff worked closely with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the USDA in preparing and litigating this case. Personnel from the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center (ITEC), created by President Obama to enhance U.S. trade enforcement capabilities, also provided support for the dispute.
“This decision sends a clear message that the Obama Administration can fight and win for American farmers, businesses, and workers in the global trading system, ensuring that America gets the benefit of the rules and market access we have negotiated in our international trade agreements,” said Ambassador Froman. “WTO Members must use trade remedies strictly in accordance with their commitments, and we hope that this win will discourage further violations that hurt American exporters.”
For more information, please view the full release here.
MU Greeley Center Field Day to Tell
Reproduction Research for Beef Herds
With new breeding research, beef cow herd owners can produce more uniform calves that weigh more at weaning.
Jordan Thomas from the University of Missouri (MU) will explain how that is done at the Greenley Center Field Day near Novelty, Mo., on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
Beef research will be one of three tours at the annual field day. Crops and pest management tours will be included.
Thomas and the MU beef team ran pregnancy checks on the Greenley beef herd last week. The results showed 69% of 83 cows became pregnant on the first day of breeding season this spring. That’s a new high for the research herd.
Cows calving early in the season produce calves that will be older and heavier at weaning, Thomas says. That’s just one advantage of the breeding research. With appointment breeding, all cows are bred on the same day.
The Greenley Center is one location in the ongoing research trial that Thomas is conducting.
“Successful reproductive management one year sets the herd up for success the next year,” Thomas says.
The three tours start at 8 a.m., says Randall Smoot, superintendent of the MU research center.
A free breakfast will be served at 7 a.m. Registration begins at 7:30. All three tours can be taken before lunchtime, Smoot says. Lunch will be free, as well.
For more information, please visit the Angus Journal’s Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
USDA Celebrates National Farmers’ Market Week Aug. 4-10
The USDA on Saturday celebrated National Farmers’ Market Week with a kick-off event at the Columbia Heights Farmers’ Market in Washington, D.C.
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that 8,144 farmers markets are now listed in USDA’s National Farmers Market Directory, up from about 5,000 in 2008. The Directory, voluntarily updated by farmers’ market managers, state departments of agriculture, marketing associations, and others, is published online at farmersmarkets.usda.gov. This year, the Directory has been upgraded to include a new Application Programming Interface (API) that improves customer access to farmers’ market data.
“Farmers’ markets are an important public face for agriculture and a critical part of our nation's food system,” said Vilsack. “They provide benefits not only to the farmers looking for important income opportunities, but also help fill a growing consumer demand for fresh, healthy foods. In recent years, USDA has stepped up efforts to support local and regional marketing opportunities for producers, including a modernized Farmers’ Market Directory to help connect farmers, consumers, communities, and businesses around the country.”
Local food and direct marketing opportunities, including farmers’ markets, are one of the fastest growing segments of agriculture. According to the latest Census of Agriculture, direct sales of food products from farmers to individual consumers rose by nearly 50% between 2002 and 2007. Worth an estimated $1 billion in 2005, local food sales grew to $4.8 billion in 2007 and nearly $7 billion last year, according to industry estimates. For nearby businesses in major cities across the United States, having a farmers market nearby means an average increase in sales of anywhere from $19,000 to $15 million (according to a Marketumbrella research paper published in 2012).
The 10 top states account for more than half (51.3%) of all markets listed in the Directory database: 1) California, 759; 2) New York, 637; 3) Illinois, 336; 4) Michigan, 331; 5) Ohio, 300; 6) Pennsylvania, 290; 7) Massachusetts, 289; 8) Wisconsin, 286; 9) Missouri and Virginia (tie), 246; and 10) Iowa and North Carolina (tie), 229.
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