WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2020 – National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) President and CEO Randy Gordon offered suggestions for improving the rail regulatory framework to address limited rail-to-rail competition in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Oct. 21. NGFA thanked Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., for examining the current state of the rail network, including impacts of COVID-19 and legislative considerations for surface transportation reauthorization. In his testimony, Gordon commended the ... Read More
Subject-focused News
NGFA commends CFTC for approving final rule on speculative position limits
ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 16, 2020 – The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) commended the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for its Oct. 15 approval of a final rule on speculative position limits that preserves critically important hedging and risk-management strategies for the agricultural industry. “NGFA congratulates Chairman Heath Tarbert, his fellow commissioners, and CFTC staff on approval of a final rule on speculative position limits,” said NGFA Senior Vice President and Treasurer Todd Kemp. “Our expectation is that the rule will preserve the critically important ... Read More
USDA updates rules for Conservation Stewardship Program
By Max Fisher, Vice President of Economics and Government Relations The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) released a final rule on Oct. 9 updating the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) as required by the 2018 farm law. First created in 2002, CSP is a conservation program for working agricultural lands, such as cropland and grazing land. The farm law authorizes four main conservation programs: CSP, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Agricultural Conservation Easement ... Read More
FDA to conduct public meeting on ranking antimicrobial animal drugs based on importance in human medicine
By David Fairfield, Senior Vice President, Feed The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Oct. 9 that the agency will conduct a virtual public meeting to discuss potential approaches and criteria for ranking antimicrobial drugs used in animals based upon their importance in human medicine. The session is being conducted to help inform FDA’s strategy for addressing antimicrobial resistance risks associated with the use of antimicrobial animal drugs. To describe the agency’s current thinking on potential approaches for ranking antimicrobial animal drugs, FDA has published ... Read More
NGFA answers your biggest questions about a virtual CEC
The upcoming 49th annual Country Elevator Conference and Trade Show (CEC) will be conducted entirely virtually on Dec. 8-10. In the latest “Listen with NGFA” podcast, NGFA Vice President of Meetings and Marketing Rebecca Grubbs answers members’ biggest questions about a virtual event. Read a truncated version of the interview below or listen to the full episode here. For more information about CEC 2020 agenda and speakers, visit ngfa.org/cec. Q: First, how did NGFA arrive at the decision to make CEC virtual? Grubbs: As you well know, we had hoped to have this event in-person. But ... Read More
CFTC creates subcommittee to examine futures contract amendment procedures; NGFA to submit nominees
By Todd Kemp, Senior Vice President, Treasurer On Oct. 1, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Heath Tarbert announced that the agency is accepting nominations for a subcommittee of its Agricultural Advisory Committee (AAC) to evaluate its policy on implementing amendments to enumerated agricultural futures contracts with open interest, including: How changes to terms or conditions of futures contracts affect the value of existing positions; How the exchanges should assess market conditions in deciding, announcing or implementing amendments; and The ... Read More
Argentina approves biotech wheat variety
A technology provider – Bioceres Crop Solutions, based in Germany – on Oct. 8 announced that Argentina has approved its biotechnology-enhanced wheat trait, HB4, for production and consumption. The company said it marked the first time a country has approved the HB4 drought-tolerant trait for wheat. Argentina’s regulatory clearance follows its approval of Bioceres’ HB4 soybean trait, which it said has been approved for planting in the United States, Brazil and Argentina. The company said HB4’s wheat commercialization in Argentina is contingent upon receiving import approval from Brazil, ... Read More
WTO director-general finalists narrowed to two women
By Randy Gordon, president and CEO The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Oct. 8 announced that the two finalists to become its seventh director-general are both women – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria and Yoo Myung-hee of South Korea. Yoo, South Korea’s current trade minister, has spent most of her 25-year career working on trade issues, including negotiations with the United States. She was the country’s chief negotiator during talks that updated the Korea-U.S. (KORUS) free trade agreement, as well as the Korea-China free trade agreement. She touts herself as being a ... Read More
STB finds five Class I RRs ‘revenue adequate’ in 2019
The federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Oct. 1 issued a notice in which it determined that five Class I railroads were “revenue adequate” during calendar year 2019. The agency deems a railroad to be revenue adequate when its rate of return on net investment equals or exceeds the rail industry’s cost of acquiring capital. To calculate the rail industrywide cost of capital, the STB determines the interest paid by railroads on borrowed funds and estimates the returns that shareholders demand as compensation for their investment. The STB has stated in one decision (Coal ... Read More
Report says 40 million U.S. jobs depended on trade
According to a study from Business Roundtable, more than 40 million U.S. jobs were dependent on international trade in 2018. That number, according to the roundtable, represented one in five pre-pandemic jobs and two times as many jobs as prior to the North American Free Trade Agreement coming into force in January 1994. The study – prepared by Trade Partnership Worldwide and published Oct. 5 – analyzed the latest-available employment and trade data from 2018. According to the report, more than 647,000 jobs in agriculture, forestry and fishing were related to trade in 2018. “To meet the ... Read More
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