The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced June 13 it will relocate more than 500 employees of the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to the Kansas City region. USDA said it conducted a cost-benefit analysis showing a savings of nearly $300 million nominally over a 15-year lease term on employment costs and rent, or about $20 million per year. In addition, state and local governments offered relocation incentive packages totaling more than $26 million, USDA said. USDA had announced on May 3 the finalists for new ERS and NIFA ... Read More
Newsletter
CFTC commissioner addresses financial risks of climate change
By Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) should take an active role in assessing and addressing the risks of climate change, CFTC Commissioner Rostin (Russ) Behnam said this week. “Failing to address financial market risks associated with climate change will impede economic growth, and most likely hit rural communities the hardest,” Behnam said in a speech at CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee meeting on June 12. Behnam said the committee should identify market risks and recommend “data-driven policy ... Read More
CFTC’s Stump outlines speculative position limits rule objectives
By Todd Kemp, Senior Vice President for Marketing, Treasurer; and Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Dawn Stump said her staff is diligently working with other commissioners on a speculative position limits rulemaking, but didn’t give a timeline for a proposal, during a June 11 address in New York City to the Annual Legal Forum of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA). ISDA was one of the organizations that challenged speculative position limits in court in late 2011. Since that ... Read More
Railroads oppose STB policy action on demurrage, accessorial practices
By Randy Gordon, President and Chief Executive Officer Class I freight railroads pushed back strongly against the Surface Transportation Board (STB) pursuing any policies, guidance or investigation of carriers’ demurrage and accessorial charges and practices following the agency’s robust, informative and eye-popping May 22-23 public hearing in Washington. The carriers voiced their objections in supplemental comments submitted to the agency last week in the aftermath of the public hearing, during which the NGFA and several other diverse rail customer organizations and companies presented ... Read More
NGFA member companies join nearly 1,000 agricultural groups to support USMCA ratification
By Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media Nearly 1,000 broad-based organizations representing U.S. food and agriculture, including NGFA and many of its member companies and State/Regional Affiliate Associations, called on Congress this week to swiftly ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). In a June 11 letter sent to Congress, more than 950 groups representing the U.S. food and agriculture value chain at the national, state and local levels called on Congress to support USMCA ratification. The letter reiterates that USMCA will benefit the U.S. agriculture ... Read More
Trump issues executive order to streamline biotech regulation
By Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media President Donald Trump directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to streamline their regulation of agricultural biotechnology in an executive order issued June 11. “The United States must employ a science-based regulatory system that evaluates products based on human health and safety and potential benefits and risks to the environment,” the executive order stated. “Such a system must both foster public confidence in ... Read More
USDA provides more information on trade assistance package
By Max Fisher, Director of Economics and Government Relations Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on June 10 issued a statement on disaster and trade-related assistance, noting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will provide more information on the trade-related Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payment rates and details of the various components of the disaster relief legislation “in the coming weeks.” In his statement, Perdue reiterated President Trump’s commitment to provide up to $16 billion “to support farmers as they absorb some of the negative impact of unjustified ... Read More
NGFA Board, staff member appointed to key ag trade technical advisory committee
ARLINGTON, Va., June 13, 2019 – Two persons associated with the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) were appointed to serve on a key U.S. government agricultural trade technical advisory committee this week. NGFA Board and Executive Committee member John Fletcher, general manager at Central Missouri AGRIService LLC, Marshall, Mo., and NGFA Director of Economics and Government Relations Max Fisher, Arlington, Va., were named to the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Trade in Grains, Feed, Oilseeds and Planting Seeds. The group is a joint advisory committee appointed by ... Read More
USDA announces one-year CRP extension
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced late last week the availability of a one-year extension for Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts expiring Sept. 30, 2019. The extension is a stopgap until the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) can finish its rulemaking process to account for the changes to CRP that were made in the 2018 farm law. CRP contracts on approximately 1.6 million acres are currently scheduled to expire on Sept. 30. The signup for the one-year extension will begin June 3 and end on Aug. 23. The extension is not available to CRP participants if the ... Read More
NGFA visits 100 lawmakers to advocate for USMCA
Members of the NGFA’s Executive, Country Elevator and International Trade/Agriculture Policy Committees and NGFA State/Regional Affiliated Associations gathered in Washington, D.C., this week to meet with the offices of more than 100 lawmakers about the urgency of passing the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and other NGFA policy priorities. NGFA members heard a range of positions expressed by lawmakers and staff on USMCA, including strong support of the agreement, tempered support from those members of Congress who said they want to approve the pact but would need certain issues ... Read More
National Grain and Feed Association
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