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
Newsletter
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
Biofortified foods can help fight hunger, says latest CAST paper
The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) on Oct. 14 released a new paper, Food Biofortification—Reaping the Benefits of Science to Overcome Hidden Hunger, which found that substituting biofortified staple foods for non-biofortified foods would allow lower-income households to add extra minerals and vitamins to their diets at no extra cost. Biofortification is a process of increasing the density of minerals and vitamins in a food crop through conventional plant breeding, transgenic techniques or agronomic practices, CAST explained. Biofortified staple food crops, when ... 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
CDC revises COVID-19 guidelines
By Jess McCluer, Vice President of Safety and Regulatory Affairs The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Oct. 5 revised its COVID-19 guidance by acknowledging that the virus sometimes can spread through airborne particles that can “linger in the air for minutes to hours” and among people who are more than six feet apart. In addition, CDC said that in some circumstances, individuals can become infected by airborne transmission after the infectious person already has left the area. While CDC maintains that the principal mode by which people are infected with COVID-19 is ... 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
EPA targeting mid-October for dicamba decisions
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working to complete registration decisions on dicamba by the middle of this month, according to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “We are currently reviewing the registration by two of the companies that produce dicamba,” Wheeler said in an interview with the Red River Farm Network on Oct. 5, referring to Bayer, which makes Xtendimax, and BASF, which produces Engenia. “We hope to have a decision … by the middle of October.” Corteva’s FeXapan is the same formulation as Xtendimax, making its registration dependent on the outcome of the ... Read More
With election looming, negotiators make little progress on COVID-19 relief legislation
By Bobby Frederick, Vice President of Legislative Affairs and Public Policy With 25 days until the 2020 November election, congressional leaders and the Trump administration remain at odds on both the price tag and priorities for another round of COVID-19 relief legislation. President Trump tweeted on Oct. 6 that he had directed administration officials to stop negotiating on another COVID-19 relief bill until after the election, citing an $800 billion difference between his offer and that of House Democrats. However, a few hours later the president again tweeted, urging the House and ... Read More
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