[Editor’s note: This article was submitted to NGFA by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.] Every year thousands of workers suffer from preventable hearing loss due to high workplace noise levels. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 22 million workers are exposed to potentially damaging noise every working day. In 2017, the Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) reported that hearing loss for all industries nationwide was 1.4 per 10,000 full time workers. Hearing loss continues to be the most commonly recorded occupational illness in manufacturing, according to ... Read More
News
CAP applications due Jan. 10!
Submit your applications for the 2020-21 class of NGFA’s Committee Apprentice Program (CAP) by Friday, Jan. 10! CAP is designed to develop future leaders within the industry and the NGFA by allowing early-career professionals (ideally those with between three and seven years’ work experience) to become apprentices serving on NGFA committees. In addition to participating in their committee’s specific activities, CAPs attend the NGFA annual convention and make a trip to Washington, D.C., each spring for the “CAP DC Experience.” The CAP year runs one year – from one NGFA convention to the ... Read More
View the #CEC19 photo album
If you were among the 600 attendees at the NGFA’s 48th annual Country Elevator Conference and Trade Show in Indianapolis, Ind., in early December – or if you had to miss the event – check out the full photo album! The album features conference speakers, including Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, as well as candid shots of NGFA members enjoying the program and the more than 100 exhibitors in the trade show. ... Read More
In Memoriam: NGFA mourns passing of former president Donald K. Riffe
The NGFA was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of former NGFA President Donald K. Riffe, the long-time president of Stratford Grain Co. (founded in 1928) in Stratford, Texas, at the age of 89 on Dec. 28. Riffe served as NGFA’s president from 1978-80, and helped lead the Association through a tumultuous period following the catastrophic series of grain elevator explosions at the New Orleans and Texas Gulfs during the winter of 1977-78. He helped spearhead the development of NGFA’s Fire and Explosion Research and Education Program that spent more than $3.5 million in ... Read More
Appropriations bill includes funding for FDA ingredient approvals
The 2020 fiscal year appropriations legislation signed into law on Dec. 20 includes increased funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite its animal food ingredient approval process. The bill allocates $5 million to FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) to hire additional staff specifically to review and approve new animal food ingredient submissions. The allocation will allow CVM to nearly double ingredient approval staff, which will reduce the length of review time by the agency in the approval timeline. The NGFA was among animal agriculture organizations ... Read More
China reportedly approves some biotech traits
There were media reports that the Chinese government on Dec. 30 approved two biotechnology-enhanced crops for import and renewed import permits for 10 more. According to a document posted on China’s Ministry of Agriculture website, Corteva Agriscience’s Bt soybean variety, DAS-81419-2 (“Conkesta”) was granted an import permit, as was a disease-resistant papaya created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Center at the University of Hawaii. Corteva confirmed that it had received notification of the approval of its soybean trait, but was still awaiting import approval ... Read More
Senate committee to consider USMCA accord on Jan. 7
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has scheduled a markup of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) for Jan. 7. He said he expects the Senate to receive the legislation from the House by then. “This markup will move us closer to ratifying USMCA in early 2020,” Grassley said in a Dec. 20 announcement. “Farmers, manufacturers and all American workers will soon be able to benefit from a stronger and modernized trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.” More than a year after U.S., Canadian and Mexican heads of state announced the trade deal, the House ... Read More
USDA approves first state and tribal hemp production plans
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Dec. 27 it has approved the first set of plans submitted by states and Indian tribes for the domestic production of industrial hemp under the new federal hemp production program. The plans were submitted by the states of Louisiana, New Jersey and Ohio, as well as the Flandreau Santee Sioux, Santa Rosa Cahuilla and La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indian Tribes. The interim hemp production rule – as authorized under the 2018 farm law – took effect Oct. 31 and established testing protocols to distinguish between legal hemp and federally controlled ... Read More
Trump says he will sign China phase one trade deal on Jan. 15
President Donald Trump said this week that he would sign “phase one” of the trade deal with China on Jan. 15 at the White House. In a Dec. 31 tweet, Trump said he would sign the deal with “high level representatives of China” and that “at a later date” he would travel to Beijing, China, to begin talks on a “phase two” accord designed to focus on more structural reforms of the U.S.-Chinese trade relationship. No date for Trump’s trip has been announced. The White House announced the “phase one” trade deal between the United States and China on Dec. 13, but no details have been published. ... Read More
Submit your applications for NGFA’s 2020-21 CAP class
Applications will be accepted until Jan. 10 for the 2020-21 class of NGFA’s Committee Apprentice Program (CAP). CAP is designed to develop future leaders within the industry and the NGFA by allowing early-career professionals (ideally those with between three and seven years’ work experience) to become apprentices serving on NGFA committees. In addition to participating in their committee’s specific activities, CAPs attend the NGFA annual convention and make a trip to Washington, D.C., each spring for the “CAP DC Experience.” The CAP year runs one year – from one NGFA convention to the ... Read More
National Grain and Feed Association
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