Federal

Authorities have designated all of Scotland and England an Aviation Influenza Prevention Zone in order to protect commercial and backyard poultry flocks from the avian influenza outbreak that so far has affected 14 European and Asian nations in recent weeks. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has yet to be confirmed in any part of the United Kingdom, but officials at the Dept. for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are concerned enough to order poultry farm managers and others to keep birds inside for the next 30 days, according to several local media reports. [node:read-more:link]

President-elect Donald Trump has selected fast-food executive Andy Puzder to run the Labor Department, which oversees OSHA, enforces wage rules and manages guest-worker programs on which many farms and others in the food industry rely.  Trump said Puzder “will fight to make American workers safer and more prosperous … and he will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages.” Puzder is CEO of CKE Restaurants, which operates the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. [node:read-more:link]

Since being named the President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee as administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, sitting Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt made his first public appearance at a Bartlesville Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting this morning. KWON Radio News Director Charlie Taraboletti had the chance to visit with Pruitt briefly at the breakfast, where Pruitt offered some comments regarding his stance on a couple issues he will soon be given authority over, including the Waters of the US rule (WOTUS) and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). [node:read-more:link]

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is President-elect Donald Trump's selection to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Farmers and ranchers who have been concerned for years about what they perceive as an ever-increasing weight of regulations including the waters of the United States, or WOTUS, rule may be pleased with Trump's selection. On the other hand, Pruitt has been an outspoken critic of the Renewable Fuel Standard. Pruitt led a number of states in filing one of many lawsuits against EPA challenging the WOTUS rule as an unconstitutional power grab. [node:read-more:link]

Net cash farm income is forecast at $90.1 billion and net farm income at $66.9 billion for 2016. Both measures are forecast to decline for the third consecutive year after reaching record highs in 2013 for net farm income and 2012 for net cash income. Net cash farm income is expected to fall by 14.6 percent in 2016, while net farm income is forecast to decline by 17.2 percent. These declines follow the 19.8- and 12.7-percent reductions in net cash income and net farm income, respectively, that occurred in 2015. [node:read-more:link]

Ratifying the TPP would bring enormous economic and geostrategic benefits, not just to the U.S., but to all TPP partners. The agreement covers 12 countries, which together produce 40 percent of the world’s GDP. What makes TPP different from previous agreements is that it covers all products, even the most sensitive agricultural ones which have typically been excluded from previous agreements. Furthermore, TPP would also create rules for state-owned enterprises, digital trade, environmental protection, intellectual property, and much more. [node:read-more:link]

The revelation that tallow was used in the manufacturing process for new British five-pound notes that went into circulation in September has prompted an outcry from vegans, vegetarians and members of certain religious groups. [node:read-more:link]

The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Western Washington tribes another $25 million for Puget Sound projects, but with stronger instructions to collaborate with others, a response to congressional complaints that one tribe misspent EPA funds to malign farmers.  The new grant to the 20-tribe Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission extends for five years a federal program that financed What’s Upstream, a media campaign directed by the Swinomish Indian tribe portraying farmers as careless and unregulated polluters. [node:read-more:link]

Japan ordered the culling of 326,500 poultry after confirming bird flu in two northern Japanese farms, marking the worst outbreak of the disease since 2011, according to the Agriculture Ministry. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's  Food Safety and Inspection Service is proposing to amend the nutrition labeling regulations for meat and poultry products to parallel the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's final nutrition regulations, which were published on May 27, 2016. [node:read-more:link]