Federal

Rice farmerTerada isn’t following the U.S. presidential election too closely. But there’s one issue that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton seem to agree on — that the U.S. should not ratify the Trans Pacific Partnership trade pact — and that’s music to his ears.  “We Japanese farmers can’t compete with the Americans. It costs us almost three times as much to produce rice,” he said on Thursday, watching one of his eight workers sowing seedlings in a wet paddy here in Shizuoka prefecture, a two-hour train ride southwest of Tokyo. [node:read-more:link]

Four years after federal agents showed up at his Frederick, Md., farmhouse and told him that they had seized the money in his bank account, dairy farmer Randy Sowers has gotten it all back.  The victory followed political pressure from Congress and legal pressure from the libertarian Institute for Justice on the government to roll back prosecution of the crime of structuring bank deposits to avoid Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements. [node:read-more:link]

EPA says it needs more time to decide whether to cancel the registration of chlorpyrifos and revoke all of the pesticide's food tolerances, as requested in a petition.  In a report filed with 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday, the agency asked the court to give it untilJune 30, 2017, to respond to the petition from Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA). Last December, the 9th Circuit ordered EPA to make a decision on the petition by Dec. 30. [node:read-more:link]

A rejection of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal would go far beyond just causing U.S. exporters to miss out on lower tariffs, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said today. It would also weaken America and hurt the status of the U.S. as an international leader, he said in an address to the CATO Institute in Washington.  “Rejecting TPP would undermine U.S. leadership, not only in the Asia-Pacific region, but around the world,” Froman said in a speech that warned about the consequences of becoming a more protectionist country. [node:read-more:link]

USDA's Risk Management Agency has announced the completion of the final round of crop insurance provisions stemming from the 2014 farm bill. RMA's Federal Crop Insurance Corporation will leave its 2014 proposal largely untouched save for some native sod provisions.  The final rule will clarify an exception allowing producers to break up to five acres of native sod without receiving reduced premium subsidies on coverage of native sod acreage. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. Department of Transportation published a final rule standardizing lighting and agricultural equipment on highways, that incorporates two American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers standards. Formation of the rule was mandated in the 2012 highway bill.  Prior to the ruling, NHTSA has not regulated the manufacture of most agricultural equipment because it did not have specific authority to do so. Because of this, most states adapted their own regulations for agricultural equipment, which created a varied landscape of regulations. [node:read-more:link]

Three Lower Yakima Valley dairies have made progress in controlling sources of nitrogen to a drinking water aquifer in the three years since reaching a legal agreement with the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

The FDA issued a letter on June 20, 2016 reminding retail establishments that sell medically important antimicrobials for use in feed or water for food animals that the marketing status of those products will change from over-the-counter (OTC) to prescription (Rx) or to veterinary feed directive (VFD) at the end of calendar year 2016. Once the changes are in place, distributors of those medically important antimicrobials will need to comply with appropriate requirements for Rx and VFD drugs when dispensing these products. [node:read-more:link]

USDA has proposed new animal welfare standards for the National Organic Program that, if enacted, would be the first time such standards are codified in federal law. The National Pork Producers Council said this would present serious challenges to livestock producers. [node:read-more:link]

The Food and Drug Administration has sent the Senate Agriculture Committee technical comments on the genetically modified food labeling bill that Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., have developed in an attempt to preempt state labeling laws. The technical comments surfaced as both sides in the labeling debate are making arguments to the Senate on whether the bill should be passed. [node:read-more:link]