Agriculture News
TPP exporters gaining ground over US for Japan's beef
Asian Review | Posted on March 4, 2019Beef producers in the 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement enjoyed a surge in sales to Japan in January, as ranchers benefited from lower tariffs than their U.S. competitors. Beef imports from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico, all of which have approved the trade pact, surged to 33,000 metric tons in January, up 56% from the previous year, according to Japan's Finance Ministry. The tariff rate for these countries dropped to 27.5% from 38.5% after the agreement took effect.The main cause of the jump was Japanese importers pushing some December purchases back to January, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday
Climate change is depleting our essential fisheries
National Geographic | Posted on March 4, 2019A new study published Thursday in the journal Science outlines the impacts warming waters are having on commercially important fish species.The world's fishing industry relies on what's called fisheries, the clusters of regional fish populations that people can catch economically. And on average, the researchers found that the numbers of fish in critical fisheries around the world have decreased by four percent since 1930.Fisheries located in the Sea of Japan and the North Sea were the worst off. They experienced as much as a 35 percent drop in their numbers. Other fisheries, however, benefitted from warmer waters, and their populations grew, an expansion scientists warn could create unsustainable competition for resources.Warmer waters can make some fisheries smaller by putting metabolic stress on the fish, making it harder for them to reproduce or find food. Warm waters can also cause zooplankton, essential fish food, to decline. The impacts on smaller organisms then have cascading impacts on the rest of the food chain.
‘Too much milk’: Production is up, prices are down and farmers are in crisis
The Cap Times | Posted on March 4, 2019The price Litkea gets for his milk is 43 percent off from its 2014 high. For all his work, Litkea said he's earning about $650 a month. A few years ago, he dropped his health insurance, a $1,100-a-month expense. Then he got rid of his crop insurance, farm insurance, even his car insurance.“I pay out more than I make,” he said. “I have an $800 loan payment, electric bills and feed bills and fuel bills.”Through the years, he scraped out a comfortable living and raised a family. Now he’s on the brink of financial ruin.“My son-in-law and my daughter are buying me groceries because I can’t afford it,” he said.Litkea’s story is all too common. Once revered for their work ethic and their contribution to the nation’s food supply, small farmers today are being crushed under the weight of a glut that for the past four years has sent dairy prices tumbling.The pure white milk Litkea sells to processors is being devalued by an array of factors that includes the world price of cheese, the price of dry whey, the price of butter and non-fat dry milk. He’s being hammered by a trade war he doesn’t support and a federal pricing system he doesn’t understand. He harbors bitterness, much of it directed toward the big farms he says are putting him out of business, and for the politicians that allow it all to happen.
Vancouver port traffic hits record high on Asian demand for grain and potash
Cape Breton Post | Posted on March 4, 2019The Vancouver port saw record cargo numbers in 2018, driven by hunger for grain and potash overseas and a thirst for consumer products in Canada. Cargo volume grew to a record 147 million tonnes last year, up 3.5 per cent from 2017, according to the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority."The growing middle class in China is starting to change consumption patterns," said Robin Silvester, who heads the port authority.The last few years have seen thousands of tonnes of soybean and cereals shipped to Asia for use in animal feed amidst a growing appetite for pork and beef, he said."But what's interesting this year is the more specialty crops, like barley — and a lot of that's going to China," Silvester said in an interview. "One of the things seems to be, just like here, growing craft brew production in China — smaller volume, higher quality beers."Barley volumes grew more than 54 per cent year over year in 2018 to 1.8 million tonnes, helped along by a bumper crop, according to the port authority.
Vancouver port traffic hits record high on Asian demand for grain and potash
Cape Breton Post | Posted on March 4, 2019The Vancouver port saw record cargo numbers in 2018, driven by hunger for grain and potash overseas and a thirst for consumer products in Canada. Cargo volume grew to a record 147 million tonnes last year, up 3.5 per cent from 2017, according to the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority."The growing middle class in China is starting to change consumption patterns," said Robin Silvester, who heads the port authority.The last few years have seen thousands of tonnes of soybean and cereals shipped to Asia for use in animal feed amidst a growing appetite for pork and beef, he said."But what's interesting this year is the more specialty crops, like barley — and a lot of that's going to China," Silvester said in an interview. "One of the things seems to be, just like here, growing craft brew production in China — smaller volume, higher quality beers."Barley volumes grew more than 54 per cent year over year in 2018 to 1.8 million tonnes, helped along by a bumper crop, according to the port authority.
Farmers Leave Classic without trade, ESMCA, Immigration issues resolved
Hoosier Ag Today | Posted on March 4, 2019Over 9,000 farmers came to Commodity Classic in Orlando last week to get a look at the future of agriculture, but they left seeing little progress on some of the most important issues facing the industry for the 2019 season. Tariffs remain in place, no trade agreement has been reached with China, the USMCA has not been ratified by any of the countries involved, and immigration continues to be a political issue too hot to handle. Mary Kay Thatcher, with Syngenta Government Relations, is not optimistic much progress will be made before planters roll this spring. “We chip away on some of these, and I hope we will make some progress in the next few months.” She added, since U.S. agriculture exports 25% of what it produces, “If we don’t make some progress on trade, we are in trouble.”Thatcher told HAT the refusal of the administration to lift the steel tariffs, despite a USMCA agreement, is continuing to hurt agriculture. She cited a Purdue University study that shows U.S. farmers will benefit from USMCA by $500 million, but the tariffs cost agriculture $1.7 billion.
Ash loggers race against time before beetles get them all
Bradenton Herald | Posted on March 4, 2019Loggers in snowy forests are cutting down ash like there's no tomorrow, seeking to stay one step ahead of a fast-spreading beetle killing the tree in dozens of states. The emerald ash borer has been chewing its way through trees from Maine to Colorado for about two decades, devastating a species prized for yielding a light-grained hardwood attractive enough for furniture and resilient enough for baseball bats. Many hard-hit areas are east of the Mississippi River and north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Some fear areas in the invasion zone like upstate New York might have only five to seven years of ash logging left."Emerald ash borer is probably the most thorough killing machine that we've come across in my career over the last 35 years," said Tom Gerow, general manager for The Wagner Companies, which specializes in furniture-grade lumber.
Secretary Perdue urges farmers to fight “Fear Your Food” movement
Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network | Posted on March 4, 2019It is the battle we are facing in agriculture. People who are working hard every day to produce food to feed a growing population, being met by people who want to tear down those efforts and paint farmers as evil. Activists are a mounting threat to producers, and they have a new movement; “Fear Your Food”. To farmers, it seems counter-productive to want to protest about those who are trying to feed the world. However, this is the case. Secretary Sonny Perdue says this movement threatens to derail advancements already made in agriculture and threatens to stymie new advancements in the pipeline.Secretary Perdue says farmers need to be transparent. Tell your story, or someone else will. Be proactive. Farmers have nothing to hide. Show consumers they don’t have to fear their food.Perdue says scientific data has shown again and again that our food is safe for the population. This data has been collected not only in the United States but in 28 other countries around the world. Bio-engineering has reduced the needs for pesticide usage. The EU has deemed the technology safe, even though it won’t let its farmers produce them.The bottom line is farmers cannot hide from the fear-mongers. They need to find ways to share their story with the world. Reach out to consumers and show them they have no reason to fear their food.
Court advances Organic Trade Association’s organic animal welfare lawsuit
Globe News Wire | Posted on March 3, 2019The Organic Trade Association on Thursday hailed the ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the association has presented solid arguments that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s failure to put into effect new organic livestock standards has caused harm to the organic sector, and that the association has the legal standing to contest the agency’s withdrawal of the rule. “The court has recognized the harm to organic producers, to organic businesses, and to the integrity of the Organic seal that the USDA’s arbitrary and capricious stance against this important organic standard has already had, and the potential for even greater damage,” said Laura Batcha, CEO and Executive Director of the Organic Trade Association. “Our case will now advance. We are confident our case is strong and we look forward to winning this legal battle to uphold organic standards.”In its ruling, the Court rejected USDA’s arguments that the case against the rule’s withdrawal should be dismissed, saying “the OLPP (Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices) Withdrawal Rule drops the baseline for USDA certification and alters the regulatory landscape to the detriment of OTA’s members. Just as OTA’s members would have had standing to challenge any rollbacks of USDA’s organic certification program before the Final OLPP Rule, so too they have standing now to challenge rollbacks of the USDA’s certification program as constituted after the Final OLPP Rule.
Washington legislators remake hemp program
Capital Press | Posted on March 3, 2019Washington lawmakers and the state Department of Agriculture are taking down barriers to growing hemp in time for spring planting, though how much farmers will pay in the future for the privilege has not yet been decided. The House Appropriations Committee unanimously endorsed a bill Tuesday that lifts a ban on moving harvested hemp across state lines. The bill also would allow hemp to be grown for CBD, an oil extract marketed for a wide range of ailments.Meanwhile, the agriculture department plans to abolish two rules by April 23. One rule prohibits hemp from being grown within 4 miles of marijuana. The other rule requires farmers to get permission from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to import hemp seeds. The House bill agrees with those steps.