Bumper U.S. corn and soybean harvests are within reach
The United States is headed for its largest corn harvest ever and its third-largest soybean crop, based on the USDA’s annual Acreage report, issued on Wednesday. The mammoth crops would be ready for harvest late this summer, replenishing U.S. grain inventories that are being drained by robust demand at home and abroad.
House panel: Put the brakes on China-owned farmland in U.S.
China would be barred from buying more U.S. farmland and the land already in its possession would become ineligible for farm subsidies under language approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. On a voice vote, the provision was added to a $197 billion USDA-FDA funding bill headed for a vote on the House floor.
Today’s Quick Hits
Walker vs. Warnock?: Herschel Walker, a Georgia football legend and ally of former President Trump, said he will decide soon whether to run for the Senate against Raphael Warnock, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Investigate Perdue deal: Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow said the Office of Government Ethics should examine “deeply concerning” reports that a company owned by Sonny Perdue purchased a grain elevator from ADM for $250,000 while he was awaiting confirmation to become agriculture secretary. (Senate Ag)
Biofuel incentives: Midwestern senators announced a trio of provisions to expand the use of biofuels: $1 billion for installing equipment to dispense higher blends of ethanol; $200-per-vehicle credits to automakers for producing vehicles that can burn higher blends of biofuels; and tax credits to retailers and blenders for marketing fuels that are at least 15 percent ethanol. (Klobuchar)
Deadly heat: Labor officials in Oregon are investigating the case of a farmworker who died over the weekend while working in 104-degree heat on a farm in the Willamette Valley. (The Oregonian)
Little use of cover crops: Corn Belt farmers plant cover crops on only a fraction of their land — 3.2 million acres out of the 68 million acres surveyed — despite their value in preventing nutrient runoff and potentially mitigating climate change, said the Environmental Working Group. (InsideClimate News)
