Give trade agreements time to work, says FCA chief
The chairman of the Farm Credit Administration appealed for Farm Belt patience on Trump trade agreements on Wednesday. “The groundwork has been laid for trade normalization and improved farm prices,” said Glen Smith during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing.
Number of low-income children eating school breakfast hits plateau
After years of increases, the number of low-income children eating free or reduced-price breakfast at school plateaued at 12.4 million during the 2018-19 school year, said the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Pork exports hit record, beef dips (USMEF): Exports of U.S. pork set records in 2019 for both value, $6.95 billion, and volume, 2.67 million tonnes, while beef exports, at $8.1 billion, were down 3 percent from the record set in 2018. Lamb exports in 2019 were 15,732 tonnes, the second-highest total ever.
Senator questions USDA on climate references (Stabenow): Debbie Stabenow, the senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, asked the USDA to respond to published reports that a Forest Service official directed the removal of references to climate change and greenhouse gases in a Federal Register notice filed by the service.
Beer gases feed pot plants (Washington Post): In a test of technology transfer, a craft brewer in Denver is capturing the carbon dioxide released during the beer-fermentation process and shipping it to an indoor marijuana farm to speed the growth of its plants.
Hemp for horses? (TAMU): A decade ago, Toby Keith and Willie Nelson sang “Beer for My Horses,” but now a researcher at Texas A&M is testing whether industrial hemp is effective in treating horses for anxiety or arthritis.
Closing arguments next in dicamba trial (Investigate Midwest): At around midday on Friday, following closing arguments, a federal lawsuit alleging Monsanto and BASF irresponsibly sold a weedkiller that could vaporize and harm neighboring fields will be in the hands of the jury.
Greenhouse gases from Amazon deforestation (BBC): An unpublished study says that about one-fifth of the Amazon basin appears to have become a net source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and that deforestation is one of the main causes.
