In farm-state victory, EPA denies retro-exemptions from biofuel mandate
The EPA rejected more than four dozen requests by small petroleum refiners for retroactive exemptions from the Renewable Fuel Standard, said agency chief Andrew Wheeler on Monday in a decision that potentially expands the sale of corn-based ethanol.
Half-a-billion dollars in additional trade-war payments
Big farmers collected an additional $519 million in trade-war payments in 2019 because of the high payment limits written into the so-called Market Facilitation Program by the Trump administration, said a congressional report on Monday.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
P-EBT expires on Sept. 30: Every state implemented P-EBT, created in March to help low-income parents buy groceries for children who miss school meals because of closures, but the program is due to expire at the end of September unless Congress agrees on coronavirus legislation. (CBPP)
Branstad comes home to help Trump: Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who was expected to promote U.S. agriculture sales to China while serving as ambassador in Beijing, will resign so he can help President Trump campaign for re-election. (CNN)
Keep food and ag trade flowing: The agriculture ministers of five major exporting nations — Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States — called on other nations to to keep markets open to assure food security and reiterated there is no evidence that food or food packaging transmits the coronavirus. (USDA)
World Ag Expo is canceled for 2021: Officials called off the February 2021 edition of the World Ag Expo because of the coronavirus pandemic, the first time the show, based in Tulare, California, has been canceled. (California Ag Today)
Butter is on a roll: Sales of butter are up by 25 percent since 2010 and Americans consumed an average 6.2 pounds of butter in 2019, the highest per-capita figure since Lyndon Johnson was president. (Hoard’s Dairyman)
Scientists fret over ‘extinction denial’: Conservation scientists say there is a growing refusal to see a link between the loss of biodiversity and human activity. (Mongabay)
