Red farm states end up in the black with tariff payments
A handful of farm states, mostly in the Midwest and Plains, emerge as net winners when the impact of retaliatory Chinese tariffs are weighed against the Trump administration’s trade war payments to farmers, say three university economists.
National Farmers Union elects new president; Perdue reassures on trade
The National Farmers Union elected Rob Larew, the organization’s senior vice president of public policy and communications, as president at its annual convention Monday in Savannah, Georgia. Larew will take the helm from outgoing president Roger Johnson, a former agriculture commissioner of North Dakota, who served in the role since 2009
Scientists say lax regulation of chemicals in food packaging endangers human health
Nine months after U.S. regulators found an industrial “forever chemical” in chocolate cake at levels some 250 times higher than federal recommendations, nearly three dozen independent scientists from 11 countries are warning that inadequate global regulations of chemicals in food packaging pose a growing risk to human health
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
FERN’s Douglas wins reporting award (NFU): Leah Douglas, a FERN staff writer and associate editor, was awarded the Milt Hakel Agriculture Communications Award for her work investigating the effects of consolidation and monopolization in the food and agriculture sectors.
Trump endorses Fischbach in Peterson’s district (Ag Insider): President Trump tweeted “my complete and total endorsement” of former lieutenant governor Michelle Fischbach, one of five candidates seeking the Republican nomination in the Minnesota district represented by House Agriculture chairman Collin Peterson, a Democrat.
New locust swarms in Horn of Africa (FAO): Widespread breeding by desert locusts is in progress in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia “and new swarms are starting to form, representing an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods” as the growing season begins. The voracious insects are expected to reach India and Pakistan by summer.
Misrepresenting climate change at Interior (New York Times): An Interior Department official added misleading language about climate change into scientific reports involving major watersheds in California and Oregon.
Warren backs higher farmworker pay (Los Angeles Times): Ahead of Super Tuesday’s presidential primaries, Democrat Elizabeth Warren released a plan for farmworker and food-chain employees that includes a minimum wage of $15 an hour, replacing the H-2A guestworker visa with an immigrant worker visa, and standards for field workers to access water and shade.
Chinese lab develops vaccine against hog disease (Bloomberg): The top Chinese research body for animal diseases said it had developed a vaccine against African swine fever that is safe and effective in laboratory tests but it did not say when the vaccine would become widely available.
