Senate bill would help farmers get into carbon markets, say backers
Farmers could combine environmental and economic sustainability through practices that lock carbon into the soil, but it’s dauntingly difficult to enter the carbon sequestration market and get paid for it, said the leaders of the two largest U.S. farm groups on Wednesday.
Bayer to pay up to $11.3 billion to resolve glyphosate, dicamba litigation
Under the terms of an agreement announced Wednesday, seed and agribusiness giant Bayer will pay up to $10.9 billion to resolve lawsuits that accuse its Roundup herbicide of causing cancer, and an additional $400 million to settle litigation claiming crop damage caused by its dicamba weedkiller from 2015 to 2020.
Trump offers aid to lobster industry and a tariff threat to China
President Trump told the USDA on Wednesday to provide trade war relief to U.S. lobster fishermen and producers and threatened retaliatory tariffs on seafood from China if Beijing fails to buy massive amounts of U.S. food, agricultural, and seafood products this year.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Senators question meat exports (New York Times): Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker asked the four major meatpackers how they could export large amounts of meat to China during April even as they were warning of a shortage of beef and pork at home.
Food is not a coronavirus risk, say agencies (USDA): In a joint statement apparently aimed at China and addressing “food export restrictions” around the world, the USDA and the FDA said, “There is no evidence that people can contract Covid-19 from food or from food packaging.”
Rural Southeast is Covid-19 hot spot (Daily Yonder): A small number of counties accounted for more than 60 percent of the 18,400 rural cases of Covid-19 reported last week, and 77 of those 138 rural counties are in the Southeast.
Grain standards bill advances (Senate Agriculture): On a voice vote, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the U.S. Grain Standards Act, clearing it for a floor vote.
Shorter feeding season for mule deer (InsideClimate News): Global warming can cut the spring feeding season for mule deer in half, to two months, says a University of Wyoming researcher. Spring feeding is crucial to the deer as they prepare to migrate and raise their offspring.
