USDA to ease rules on hemp labs and destroying ‘hot’ crops
The government will allow farmers to destroy “hot” hemp fields themselves, rather than having to hire a contractor to do it, and will expand the number of laboratories that can test industrial hemp for THC levels, said Agriculture Undersecretary Greg Ibach on Wednesday.
With new bill, Pingree positions farming as a climate solution
The debate about how to address climate change hasn’t always portrayed agriculture as a tool for mitigating the effects of excess carbon in the atmosphere. But a new bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. Chellie Pingree brings farming into the climate spotlight with an ambitious goal of reaching net zero emissions in the agriculture sector by 2040.
Trump wouldn’t sign House ag labor bill, says Perdue
Despite strong and bipartisan House support for farm labor reform, President Trump is unlikely to sign a reform bill, now stalled in the Senate, if it reaches him, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Goodbye to Bayer chair (Reuters): The chairman of Bayer announced he will step down as the company continues to face litigation alleging that its weedkiller Roundup causes cancer.
A dairy-beef connection (Washington Post): Milk drinking might be slowing among American consumers, but we are eating dairy products, including cheese, in increasingly higher quantities, which helps fuel the beef industry.
Expect 2,000 additional dicamba lawsuits (Brownfield Ag News): The St. Louis law firm that won a $265 million award for dicamba damages to a Missouri peach orchard says it expects more than 2,000 farmers to sue Bayer and BASF over crop losses they blame on the weedkiller.
Honey production in the time of coronavirus (Reuters): China is the world’s leading producer of honey, but its beekeepers face bleak times, restricted by coronavirus quarantines as the spring pollinating season arrives without them or their bees.
British farmers worry about U.S. imports (Guardian): Ahead of British-U.S. trade talks, British farm groups are looking to defend their nation’s food safety standards against a potential flood of lower-priced and lower-quality American foods.
