The dairy checkoff is bringing a new approach to building trust with young Americans by helping high school curriculum writers across the country incorporate accurate science behind dairy farming. The “On The Farm STEM” experience is co-funded by National Dairy Council and Midwest Dairy.

The effort brings leading science educators and curriculum directors to dairy farms to discover ideas that can fit into high school curriculum. Ultimately, the program, created in partnership with the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, will offer a science-based counterbalance to misunderstanding about how dairy is responsibly produced by farmers and its contributions to health and wellness.

National Dairy Council’s Lindsay Datlow says, “With education and action, today’s youth will be empowered to understand how dairy foods fit into an overall healthy and sustainable food system.” Some dairy-focused classroom materials already are being used in school pilot programs. The curriculum is expected to be implemented in several states by early 2024.

A group of more than 100 lawmakers this week signed a letter to automakers expressing concerns about the removal and planned removal of AM radio receivers in vehicles.

Representative Greg Pence, an Indiana Republican, led the effort, and says, “If automakers are seeking to remove access to AM radio, my constituents deserve an explanation as to how this could impact their lives and public safety.” The letter highlights the need of rural Americans to access AM radio, given limited internet and cell phone connectivity. The letter states, “We urge you to maintain AM radio receivers in all vehicles and prioritize consumers and public safety.”

Federal data shows that more than 75 radio stations, mostly AM stations, cover at least 90 percent of the U.S. population and are equipped with backup communications equipment for broadcasting during public emergencies.

There have been reports that automakers, including Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, Mazda, Volvo, Tesla, Polestar, Rivian, GM, and Mercedes Benz, removed, or are planning to remove, broadcast AM radio receivers from all-electric vehicles.

A bipartisan letter from more than 30 members of Congress was sent to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack asking for help getting U.S. fresh table stock potatoes into Japan. National Potato Council President Kam Quarles says talks with Japan, a potential $150 million per year export market, have been going nowhere.

Quarles; “USDA has been engaged in a negotiation with the Japanese for a number of years now. Those negotiations, USDA put them at the top of their list about four years ago and, really, the Japanese have just stalemated any discussion since that time.”

The letter, Quarles says shows concerns from both sides of the aisle; “Secretary Vilsack was raising this issue with the Japanese when he was in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago. Clearly, you’ve got this bipartisan letter that came both from the House and the Senate that is seeking to put pressure on the Japanese to get back to the table and start discussing this market access.”

Quarles says this appears to be a threat to Japanese growers; “They have a small but very politically connected domestic potato industry. Obviously, those folks are not excited about having high-quality, U.S. potatoes in their market.”

Quarles says Japan has been dragging its feet on the matter for almost 30 years.

He says; “The market overall is really not able to be served by the small industry that they have in Japan. That’s why, every few years, you’ll see these wild swings in prices for potatoes in Japan. It’s because the shortages generated because they simply don’t have the capacity to produce domestically.”

Japan’s phytosanitary concerns, Quarles says are questionable; “Simply let us know Japan, what are you concerned about. What are the necessary steps you see that will provide you with the security to allow these U.S. fresh potatoes to be imported safely. Obviously, we ship potatoes around the world right now. We’ve got the very highest quality, best production anywhere on the globe is in the United States where any legitimate scientific concerns the Japanese have can be addressed by the United States.”

The U.S. potato industry estimates access to Japan will result in an additional $150-million per year export market.

Story provided by NAFB News Service and Bob Larson, Ag Information Network, Edmonds, Washington

A key farm state senator says President Biden may be using the farm bill as a vehicle to push back on broader GOP plans to expand food stamp work requirements, even as farm safety net funding remains in doubt.

So, which is it? Fear of a U.S. debt default, or the GOP expanding SNAP work requirements, that prompted Biden to invite Ag committee leaders to the White House last week for farm bill talks? Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley; “Well, I don’t know for sure, because I haven’t had a discussion with anybody that was at the meeting. But I think it would be the latter, and also to start the conversation. But I think it’s more geared toward the 84 percent of the farm bill that is for nutrition.”

A fight even more pronounced amid the broader one over raising the debt or borrowing limit in exchange for spending cuts that could include food stamps.

Grassley asked American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall at a recent farm bill hearing if Duvall had any ideas of how to improve the farm safety net without any new money. But why ask unless Grassley thinks there will be little if any more money?

Grassley; “Yeah, I think that’s fair to say, that’s why, hopefully, my legislation that I’m going to propose to put a cap on what one farmer can get from the farm program, would save money that we could spend elsewhere in the farm bill. I think that I raised the question because we’re getting pressure from commodity groups to increase reference pricing…and we’ve got to find some place to get the money.”

Separately, Grassley slammed the recent Supreme Court decision upholding California’s controversial Proposition 12 that bans sale of pork from sows not allowed stall space to move freely, regardless of where they’re raised.

Grassley said on Prop 12; “I plan to support legislative measures that reverse the effects of Proposition 12 and put an end to California’s ‘war on bacon at breakfast.’”

A 5-4 court majority held that the National Pork Producers Council and American Farm Bureau did not prove California’s hog rules were an unfair burden on interstate commerce and must turn to Congress for relief.

The Biden Administration Tuesday announced the availability of nearly $11 billion in grants and loan opportunities to help rural energy and utility providers. The funding will help bring affordable, reliable, clean energy to communities across the country.

The announcement is the single largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says that through the effort, the administration is “supporting thousands of new jobs and helping lower energy costs in the future.” Funding is available through two programs under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Specifically, the Department of Agriculture will open a Letter of Interest process for the Empowering Rural America program, making $9.7 billion available to eligible rural electric. USDA will also open a Letter of Interest process for the Powering Affordable Clean Energy program, making $1 billion available in partially forgivable loans to renewable-energy developers and electric service providers.

The Department of Agriculture Tuesday released a dashboard demonstrating the scope of Black Sea grain and oilseed trade. USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service says millions of tons of grain are shipped through the region annually, making the Black Sea region a major supplier of agricultural commodities worldwide.

The dashboard demonstrates the impacts Black Sea trade disruption can have on food access in various countries. The analysis focuses on key commodities, including barley, corn, soybean oil, sunflower seed oil, and wheat. For each country, the largest suppliers are shown, which allows the dashboard to illustrate the potential impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

USDA Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, Alexis M. Taylor, says, “By looking at the Vulnerabilities to Trade Disruption dashboard, it becomes very clear how big an impact Russia’s war has on food security in countries.” The dashboard and all other USDA FAS tools and reports are available at www.fas.usda.gov.

Data from USDA’s Economic Research Service shows socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers tend to be more concentrated in southern and western regions of the country.

USDA defines socially disadvantaged farmers as those belonging to groups subject to racial or ethnic prejudice. In some counties, the proportion of operations classified as racially or ethnically socially disadvantaged is more than 58 percent, such as in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Florida. Overall, socially disadvantaged farms accounted for 9.4 percent of the two million farms in the United States.

In 2017, 1.3 percent of all producers identified themselves as Black or African American only, 1.7 percent identified as American Indian or Alaska Native only, 0.6 percent identified as Asian only, 0.1 percent as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander only, and 0.8 percent of all producers reported more than one race. In addition, 3.3 percent of all producers of any race indicated Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (May 16, 2023) – Since 1991, the Beef Checkoff-funded National Beef Quality Audit (NBQA) has delivered a set of guideposts and measurements for cattle producers and other stakeholders to help determine quality conformance of the U.S. beef supply. Results from the 2022 NBQA indicate that the beef cattle industry is producing a high-quality product that consumers want more efficiently and the industry’s primary focus across the supply chain remains food safety.

“The NBQA is an important tool for the industry to identify where improvements are being made and where there are opportunities to capture more value,” said Josh White, senior executive director of producer education and sustainability at NCBA. “The good news is, overall, the beef industry is providing a quality product to consumers that they enjoy.”

Early NBQAs focused on the physical attributes of beef such as marbling, external fat, carcass weight and carcass blemishes. These cattle industry concerns have evolved to include food safety, sustainability, animal well-being and the growing disconnect between producers and consumers. As a result, over the past 30 years, NBQA researchers have made significant changes to the research, leading to an increasingly meaningful set of results.

Based on individual interviews with stakeholders from across the cattle industry as well as in-plant research, key findings for fed cattle from the 2022 NBQA include:

• Market segments no longer consider food safety as a purchasing criterion, but an expectation.
• When comparing 2016 and 2022 NBQAs, the largest improvement was overall increased efficiency across the beef supply chain.
• Market sectors indicated that their companies strive to increase their sustainability, and work with the entire beef supply chain to do so.
• The entire industry felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, nonetheless, beef proved to be a choice of consumers, and the industry persevered to provide products.
• Due to pandemic pressures, more cattle over 30 months of age were harvested.
• The beef industry’s image improved within fed cattle market sectors.
• Foreign materials continue to present a problem, but the industry is making strides to decrease incidence.
• There was an increase in usage of electronic identification (EID).
• There was an increase in the frequency of Prime and Choice quality grades, while Select decreased drastically.
• While the industry is improving the quality of beef being produced, that quality is being accompanied by an increase in carcass weight and fat thickness, as well as large increases in percentages of Yield Grade 4 and 5 carcasses.

The NBQA, conducted approximately every five years, provides an understanding of what quality means to the various industry sectors, and the value of those quality attributes. This research helps the industry make modifications necessary to increase the value of its products. The efforts of the findings from the 2022 NBQA serve to improve quality, minimize economic loss, and aid in advancements in producer education for the U.S. beef industry. For more information about the 2022 National Beef Quality Audit, visit www.bqa.org.

New legislation introduced Monday in the House of Representatives would allow for ethanol from corn starch to qualify as an advanced biofuel.

The Fuels Parity Act would also require the Environmental Protection Agency to use the Argonne GREET model to determine the greenhouse gas emission profile of biofuels under the RFS. Corn is currently prohibited from qualifying as an advanced biofuel, even if it can meet the required scientific thresholds, by a provision in the 2007 RFS expansion known as the “corn discrimination clause.”

No other feedstock is limited – only corn starch used for ethanol. Allowing corn to qualify as an advanced biofuel would incentivize lower emissions from ethanol production and allow corn to access another bucket of the RFS. If ethanol can meet the scientific thresholds, then it should be allowed to qualify as an advanced biofuel and generate an advanced biofuel RIN, according to lawmakers introducing the legislation.