Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue wants people who don’t like the idea of “America’s Harvest Box” to know that they are very serious about the idea. He says House Ag Committee Chair Mike Conaway is open to considering a small-scale pilot program in the 2018 Farm Bill. The Secretary has faced a lot of criticism since the proposal came out last week as part of President Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget. However, Perdue and his team are defending the idea. A Pro Ag report says they might be finding some open minds on Capitol Hill as well. “We think it’s our responsibility to create new, innovative ideas of delivering food to the people who need it,” Perdue says, “and this is one area.” During a recent tour through California, he did say there are some logistical concerns to the idea but called it “a real idea, not a sham.” Conaway has a great deal of the House Farm Bill already written, but he’s not ruling out the idea of a pilot project in the program. A committee aide says, while Conaway is open to the idea, no decisions have been made yet. Perdue says that’s encouraging because new ideas often need to be introduced on a small scale to see if they’ll work as intended.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz spoke this week before workers at the bankrupt Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refinery. He says the bankruptcy was caused by the law requiring refiners to purchase Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, mandated by the Renewable Fuels Standard. A Delaware Dot Com Article calls the RINs a “receipt that shows gasoline sold at a filling station contains an ethanol mix.” However, Kevin Skunes (Skoo’-nehs), National Corn Growers Association President, says Cruz is way off base. He says most of the nation’s oil refiners are showing double-digit profit increases, but the problems of Philadelphia Energy Solutions are self-inflicted. “That company’s investors put their interests ahead of their workers’ interests,” he says, “and it’s disingenuous for Cruz to say he’s looking out for refinery workers when he’s really looking out for the Wall Street investors who made bad business decisions yet still ensured they got their payouts first, putting refinery jobs at risk.” He adds that the Environmental Protection Agency, university experts, and financial analysts all confirm that refinery owners aren’t facing a RIN price impact because they recover any costs through the price they get for their refined products. “Cruz is trying to upend the RFS to bail out refiners who opted not to invest in blending infrastructure,” Skunes says, “so they could blend renewable fuels and get free biofuels credits.”

Mexico purchased ten times more corn from Brazil last year than it had previously. Reuters says that’s due to the uncertainty regarding the potential outcome of the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations. Mexican government data and top grain merchants all say they fear supply distruption from the U.S. if the White House ever followed through on its threat to withdraw from the pact. Mexico is already on track to buy more corn from Brazil in 2018. That’s a move that hurts an already struggling U.S. ag sector faced with low commodity prices and rising South American competition. U.S. farmers, food processors, and grain traders have spent months trying to make sure relationships don’t fall part if the NAFTA negotiations suddenly fall apart. They’re trying to protect over $19 billion in sales to Mexican buyers of corn, soybeans, poultry, and dairy. Despite that, Mexican corn imports from Brazil are climbing, totaling over one-half million metric tons in 2017. That’s a more than 900 percent jump over the previous year. The purchases all came in the last four months of 2017.

The Department of Agriculture wants a federal district court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the department’s delay of the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices final rule. USDA claims it’s challenger, the Organic Trade Association, “lacks standing because it pleads no facts” in showing the delay has resulted in the suffering of its members because of the USDA action, according to the Hagstrom Report. In response to the request, the Organic Trade Association says it believes USDA seeks the dismissal “to avoid explaining to America’s organic producers and consumers why it is blocking necessary rule clarifications and the strengthening of organic production practices.” The Organic Trade Association calls the delays of the final rule by USDA “unlawful,” and says the group “won’t accept unending delay and thin explanations,” adding “we expect a federal judge won’t either.”

A judge in Arkansas has dismissed a lawsuit by Monsanto seeking to block the state’s ban of dicamba herbicides from April 16th through October 31st. Arkansas enacted the ban after receiving nearly 1,000 complaints last year about the weed killer drifting onto fields and damaging crops not resistant to the herbicide. In dismissing the case, the judge cited a state Supreme Court ruling last month that said the state Legislature can’t waive Arkansas’ immunity from lawsuits, saying the state Supreme Court ruling prevented the lower court from deciding on the case. Monsanto says the state can’t claim immunity since the company wasn’t seeking monetary damages. Attorneys for the Arkansas Plant Board argued the company hadn’t proven the state acted illegally or unconstitutionally, so the state was immune from the lawsuit. Arkansas Assistant Attorney General Gary Sullivan said during the hearing: “They just don’t like the decision the Plant Board made,” according to the Washington Post. Monsanto did not say whether it would appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.

A group of Republican Senators is urging President Donald Trump to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. The 25 lawmakers, including many from western and farm states, encouraged Trump to “work aggressively to secure reforms that would allow the United States to join the agreement” according to Politico. In a statement, the group says: “An improved TPP would therefore bolster and sustain the economic growth America has experienced over the past year,” growth they say was facilitated by regulatory reductions and tax cuts enacted by the Trump Administration. The effort is led by Senator Steve Daines of Montana, who says the group “is committed” to expediting the trade nominees needed to rejoin TPP on the Senate floor. Trump sparked a glimmer of hope of the U.S. rejoining the trade pact when he said he would consider rejoining the deal if it was changed to be made beneficial to the United States.