The House Ag Committee held a hearing Wednesday on the potential opportunities for American producers if trade relations were normalized with Cuba. Much of the conversation revolved around the Cuba Agricultural Exports Act (HR Bill 3687) as well as the potential removal of financial restrictions that limit trade opportunities with Cuba. “The history between the U.S. and Cuba is long and complicated,” said House Ag Committee Chair Mike Conaway, a Texas Republican. “The Castro regime’s stranglehold on the island nation has long prevented normalized trade relations between the countries.” He added that many are starting to believe lifting financial restrictions on agricultural trade could improve the lives of Cubans and also help American producers who are struggling through one of the worst economic downturns they’ve seen since the Great Depression. Conaway said he hopes to find a path forward to allow and expand agricultural trade to Cuba, but at the same time, he remains firmly against lifting the travel embargo.

The countries that signed on to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal decided this week that they will not renegotiate terms of the deal. The Japanese TPP Minister confirmed that the 12 countries will move ahead quickly with their individual domestic processes to implement the U.S.-led trade deal. The remarks came after a meeting held on Monday in Tokyo, Japan. The gathering was held because of growing suspicion that the deal won’t take effect in spite of being signed in February. The speculation comes from both U.S. major-party candidates for president criticizing the deal while out on the campaign trail. The Japanese Prime Minister is expected to try to achieve ratification in his country as early as September 26 during a special session of the government. The TPP deal would cover 12 countries and roughly 40 percent of the global economy.

The National Farmers Union is concerned about continued consolidation among agribusinesses. After hearing the news of a $66 billion merger proposal between Bayer and Monsanto, NFU President Roger Johnson said consolidation of this magnitude cannot be the standard for agriculture, nor should we allow it to determine the landscape of agriculture. He said, “The merger deal between Bayer and Monsanto marks the fifth major deal in the last year, preceded by an approval of the Syngenta/Chem China acquisition, as well as proposed mergers between Dow/DuPont, Potash Corp/Agrium, and John Deere/Precision Planting.” He said farm and ranch families have been on Capitol Hill asking members of Congress to conduct hearings to review the staggering amount of pending merger deals in agriculture today. “We will continue to express concern that these megadeals are being made to benefit corporate boardrooms rather than family farmers, ranchers, consumers, and rural economies,” he added.

Bayer and Monsanto announced Wednesday that they’ve signed an agreement to merge the two companies together. Bayer will acquire Monsanto for $128 dollars per share in an all-cash transaction. Monsanto’s Board of Directors, Bayer’s Board of Management and Bayer’s Supervisory Board have all unanimously approved the merger agreement. The transaction brings together two different, but complementary businesses together under one umbrella. The new company will have Monsanto’s expertise in seeds and traits, as well as its Climate Corporation platform, and Bayer’s broad crop protection product line that covers a wide range of crops. Bayer intends to finance the deal through a combination of debt and equity. The combined business will have its North American headquarters and Global Seeds and Traits division in St. Louis, Missouri. The global crop protection and crop science divisions will be located in Germany. The company will also have a strong presence in Durham, North Carolina, as well as other locations across the U.S. and the globe. The Digital Farming activities for the combined business will be in San Francisco, California.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative filed a claim against China in the World Trade Organization over market price supports for wheat, rice, and corn. The complaint says that China is using these supports in excess of its commitments under WTO rules. The Hagstrom Report said China’s support for those three commodities are roughly $100 billion over levels China committed to during its accession to the WTO. The excessive market price for wheat, rice, and corn inflates Chinese prices above market levels, creating artificial incentives for Chinese farmers to increase their production. The decision to file the complaint is a victory for rice, wheat, and corn groups that have been talking about the issue of Chinese subsidies for years. The complaint will result in WTO-led negotiations with China over the alleged level of subsidies. If the U.S. prevails, China’s choice would be to reduce the subsidies or deal with U.S.-imposed punitive tariffs on its products. The process is likely to take several years.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that pork producers can challenge the public release of their water pollution permit applications. The Courthouse News Dot Com website says those applications contain the estimated amount of waste produced by their operations. However, the applications also contain the name of the facility’s owner, the mailing address, a topographic map of the area around the operation, as well as the estimated amounts of manure, litter, and wastewater produced each year. The Clean Water Act states that these applications will be made public. However, the three-judge appeals panel said personal information is included in those applications, like names, home addresses, telephone numbers, GPS coordinates of those homes, and information that could lead to financial information being gleaned by someone else. The panel said while information about owners can usually be found in the public, farmers can object to having their information put into a central database, which EPA did three years ago and then gave that information to environmental groups through Freedom of Information Act requests. The panel said the EPA’s extensive data collection efforts and environmental groups’ multi-year attempts to access that data show that the EPA has collected data that would otherwise exits in greater obscurity.

The National Farmers Union and Farm Aid groups have partnered to send 275 farm families to Washington D.C. this week to seek help for farmers struggling through the current economic downturn. Both organizations say that America’s farmers can’t afford to wait for assistance until after the November election. They’re asking Congress for emergency relief for the hardest-hit farmers, increased funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture farm loan programs, and resources to help provide a remedy for low commodity prices all be included in the upcoming Congressional spending package in fiscal year 2017. Roger Johnson, National Farmers Union President, said, “Low commodity prices and high input costs have been relentless, and 2014 farm bill safety net programs have failed to deliver the relief farmers and ranchers need to help them recover.” Net farm income is forecast to be 43 percent lower than in 2013, yet farm production expenses are four percent higher than last year at this time. “Every week, we hear from family farmers and ranchers facing these challenges on their farms,” said Carolyn Mugar, Executive Director of Farm Aid. “This is becoming the new normal for many farmers and ranchers across the country.”