Anne Steckel, vice president of federal affairs for the National Biodiesel Board is disappointed that Congress did not act to extend critical tax incentives that are slated to expire on December 31. According to Steckel, – jobs and the economy are supposed to be the top priority in Washington, yet Congress has left thousands of workers in limbo heading into the holidays by failing to extend this tax incentive. She calls it a – missed opportunity, and we are urging Congress to pass an extension immediately next year to limit the economic damage.

The biodiesel industry has seen a remarkable turnaround this year after Congress reinstated its $1-per-gallon tax incentive following a one-year lapse in 2010. When the credit lapsed, dozens of plants shut down, thousands of jobs were lost and 2010 production plummeted to about 315-million gallons, the lowest level since 2006.

Through the end of October of this year, according to the latest EPA figures, the industry had set a new annual production record of more than 802-million gallons and could triple the 2010 production volume by the end of the year.

Congress has gone home without acting on a tax extenders package or the biodiesel tax credit before both expire on December 31. The American Soybean Association says this is a disappointing end to an otherwise very positive year for the biodiesel industry. The industry set a record for production in 2011, with more than 800-million gallons produced through October. It is possible that the year-end volumes could approach 1-billion gallons.

A draft package of tax extenders, recently circulated by Senate leaders, includes the biodiesel incentive.  Leaders in both parties have indicated a desire to consider a tax extenders package early in 2012. For this reason, the ASA will continue to urge Congress to come together on a bi-partisan basis to extend the biodiesel tax credit early next year.

ASA says, along with the National Biodiesel Board and our biodiesel industry partners, we will continue to stress the positive economic impact the biodiesel tax incentive delivers across the country, and continue to urge policymakers to end the cycle of uncertainty by enacting a longer-term biodiesel tax credit as soon as possible.

USDA has released an in-depth analysis of U.S. land use patterns that shows total cropland decreased by 34-million acres from 2002 to 2007, the lowest level since USDA began collecting this data 1945. The USDA report also shows significant increases in forestland, grassland and rangeland during the five-year period. According to the Renewable Fuels Association, the new report is one more addition to the mounting body of evidence that proves increased ethanol production has not resulted in expansion of total U.S. cropland or a decline in grassland and forest.

According to the report’s authors, – Urban land acreage quadrupled from 1945 to 2007, increasing at about twice the rate of population growth over this period. Land in urban areas was estimated at 61-million acres in 2007, up almost 2 percent since 2002 and 17 percent since 1990, In comparison the estimated acreage of grassland pasture and range increased by 27 million acres, almost 5 percent, between 2002 and 2007, while forest-use land increased 20 million acres, or 3 percent, from 2002 to 2007.

RFA President Bob Dinneen points out – it is ironic that the land use debate has fixated on biofuels, when the actual culprit of land conversion has clearly been urban and suburban sprawl. He says – subdivisions full of mini-mansions, big box stores, shopping malls, and parking lots are encroaching on productive farmland across the country.

A study conducted by scientists with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service Soft Wheat Quality Research Unit in Wooster, Ohio, may help plant breeders zero in on promising new wheat plants that might be tomorrow’s superstar producers of whole-grain soft wheat flours for cookie doughs. That is to say that, in the future, cookies may be made with a larger proportion of whole-grain flour instead of familiar, highly refined white flour.

Scientists used 14 different commercial varieties of soft wheat for this research. The study showed that breeders and foodmakers can rely on the SRC and a new softness test for early screening. Later, when they want to narrow their focus to only those plants that are uniquely superior sources of whole-grain cookie dough flour, they can invest in the “wire-cut cookie test.”

The sucrose Solvent Retention Capacity test and the milling softness equivalent test-aren’t new. But the Wooster team’s study is perhaps the most thorough examination of the tests’ reliability as an early screen for a new soft-wheat flour’s performance in whole-grain cookie doughs.

The Renewable Fuels Association is seeking from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson an explanation about the delay in releasing the 2012 Renewable Fuel Standard requirements.  According to statute, volume requirements for the coming compliance year were due by November 30th. The RFA calls the delay – both inexplicable and unacceptable.

In a letter to Jackson, the RFA wrote – the RFS provides critical market certainty for existing ethanol producers, emerging renewable fuel technologies, and motor fuel suppliers that must comply with the RFS. Additionally, the RFS is an important tool in reducing the nation’s dependence on imported oil and creates domestic jobs and economic opportunities that cannot be outsourced.

The association feels that the renewable fuels market is put in jeopardy as long as questions remain about impending RFS requirements and when those requirements will be made final.

As the U.S. Department of Labor pushes to restrict the ability of youth to do farm work, those close to the land are beginning to fight back. Historically, family farms have been exempted from such rules, but Representative Tom Latham of Iowa has expressed concerns that a new proposal could be interpreted to exclude operations that are partly owned by extended family members such as grandparents, aunts or uncles.

In response, Latham has authored and introduced bipartisan legislation that expresses the sense of Congress that “the Secretary of Labor should recognize the unique circumstances of family farm youth and multi-generational family partnerships in agricultural operations when drafting regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Oklahoma Representative Dan Boren is co-sponsoring the legislation.

Latham is looking for additional input from farmers and agricultural groups such as FFA and 4-H on the topic and expects to introduce additional legislation after Congress reconvenes next year that will update U.S. code to reflect the realities of modern farming.

The World Trade Organization has accepted Russia into its membership. The agreement specifies that Russia should ratify within 220 days or by about July 22, 2012. Then Russia would become a member 30 days after it notifies the WTO of that ratification.

Ministers welcomed the agreement and the forthcoming membership of the last large economy to remain outside the WTO. Switzerland was credited for broking an important deal between Russia and Georgia during the final stages of the negotiations.

The Federal Government spending bill passed by Congress over the weekend had implication for the land. According to Dustin Van Liew, Public Lands Council executive director and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association director of federal lands, the bill included – critical policy provisions related to livestock grazing as well as greenhouse gas reporting requirements. Van Liew says PLC and NCBA encourage President Obama to waste no time in signing the bill into law.

Specifically, Van Liew pointed to a two-year extension of a provision to allow federal lands grazing permit renewals, despite a backlog of National Environmental Policy Act reviews, and a provision to allow grazing permits to be transferred without undergoing a NEPA analysis as long as the permit remains under current terms and conditions. Van Liew says – this commonsense grazing provision will continue to provide livestock producers relief from the uncertainty and instability of the federal lands grazing permit renewal process.

In addition, Van Liew says language exempts the Bureau of Land Management from environmental law, litigation and regulation until the agency is able to complete environmental reviews of livestock trailing and crossing permits, the issuance of which is crucial to many ranchers on federal lands. He said the omnibus will also prohibit the U.S. Forest Service from using funds to reduce domestic sheep grazing due to management for bighorn sheep unless the management is consistent with a state wildlife plan.

Finally, Van Liew hailed Congress for including report language requiring EPA, USFS and BLM to report fees paid by the agencies through the Equal Access to Justice Act.