USDA is making it possible for producers to enroll a total of one-million acres of land in a new Conservation Reserve Program initiative to preserve grasslands and wetlands.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says – this initiative will have enormous benefits for farmers, sportsmen, and all Americans. Rather than wait for a general sign-up, producers whose land meet eligibility criteria can enroll directly in this “continuous” category at any time. Some of the changes brought on by the expansion will take place immediately and some will be initiated in the coming months.

USDA’s CRP has a 25-year legacy of successfully protecting the nation’s natural resources through voluntary participation, while providing significant economic and environmental benefits to rural communities across the United States.

Courtesy: NAFB News

U.S. Grains Council President Thomas Dorr told attendees at Commodity Classic that the U.S. needs to prepare to handle a variety of emerging market systems in developing economies with rapidly growing middle classes. Dorr noted – systems will vary country by country, but they will have one similarity. Emerging markets will be unable to build food systems on the U.S. system model. They will create new product marketing systems likely very different than our legacy markets.

At the same time, Roy Bardole, U.S. Soybean Export Council chairman, said – a growing population demands a growing protein supply; a growing income demands a growing animal protein supply. Bardole noted that – in addition to standard grain and soybean markets, Vietnam’s aquaculture production will be important for our soybeans farmers. Vietnam plans to increase the volume and value of its aquaculture production in the next years, and likely provide soybean meal as feed.

Bardole also noted that – while these emerging economies will provide opportunities for U.S. exports, managing U.S. infrastructure and port systems may be a challenge. He said – the three-million dollar Panama Canal expansion makes it vital for the United States to increase its port capacities. Dorr called the Panama Canal expansion – a great thing. But it will cut our throats if we don’t fund the Army Corps to build up our ports.

The National Pork Board has voted to “donate” 2-million dollars toward funding the Fair Oaks Pig Adventure Center in northwestern Indiana. But there are strings attached to the donation. The contribution will take the form of an initial one-million dollars in seed money and an additional one-million once sponsors have raised 7.6-million dollars of the 9.6-million that will be needed for construction. Also, the board stipulated that its contribution must go to the education center and that the board must approve initial proposed messaging.

The proposed Fair Oaks Pig Adventure will include a pork education center and a nearby commercial swine farrowing/gestation operation suitable for touring. The pig site will be positioned as a national destination. Michael Platt, executive director of Indiana Pork, believes – the level of trust consumers have in pork farmers will increase as they see firsthand the ways in which the animals are handled and cared for in a modern swine farm environment.

Board members see the education component as a “high impact” activity, and plans for a distant learning process as a means to capture a national consumer education experience, both well within the responsibilities of the Pork Board, which manages the Nation Pork Checkoff.

Courtesy: NAFB News

A study commissioned by the American Soybean Association indicates that if regulations on U.S. poultry and livestock are increased, costs for consumers would also increase. For example, the report says requiring cage-free housing for laying hens would increase the cost of eggs from $1.68 to $2.10 per dozen, a total cost of 2.66-billion dollars per year to U.S. consumers. Overall, consumers could pay up to 16.8 billion dollars more annually for meat, milk and eggs.

Vanessa Kummer, a soybean farmer from Colfax, North Dakota, and chair of the United Soybean Board, says – this could have a big impact on everyone. The most recent statistics compiled by the soy checkoff show the poultry and livestock sectors support 1.8 million jobs and generate more than 283-billion dollars for the U.S. economy.

Courtesy: NAFB News

A coalition of national ethanol groups, along with California and Midwest farming groups, have filed a brief urging the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a court-ordered injunction on the California Air Resource Board’s low-carbon fuel standard. At issue is California’s request for a stay of the injunction issued by District Court Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill when he ruled in December that the new fuel regulation issued by CARB violated the Commerce Clause and was therefore unconstitutional.

The Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy believe California is using its leverage as the largest single state in the U.S. ethanol market to try to force producers in other states to reduce emissions in those states—not California.  The Commerce Clause forbids regulations like the LCFS, where one state tries to regulate activity in another state.

In the brief, RFA and Growth Energy argue that staying Judge O’Neill’s injunction would harm and disrupt the Midwest ethanol industry, but would not appreciably advance the goals of the LCFS. Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis and RFA CEO Bob Dinneen say – if we are going to have a low-carbon society, we need to have a low-carbon fuel. Ethanol is the only commercially-viable, low-carbon fuel we have today.

Courtesy: NAFB News

The Humane Society of the United States is reaching across the Canadian border, asking the Ontario-based Tim Hortons restaurant chain to disclose to its shareholders the feasibility of ensuring that bacon and other pork products the restaurant chain uses in its U.S. locations does not come from pigs traced back to systems using gestation-sow stalls. HSUS is a shareholder of Tim Hortons. The HSUS proposal will be voted on at the company’s annual meeting in May.

This proposal mirrors McDonald’s plan announced in late February, in which it asked its suppliers for a report on their long-term gestation-sow housing strategies. McDonald’s has given its suppliers a deadline of reporting back by May. McDonald’s believes – there are alternatives that we think are better for the welfare of sows.

According to its web site, Tim Hortons is the fourth largest publicly-traded quick service restaurant chain in North America and the largest in Canada.

Courtesy: NAFB News

In a letter addressed to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, more than 30 advanced biofuel company CEOs have pressed for a five year extension of the Cellulosic Biofuels Producer Tax Credit and the Accelerated Depreciation Allowance for Cellulosic Biofuel Plant Property. The CEOs are quick to point out – these programs are critical to our efforts to attract capital given that these types of incentives are offered to other U.S. energy sectors.

Brooke Coleman, Executive Director of AEC, says – if the United States expects to lead the global effort to develop new and innovative alternatives to increasingly expensive petroleum-derived fuels, it cannot afford to allow the very policies that support emerging advanced biofuel industries to expire.

Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial and Environmental Section, says – producing affordable domestic alternatives to all products that come from foreign oil is vital to renewed economic growth and energy security. Companies that are innovating need stable policy to bring commercial-scale alternatives to the market.

And Michael McAdams, President of the ABFA says – at a time of record high gasoline prices the American public and their government need to explore every potential option to bring more renewable transportation fuels to the market in order to lower the overall cost to consumers.

Oral arguments for the petition filed by the Coalition for Responsible Regulation were heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Tuesday and Wednesday. The litigation challenges the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, its rule to limit GHG from passenger vehicles and its “timing and tailoring” rules that govern GHG permit applicability at stationary sources.

J.D. Alexander, President of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, one of the coalition members, says – the fact EPA decided to impose a backdoor energy tax by regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act is unacceptable and scientifically unfounded. We are hopeful the U.S. Court of Appeals will put a stop to the aggressive agenda-driven regulations that never should have been promulgated in the first place.

Alexander believes – EPA’s regulations are an attempt to force greenhouse gas regulations down the throats of the American people without congressional approval.