In Nitro, West Virginia, from 1949 to 1971, Monsanto produced an agricultural chemical known as 2,4,5,T,  In approximately 1964, the company began selling the product to the Armed Services to be used as part of the herbicide ‘Agent Orange’ for use in Vietnam. Residents during the period of manufacture involved in the law suit received injuries as a consequence of their abnormal exposure to dioxins/furans. A judge has now agreed to a settlement between Monsanto Company, resolving all claims in all pending litigation as well as all class actions filed in West Virginia.

Scott Partridge, vice president of Monsanto Company, says – these settlements ensure that both individual and community concerns are addressed, and services are made available for the people of Nitro. Class Counsel Stuart Calwell says – the settlements provide needed medical benefits and remediation services to the people of Nitro and broader community.  He adds – the principal goal of the litigation was to provide long-term medical monitoring and to provide professional cleaning of individual homes.

Approximately 45-hundred homes are located in areas where individual remediation of homes may be desirable.  A program will be created to offer free professional cleaning of these homes and provide funding of up to 9-million dollars for this purpose. Also, a thirty-year medical monitoring program will be established at a local hospital. This plan will be supported by a primary fund of 21-million dollars which will pay for medical testing of eligible class members.  Up to 63- million dollars in additional funding will be available over the thirty-year life of the medical screening program.

Courtesy: NAFB News

The American Soybean Association has issued an Action Alert, asking its members to contact their members of Congress, asking them to sign onto letters to President Obama and to the Office of Management and Budget.  The letters, written by ASA, call for the Obama Administration to follow through with increasing the RFS volume to 1.28 billion gallons for 2013. The deadline for signatures is February 29^th.

Senators Kent Conrad and Charles Grassley are leading the effort in the Senate.  Current cosigners to the Senate letter are: Senators Conrad, Grassley, Patty Murray and Jon Tester.

Representatives Leonard Boswell and Mike McIntyre are leading the effort in the House. Current cosigners to the House letter are: Representatives Tom Latham and Collin Peterson

Courtesy: NAFB News

U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, Florida, has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency-imposed numeric nutrient criteria for Florida streams and unimpaired lakes are unlawful because they are arbitrary and have no scientific basis. The court upheld EPA’s ability to issue federal standards under the particular facts at issue in Florida and upheld some of the particular EPA standards.  However, the court agreed with arguments that two key types of restrictions were unlawful.

One of the key concerns of the court was that EPA could not show that the streams criteria were needed to prevent harm to the environment, as required by Florida law. American Farm Bureau Federation General Counsel Ellen Steen says – EPA attempted to impose standards that would prohibit any increase above naturally occurring nutrient levels in pristine waters.  The court recognized that EPA was arbitrary in assuming that any increase above pristine nutrient levels is harmful.

According to Steen, this ruling will help ensure that if EPA imposes federal numeric nutrient criteria on other states in the future, it must use scientifically valid methods that comport with state laws. EPA must now decide its next steps for the standards that were vacated by the court ruling

Courtesy: NAFB News

Proposed laws in 8 states would outlaw undercover investigations of animal abuse and unsanitary farm conditions. Iowa and New York are debating similar legislation, as is Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska and Utah.  Montana, North Dakota and Kansas have already passed “ag gag” laws. Measures in those states would halt activists from using deceptive practices to target producers in agricultural and other businesses.

Lawrence Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, points out that – activists have become more of a factor, coming onto farms under false pretenses and taking video. These stories rally opposition and really are a threat to political alliances that support agriculture.

Wes Jamison, an associate communications professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida, who studies interest-group activism, says – for politicians, it comes across looking like they’re trying to muzzle these groups. It’s putting restrictions on citizen ‘gotcha’ journalism.”

Animal-rights groups such as the Humane Society of the United States contend food safety will be compromised if abusive and unsanitary practices go unexposed.

The agreement between the United Egg Producers and the Humane Society of the United States would put a stop to cage-free poultry initiatives in Oregon and Minnesota, if Congress acts. But, two key leaders in Congress have put up a roadblock to Congressional Action. Neither the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Representative Frank Lucas of Oklahoma nor the top Democrat, Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota, has embraced such a bill.

Oregon Representative Kurt Schrader has written a bill that animal rights groups say – would bring about more humane treatment for egg-laying hens. So far, beef and pork producers and the Turkey Federation have voiced their objections to the bill. Kirstina Butts, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s chief lobbyist, says – this legislation opens a Pandora’s Box on Capitol Hill. While this bill currently only applies to the egg industry, it’s not a far stretch to see it applied to all animal agriculture.

The U.S. & South Korea Free Trade Agreement faces possible repeal by South Korea’s opposition party. However, analysts watching those developments, tend to think such rhetoric is political in nature and repealing the pact would actually be costly economically and politically. The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says the government will take the necessary steps to “maximize benefits” to South Korean companies and the general public.

For U.S. pork, complete tariff implementation will take up to 10-years. Still, the National Pork Producers Council is pleased. U.S. pork products have significant tariffs on them– 25 percent on frozen product and 22.5 percent on fresh or chilled pork. Under the KORUS FTA, tariffs would be eliminated on all U.S. frozen pork and some processed frozen pork by January 1, 2016. Fresh-chilled pork would be duty-free within 10 years after implementation.