Fortune Magazine reported last week that President Barack Obama still has a shot at passing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. It remains to be a longshot, however, as Congressional leaders claim the agreement does not have enough support to pass Congress. New research suggests Republicans in Congress are turning sour on trade agreements, while some Rust Belt Democrats have indicated they may support Donald Trump in the presidential election because Hillary Clinton has previously supported TPP and NAFTA. International trade lawyer Alan Wolff writes that the majority of Americans support free trade, citing a Pew Research Center survey taken in March. The survey found 51 percent of Americans say free trade agreements are good, versus 39 percent against them. Wolff charges Congress with not representing the will of the majority of citizens who approve of TPP. President Obama is expected to send the agreement to Congress following the November elections. However, time in the lame-duck session is limited. Lame-duck sessions typically last about a month.

LONOKE, Ark. (AP) — High water in Louisiana and Arkansas has put a damper on the nation’s rice harvest.

While much of Louisiana’s crop was in before record floods this month, Arkansas farmers had just started harvesting before rainy weather began last weekend.

So far, the biggest losers are farmers whose fields are inundated and may not be able to harvest. Those who do succeed will find slightly higher prices. But economists say that the weather isn’t bad enough to push up consumer prices for food rice, or for beer and cereal that use rice as an ingredient.

Arkansas produces half the nation’s rice, while Louisiana produces about 15 percent. Farmers fear that continued bad weather, or a Gulf Coast hurricane, could worsen problems before the rest of the crop is brought in.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack met with new and beginning farmers at Iowa State University this week. While there, the Secretary announced an investment of $17.8 million for several projects that educate and enhance the sustainability of future farmers in America. The average age of the American farmer is 58 years-old, so the U.S. Department of Agriculture is addressing the need to bring new farmers into the business. USDA has engaged its resources to provide new farmers improved access to land, credit and equipment. USDA is also extending crop insurance specifically designed to benefit new farmers. USDA programs have helped young farmers save over $14 million in costs and fees, according to the agency.

The Environmental Protection Agency released its draft report on ecological risks of atrazine in June of this year as part of its re-registration process for the herbicide. If the assessment recommendations are allowed to stand, farmers would essentially lose access to atrazine, and that would cost farmers a lot of money. The National Corn Growers Association says the EPA report could cost the industry up to $2.5 billion in yield losses and increased production costs, all at a time when incomes are down sharply. A 2012 University of Chicago study showed that farming without atrazine would cost farmers an extra $59 per acre. That’s a large boost in costs when farm incomes have dropped 55 percent in the past two years. A jump in costs that high would not only affect producers but would have ramifications across the entire agribusiness industry. NCGA First Vice President Wesley Spurlock of Texas is urging farmers to contact the EPA and voice their concerns. Atrazine has been a mainstay of corn, sorghum, and sugar cane farmers for 50 years, and some of the toughest weeds are resistant to other herbicides but not to atrazine.

Representatives from Australia, Singapore, and other countries in the Far East and Pacific Rim are in Vietnam this week, negotiating a trade agreement that could potentially take the place of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement would exclude the U.S. and include China, which is currently not included in the TPP agreement. Some of the member countries included in TPP discussions are pushing ahead with the alternative agreement as the fate of the TPP in America isn’t certain. Pro Farmer’s First Thing Today reports that some experts are hoping news of these negotiations will spur the TPP discussion forward. Beijing is a key driver in discussions on the RCEP agreement, which would include 16 nations and 3.4 billion people, if it’s ratified. If left out of the TPP, China would lose ground to manufacturing competitors like Vietnam, which would have greater duty-free access to the United States and other member nations.

The list of ag advisors to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is a long one, containing 65 names. Politico’s Morning Agriculture Report says that list is much larger than any of Trump’s other advisory panels. The list of names represents diverse experiences in different types of agriculture, but one of the common themes among the names is a dislike of regulatory overreach. That would seem to put the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Waters of the U.S. Rule” right in the line of fire, should Trump win the election. Many of the panel members Politico spoke to mentioned the WOTUS rule specifically and said a vote for Hillary Clinton would mean four more years of the same failed policies. Trump has said he opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, but the panel members overwhelmingly support the deal. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said “it’s going to be important to articulate how important trade is to agriculture.” He said both major party candidates say they are against the TPP agreement but support trade, adding “they need to articulate what that means.”

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) — A southeast Missouri farmer has been ordered to spend two years in prison for crop insurance fraud of more than $200,000.

The Southeast Missourian reports that 48-year-old Bobby David Lowrey, of Parma, was sentenced Tuesday for making false statements about crop-insurance benefits, theft of government property and wire fraud. Lowrey pleaded guilty to the charges in May.

Court documents say Lowrey placed farms in other people’s names to obtain payments he was not eligible to receive under the federal government’s crop-insurance program. The documents say Lowrey and his wife had maxed out the benefits they could receive.

Lowrey obtained about $240,000 worth of crop-insurance indemnities and subsidies from 2007 through 2012. Court documents say the payments are considered government property.