The fiscal year Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill includes a provision that would stop new restrictions on fertilizer sales. North Dakota Democratic Senator John Hoeven says the bill moved out of committee on Thursday and would also stop the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from forcing agriculture retailers to comply with the same chemical storage requirements as wholesale facilities, according to the Hagstrom Report. Hoeven says the provision is needed because the OSHA regulations, yet to be implemented, have already caused nine facilities to close in North Dakota. Hoeven says the OSHA proposal would cause many retailers to stop selling to farmers at rural locations and threatened to limit the supply of anhydrous ammonia, a nitrogen fertilizer that is vital to farmers.

The American Bankers Association told Congress last week the growing volume of bank regulation is making it harder for America’s hometown banks to meet the needs of their customers, particularly in rural communities. Testifying in front of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, CEO of the Oklahoma Bankers Association, Roger Beverage, told lawmakers regulation shapes the way banks do business and can help or hinder the smooth functioning of the credit cycle. Beverage testified that the new regulatory atmosphere – not the local economic conditions – is often the tipping point that drives small banks to merge, noting that there are nearly 1,500 fewer banks than there were five years ago. First National Bank CEO Shan Hanes of Kansas told lawmakers that overregulation on rural America hinders growth for rural communities. Hanes also claimed the Farm Credit System puts rural banks on an uneven playing field.

Farm Credit made nearly 80,000 new loans to beginning farmers and ranchers last year totaling nearly $13 billion. The Farm Credit Administration says the number of loans made to beginning producers increased by 12.2 percent, 5,000 loans more than 2014. Loans to beginning farmers accounted for 22 percent of all loans made by Farm Credit. Officials say last year the average size Farm Credit loan to a beginning farmer or rancher was up slightly from 2014 to almost $160,000. Meanwhile, over the past ten years, new loans made by Farm Credit to beginning farmers increased by more than 45 percent. Each year, Farm Credit lenders specifically report their loan activities in support of beginning farmers and those results are reviewed by the Farm Credit Administration, the federal regulator that oversees Farm Credit activity, and reports the activity to Congress.

The Dairy Farmers of America cooperative has agreed to a $50 million revised settlement paid to Northeast U.S. dairy farmers. The settlement stems from a class-action lawsuit that accused the marketing group of trying to drive down milk prices. The revised settlement includes new protections to prevent retaliation to farmers that was missing from a settlement proposal denied by a federal judge in March, according to Reuters. Settlement papers were filed on Thursday and require approval by a U.S. District Judge. If approved, the cooperative will pay an average of $4,000 to more than 8,000 dairy farms. The lawsuit was filed in 2009 when farmers accused Dairy Farmers of America, its Dairy Marketing Services arm and dairy processor Dean Foods of conspiring to monopolize the market for raw Grade A milk in 11 U.S. states stretching from New Hampshire to Virginia. Dean Foods reached a $30 million settlement in the case in 2011. The Kansas City, Missouri-based Dairy Farmers of America did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, according to court documents.

Staffers for members of the Senate Agriculture Committee are continuing negotiations on reaching a compromise for a national GMO labeling law. A key Senate aide told The Hagstrom Report this week that staff members for the committee are working on reaching an agreement on behalf of Republican chairman Pat Roberts and the committee’s ranking Democrat Debbie Stabenow. Less than two weeks of working days remain for Congress to pass a compromise that would supersede the Vermont mandatory GMO labeling law taking effect July first. The Coalition for a Safe Affordable Food Supply also noted that a New York state law continues to advance, and that the law was an indication of the danger of more states considering state laws with differences, potentially causing “chaos in the marketplace.”

General Mills this week announced a strategic sourcing partnership with the largest organic cooperative in the United States. The partnership with Wisconsin-based Organic Valley will help about 20 dairy farms add around 3,000 acres to organic dairy production. The program will assist General Mills to double the organic acreage from which it sources ingredients by 2019. Since 2009, General Mills has increased the organic acreage it supports by 120 percent. Also, General Mills will launch the Organic and Regenerative Agriculture Transition Council. The council, according to the company, will bring together sustainable agricultural leaders, farmers and industry stakeholders with the mission of advancing organic agriculture practices. General Mills attributes the moves to USDA data that says demand for organic food is increasing in the Unites States, but supply has not been able to keep up.

Researchers from four universities are teaming up with dairy farms across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to study the impact of manure management practices on antibiotic resistance. The $1 million project, funded by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will evaluate antibiotic-resistant bugs in dairy cow manure, how they survive treatment systems and whether any residuals end up on farm fields. Although there is no direct evidence of resistance spreading from antibiotic use on dairy farms, USDA is funding the research because of the potential risk. A team of scientists will evaluate how well three different waste-processing techniques — anaerobic digestion, composting, and long-term storage — remove drugs and germs in mannure.