China will begin sales of cotton stockpiles next month, and the auctions will continue through August. Chinese officials announced last week total sales will not exceed two million metric tons. China plans to gradually reduce stockpiles to a “reasonable” level and prices are expected to be more attractive than in auctions last year. China tried to sell one million tons of cotton last year but fell far short, selling only 63,000 some tons because buyers considered the asking price too high. China will sell most of the cotton to domestic buyers, but the sale could impact global prices by reducing foreign cotton demand from Chinese buyers, according to the Wall Street Journal. China ended up with about 60 percent of the world’s cotton stockpiles after it introduced a program in March of 2011 that buys domestic cotton at a set price above those set by the global market.

The National Corn Growers Association and other agriculture organizations are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to postpone a meeting scheduled for Tuesday related to the pesticide chlorpyrifos. EPA is proposing a plan to eliminate the use chlorpyrifos, used for combating pests such as soybean aphids, spider mites and corn rootworm. NCGA, along with 41 other farm organizations, sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy arguing the Science Advisory Panel meeting was “hastily called.” DTN reports a decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Appeals Court in San Francisco pressured the agency to make a decision by October of last year, on whether or not it would establish food tolerances for the insecticide. EPA stated it did not have the data needed to do so and instead would pursue a ban.

World economics will continue to challenge U.S. agriculture, according to the latest Farm Credit Administration’s quarterly report on economic conditions. The challenges, according to the report released Thursday, include weak global growth, divergent monetary policies, a slowing Chinese economy, and a strong dollar. Receipts from crops and animal products are forecasted to be down this year, in part because of continued weakness in export demand. Cash grain prices remain low thanks to an abundance of global supplies. The Administration’s report also provides a recap of the 2015 credit system. The system reported favorable earnings and higher capital levels last year. Loan portfolio credit quality remains good, although credit stress is intensifying, especially for corn and soybean producers. Overall, the credit system continues to be financially safe and sound and is well-positioned for the current risk environment, according to the report.

U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee ranking Democrat Debbie Stabenow says the Commodity Futures Trading Commission reauthorization bill has no chance of passage on the Senate floor. The Senate Agriculture Committee Thursday voted 11 to 9, along party lines, to pass the reauthorization bill, sending it on to the full Senate. Committee Chairman Pat Roberts says the bill will bring certainty for end-users of derivatives, such as farmers and ranchers. Stabenow, who offered an amendment to the bill, said Democrats voted against it because the bill does not provide additional funding for the CFTC to regulate the futures market, according to the Hagstrom Report. Stabenow proposed an amendment that would have allowed the CFTC to charge user fees to market participants, but the committee voted against her proposal. The fees would have generated more funding for the CFTC.

CropLife International says every crop protection product that reaches the market costs $286 million and takes 11 years of research and development. A new report published this week found the industry spent a total of $2.6 billion on innovations in 2014. The report, commissioned by CropLife International and the European Crop Protection Association, found the cost of bringing a new product to market has increased 55 percent since the turn of the century. The research says the rising cost are attributed to the increasing volume and complexity of environmental safety and toxicology data required by regulatory bodies. Meanwhile, the time commitment to bring a product to market has increased from eight years in 1995 to more than 11 years now, reflecting the rigorous research and development phase and delays in regulatory decisions, according to the report.