Between 2017 and 2018, U.S. ethanol consumption dropped for the first time in two decades. The Renewable Fuels Association says the decline follows years of rising numbers of waivers being handed out to oil refiners by the Environmental Protection Agency in order to subvert the requirements of the Renewable Fuels Standard. The waivers have destroyed demand for at least 2.6 billion gallons of ethanol.

National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson says U.S. farmers and ethanol producers are struggling through the most difficult economy in years while the Administration continues to undermine its own promises to support the ethanol industry. “The actions on the part of the Trump Administration to subvert the will of Congress, undermine the positive growth of the U.S. biofuels industry and destroy demand for U.S. farm products is appalling,” Johnson says. “The President has promised family farmers for more than two years to advance the biofuels industry, and thereby to expand markets for U.S. farm products.”

Johnson also points out that the president’s actions, as well as those of his EPA, are to blame for family farmers losing significant markets. “The handing out of these waivers to large corporations must end immediately,” Johnson says, “and the demand that has been destroyed to date must be made up in future RFS obligations.”

An intense winter storm known in weather-forecasting lingo as a “bomb cyclone” of snow and wind has stranded a large number of drivers and shut down roads across the Rockies and Plains States. MPR News Dot Org says blizzard conditions were expected to continue in multiple states through the end of last week, including Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, as well as parts of Minnesota.

The storm even reached as far south as Texas. There was widespread flooding, power outages, as well as numerous canceled flights. The Nebraska Lincoln Journal Star reports that very heavy rains have trapped cattle in fields, forcing ranchers on dangerous rescue missions in 40-mile-per-hour winds. Faulkton, South Dakota beef producer Troy Hadrick posted a video on Twitter this week saying they had to turn around twice because of heavy snow and wind when trying to get to their barns to feed cows.

Visibility was so low that they couldn’t see where they were going. Colorado Public Radio says the National Guard was called out to help stranded drivers on highways. Photos of flooding in states like Nebraska are popping up all throughout various social media platforms.

The European Union currently has a quota in place that allows up to 45,000 tons of hormone-free beef imports. Thanks to a new agreement between Washington and Brussels, 35,000 of those tons will come from U.S. beef producers. Politico says it’s important to remember the deal still needs approval from EU nations and the United States.

As part of the new agreement, Brussels wants Washington to declare a final settlement in the original 2009 World Trade Organization dispute over the EU’s hormone-treated beef ban. The guaranteed share of the quota for American producers would be phased in over a five-year period. Australia, Uruguay, and other major U.S. competitors could still file a WTO lawsuit against the European Union, claiming they’re being discriminated against in favor of U.S. exports.

While the EU is still against including agriculture in a potential deal with the U.S., Politico says the EU is trying to ease tensions with President Donald Trump through “one-off” moves like the beef deal, buying more soybeans, and approving oilseeds for use in European biofuel production.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Federal authorities say 1 million pounds of pork products allegedly smuggled from China have been seized at a New Jersey port.

Troy Miller, field operations director for the Customs and Border Protection in New York and New Jersey, says it’s the largest agricultural seizure ever made in the United States.

.@CBP NYFO Director Troy Miller, Acting Port Director Port of New York/Newark Stephen Maloney and Chief CBP Agriculture Specialist Basil Liakakos host media event discussing recent seized shipments of food products from China that may be contaminated with African Swine Fever pic.twitter.com/aZdEBoxtbf

— CBP New York City (@CBPNewYorkCity) March 15, 2019

Officials feared the meat could be contaminated with African swine fever virus, which has killed more than a million pigs in China. It’s not dangerous to humans, but officials say an outbreak in America could cause $10 billion in damage to the pork industry in just one year.

Officials say the pork was smuggled over several weeks in containers where it was hidden by packages of noodles and laundry detergent. They say the meat was “primarily cured,” and the cargo containers were not refrigerated.

To no surprise, the drought monitor shows a shrinkage of dry conditions throughout the nation compared to trends over the last year, but parts of Texas and the west remain dry. Conditions have improved in parts of the south, which received rain late in the last week that allowed a retreat of drought conditions.

In the west, improving long-term soil moisture deficits, building snow pack, and the filling of reservoirs, are all leading to more widespread drought improvement. Still, roughly 47 percent of Texas remains in a classified drought, and states like Colorado, Utah and Oregon, are covered in drought classifications. Further, northern New Mexico has extreme and exceptional drought conditions. The Midwest and plains states remain saturated from above normal winter precipitation, and the Missouri River was expected to reach at or near record flood stages.

Evacuations were issued in Northwestern Missouri and in areas of Iowa and Nebraska. By Thursday afternoon, flood warnings, watches, or advisories covered more than half of Nebraska and Iowa, and nearly the entirety of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, with an abundance of advisories and watches in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and even throughout the Pacific Northwest.

To the dismay of the ethanol industry, the Environmental Protection Agency has issued five new small refinery exemptions for 2017. The EPA is also being petitioned two grant two additional waivers for 2018. Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor called the action a “slap in the face” to rural communities, noting that the new exemptions bring the total gallons of lost demand to 2.6 billion in 2016-2017.

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper called the announcement “extremely disappointing and outrageous.” Under the Renewable Fuel Standard, refineries must demonstrate each year that they have blended certain volumes of renewable fuel into the nations fuel supply. The EPA can issue the waivers to small refiners if they prove compliance would impose a “disproportionate economic impact” on them.

However, the Trump administration’s EPA has issued and alarming number of waivers, and to refiners of all sizes, according to the ethanol industry. Ethanol industry groups last year filed lawsuits against the EPA regarding the misuse of small refiner exemptions.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is demanding the Trump Administration force the European Union to include agriculture in upcoming trade talks. A group of 114 lawmakers penned a letter this week to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer stating, “an agreement with the EU that does not address trade in agriculture would be, in our eyes, unacceptable.”

The U.S. and EU recently reached a tentative agreement to allow the U.S. access to the EU hormone-free beef quota, but the EU is pushing back against talking ag in a broader trade negotiation. The group of lawmakers say any agreement between the EU and the U.S. without agriculture “would be deficient, significantly jeopardizing Congressional support.”

USTR Lighthizer does seem to agree, telling lawmakers earlier this week that the U.S. “cannot have a trade deal with the EU without agriculture,” adding “we’re at a stalemate and we’ll see how that develops.” The letter was organized by House Republicans Jackie Walorksi and Virginia Foxx, along with House Democrats Ron Kind and Angie Craig.