A Reuters report says the European Union has agreed to allow U.S. farmers a bigger share of the European beef market. EU sources and diplomats all tell Reuters that the move could help calm down some transatlantic trade tensions. The deal will give America a guaranteed share of a 45,000-ton EU quota for hormone-free beef, the quota was agreed to back in 2009.

That helped to settle another dispute that had arisen over the EU ban on the use of growth hormones in meat. U.S. farmers initially dominated the agreed-upon quota. However, under the World Trade Organization rules, it also had to be made available to suppliers outside of the U.S. Australia, Uruguay, and Argentina have grown their share of the quota, pushing the U.S. piece of the pie down to about 30 percent.

The European Commission, which coordinates trade policy for the 28 EU countries, agreed to the deal with the U.S. American farmers gain an initial 18,500 tons of the quota, rising to 35,000 tons after seven years.

Unionized employees of the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture demonstrated to show they weren’t happy about relocating to Kansas City. Several employees rose and turned their backs to Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue during an afternoon meeting to talk about relocating their agencies to Kansas City’s metropolitan area.

The Hagstrom Report says the protest was put together by the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that employees in both agencies recently joined. The Federation said to its newest members that, “We believe it’s important to forcefully, yet respectfully, convey that ERS and NIFA staff members are nearly unanimous in their opposition to the move.” The organization also says the move to KC is nothing but an “attempt to undermine the employees’ scientific work.”

Local Union President Dave Verardo says, “The researchers and other stakeholders we work with don’t want us to move. They want us to stay right here in Washington, where we can easily coordinate with the other federal science agencies.” Verardo also says Perdue has stated the rush to finalize the relocation is him attempting to limit the burden on employees. “In reality, his announcement does nothing but increase the loss of mission-critical staff who can’t or won’t make the move,” he adds.

The National Biodiesel Board thanked a handful of senators for introducing legislation that would require small refineries to petition for Renewable Fuels Standard hardship exemptions by June first of every year. The legislation would also require the Environmental Protection Agency to properly account for exempted gallons in the annual Renewable Volume Obligations it sets each November.

Kurt Kovarik, NBB Vice President of Federal Affairs, says his organization appreciates the efforts to end EPA’s rampant use of small refinery exemptions to undermine the RFS. “Over the past two years, EPA retroactively granted RFS hardship exemptions to nearly every refiner that asked,” Kovarik says. “When EPA issues retroactive small refinery exemptions and refuses to account for the lost gallons in annual volumes, it very-much cuts the legs out from under the RFS.”

He says the exemptions handed out in 2015,2016, and 2017 destroyed demand for more than 360 million gallons of biodiesel and renewable diesel. NBB says it conservatively estimates the demand destruction of 364 million gallons of biomass-based diesel. The University of Illinois estimates the economic harm to biodiesel producers to be $7.7. billion dollars.

There still aren’t any formalized plans for U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet at the upcoming G20 Summit in Japan. Politico says that’s the latest update from chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow. Trump has said there is no deadline for imposing even more tariffs on Chinese imports. However, he’s also threatened to make a move if Xi refuses to meet in Japan.

So far, the president has imposed a 25 percent tariff on Chinese goods, which caused China to set up retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, especially agriculture products like soybeans and pork. Trump is taking action to potentially impose the same tariff on almost all remaining Chinese imports, worth about $300 billion. Some of those import targets include things like cell phones, clothing, footwear, televisions, and other electronics.

Politico says Kudlow emphasized that the administration is still looking at strong-arming China. Kudlow recently took part in an on-stage discussion with Fred Bergsten, president emeritus of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He said there’s only one way to get to an agreement with China. “You kick some butt, in my best economic analytical quantitative regression analysis,” Kudlow says.

STOCKTON, Mo. (AP) — Many residents of a rural southwestern Missouri county are critical of a state law that restricts how much local authorities can regulate industrial feedlots and say they feel betrayed by their local representatives who backed the legislation.

Speakers at a community meeting Wednesday in Cedar County said they supported ordinances introduced by county commissioners designed to protect them from the massive hog farms that they say cause pollution and depreciate property values, the Springfield News-Leader reported .

Ed McEowan said a hog-raising operation opened up next to his home in the southeast of the county more than a decade ago. He spoke of how going outside or even opening windows became impossible due to the smell of ammonia and feces, and the sound of thousands of hogs squealing. The value of his property dropped.

“Then the depression comes, because you feel like everything you’ve ever worked for on the place and built up has all come to nothing,” McEowan said.

County rules now in place prevent industrial farms from setting up too close to homes and vulnerable waterways that could become polluted by manure runoff, according to county treasurer Peggy Kenney.

“We didn’t do it to keep anyone out,” she said. “We didn’t do it to hinder agriculture in any way.”

The legislation signed into law last month prevents counties from adopting stricter rules governing concentrated animal feeding operations than those at the state level. The law takes effect Aug. 28.

Tim Gibbons, the Missouri Rural Crisis Center’s communications director, called the legislation “an attack on our fundamental rights” that must be stopped.

Attendees applauded a proclamation that communities need “local control, not corporate control” and that their “future depends on it.”

In a separate interview, Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst told the newspaper that his parents live about a quarter of a mile from an operation in northwest Missouri. He said the smell is only an issue a few days a year, and the well water is just fine.

“We’re living the dream here, and it has not changed our quality of life,” he said.

Rep. Warren Love, whose district covers northern Cedar County, said he voted for the bill, and that if residents don’t like the rules, they know what to do.

“If you want to live where there’s no livestock, go live somewhere in the city limits,” Love said.

Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin is demanding that President Trump release more details of the deal he announced with Mexico to increase U.S. ag exports. Over the weekend, Trump said on Twitter that “Mexico has agreed to immediately begin buying large quantities of agricultural product from our great Patriot farmers.”

However, the administration hasn’t given out any details of this claim and there isn’t a lot of evidence to back it up. The Mexican Foreign Minister denies there is an agricultural element to the agreement with the U.S, saying Mexico didn’t “immediately begin to do anything different” regarding American agricultural products. Agricultural trade staff members said earlier in the week that they had no details on the supposed agreement with Mexico.

Baldwin says in the letter, “Farmers need full details of the agreement in order to make the many decision they need to that affect their livelihood and business. I’m asking that you release details of this agreement or announce that one never actually existed.”

American Farm Bureau analysis says farmers in five Midwestern states claimed just about half of the more than $8.5 billion in trade help from the USDA as compensation for losses due to trade disputes. The analysis shows that Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Indiana received just about half of the Market Facilitation Program payments that have been made up to May 13.

Retaliatory tariffs have been especially hard on soybeans, so soybean farmers received a large share of payment help. The average payment rate was $1.65 per bushel, so soybean producers have received $7 billion as of May 13. Cotton payments were calculated at six cents per pound, with producers receiving payments totaling $471 million. Dairy received just two percent of payments sent out as of May 13, coming in at $180 million in assistance.

Corn producers also received only two percent of payments so far. The payment rate for corn farmers was one cent per bushel, with farmers receiving about $132 million. The American Farm Bureau says those direct payments are “no replacement for lost markets.” However, they do help farmers meet some immediate financial needs.