WASHINGTON, June 14, 2016 - North Dakotans will vote today
on whether to maintain the state’s longtime ban on corporate farming. The state
legislature last year voted to allow corporate ownership of dairy and hog
operations under certain restrictions. Voters today are considering
whether to strike down the new law and preserve the longstanding ban
on non-family corporations.
The issue pits the North Dakota Farmers Union against the North Dakota Farm
Bureau. The Farmers Union mobilized a petition drive to get the new
legislation referred to voters. A poll that NDFU
released in March indicated that 75 percent of North Dakotans support
the corporate ban. The Farm Bureau, which supported the legislation, argues
that the corporate farming ban is hamstringing the state’s agriculture sector.
Today’s vote won’t be the end of the issue. The Farm Bureau earlier this month
filed suit to get the corporate farming ban overturned.
China’s soybean production is on the rise. China is on a mission to boost
its soybean production and that could impact imports, according to a newly
released report by
USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.
USDA’s latest supply and demand estimate put
Chinese soybean production for the 2016-17 marketing
year at 12.2 million tons, but the FAS sees it at 12.5 million
tons. But that’s just the beginning, FAS said. China is expected to be
producing at least 18.9 million tons by 2020 thanks to a concerted effort under
the country’s latest “Five Year Development Plan.”
To get there, China is already cutting support for corn production and
subsidizing an increase in soybean planting.
“The government intends for the newly added domestic soybeans to be primarily
directed towards food use,” FAS said in the report. “By 2020, the
government also plans to upgrade the quality of domestic soybeans, increase the
protein content by 2 percent, and oil content by 1 percent from the current
level.”
FAS said the plan may depress imports, but there’s no sign of that happening
yet. China is still forecast to import a record 87 million tons for 2016-17, up
from 83 million for 2015-16.
Groups urge House action on catfish inspection. Groups like Freedom Works,
the Taxpayers Protection Alliance and Heritage Action for America are anxious
for the House to finish what the Senate started and kill USDA’s catfish
inspection program.
In a series of letter to lawmakers and op-eds, the groups are urging the House
to vote on a measure to give back catfish inspection duties to the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) and prevent the expensive process that USDA is going
through now to take on oversight of domestic production and imports.
“If the USDA’s catfish inspection program is not dismantled, American taxpayers
and consumers will end up footing an unnecessary bill,” said David Williams,
president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, in an opinion piece published
Sunday.
Williams and leaders of 11 other groups sent a letter last week to Speaker of
the House Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy asking them to
take up the measure that
the Senate passed on May 25.
Using estimates from
the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the groups compared $14
million that USDA is expected to spend every year and the $700,000 the FDA
spends.
House GOP sets anti-regulation agenda. House Republicans today will roll
out the third part of their campaign agenda - a plan to roll back government
regulations. House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway was part of the task force
that was assigned to develop the proposals. A key priority of the plan will be
to ensure that regulations are minimally intrusive and imposed only as a last
resort. Last week, GOP leaders announced principles for overhauling welfare and
nutrition assistance programs.
He said it: “Researchers at USDA are an incredible treasure to our country
and they don’t get the recognition they deserve because they are so humbling,”
said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack last night at the National Arboretum’s Dinner
Under the Stars event. But the spotlight was actually on the secretary. In
front of major farm and food industry players, including Senate Agriculture
Chairman Pat Roberts, Vilsack was presented with the Arboretum’s Medal of
excellence, which is awarded to “individuals who have made significant
contributions in leadership and advocacy in the utilization and conservation of
plant resources for enhancing the economic, environmental and aesthetic value
of American landscapes.”
Sara Wyant and Phil Brasher contributed to this report.
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