Amid the budget turmoil on Capitol Hill, the House Budget Committee is set to consider a partisan, fiscal 2024 budget resolution today.
The resolution won’t require any cuts to farm bill spending, but it doesn’t provide any new money either, despite an appeal from the House Agriculture Committee for funding to bolster commodity programs.
House Agriculture Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., told Agri-Pulse the resolution provides a “very clear statement” there should “be no cuts to agriculture." But the Ag Committee’s top Democrat, David Scott of Georgia, said in a statement the resolution “shortchanges the farm bill, focuses on tax cuts for the rich, and undermines the bipartisan work we do on the House Agriculture Committee every day.”
Take note: Stabenow and Thompson are both welcoming the $2.5 billion in funding that Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is providing for market promotion and international food aid. Thompson, however, expressed concern that Vilsack was able to sidestep Congress by using his Commodity Credit Corporation authority to fund the initiatives.
For more on these farm bill issues, read our weekly Agri-Pulse newsletter.
Vilsack: Still more applicants than money available in conservation programs, despite IRA dollars
The Agriculture Department is still unable to meet all of the demand for four popular conservation programs despite the $850 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding the agency has been authorized to spend this year, Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday.
Vilsack, speaking at an Axios event, said the department has received more than $2.5 billion in requests for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, Regional Conservation Partnership Program, and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.
“The demand is extraordinary,” Vilsack said. “We got three-and-a-half times the amount of demand than we have money.”
Cheap Russian wheat lowers international prices
A large Russian wheat crop this year combined with a weakening ruble and strong dollar is hurting prospects for U.S. wheat exporters, according to a new CoBank analysis.
And the potential for severe volatility is high, with strong international demand and tight supplies outside Russia.
“The major risk to (U.S.) elevators in the year ahead is a sharp rally in wheat prices,” according to the report. “With the global wheat (stocks-to-use) ratio outside of China and Russia historically low and stocks in major wheat exporting countries historically tight, potential disruptions to Russian exports in the Black Sea could result in extreme market volatility.”
Brazil soy planting kicks off in the South
The harvest of Brazil’s second-crop corn is nearly complete – about 97% - and some farmers in the south of the country have already begun planting their primary soybean crop, according to the consulting firm AgRural.
Farmers in the southern state of Paraná are already in the fields, planting what will be the 2023-24 soybean crop while farmers on the largest soy state – Mato Grosso – are waiting for better weather, the firm says.
“With Mato Grosso still slow, the one driving the pace of soybean planting at the moment is Paraná, where soil moisture is better and encourages producers from the west and southwest to enter the field,” says AgRural. “The continuity of the good pace, however, could be hampered this week by the weather.”
USDA proposes SNAP quality control updates
USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service published a proposed rule to ensure households eligible to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program assistance get the correct benefits.
“The proposed rule aims to increase state agency efficiency, reduce the amount of time that state staff spend verifying household circumstances, and improve the quality and timeliness of the SNAP payment accuracy data,” according to an update from the agency.
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The rule would modernize how state agencies conduct quality control reviews, including a provision to allow telephone interviews as the primary interview method.
AFIA on Capitol Hill talking trade, farm bill and ADUFA reauthorization
The American Feed Industry Association has 30 different scheduled Capitol Hill visits with 46 members over the next two days to highlight the organization’s priorities on trade, the farm bill and the inclusion of the Innovative Feed Enhancement and Economic Development bill to the reauthorization of the Animal Drug User Fee Act set to expire at the end of this month.
“It’s great timing to be in town. It’s going to be exciting for the members to kind of feel the buzz that’s going around,” Leah Wilkinson, AFIA vice president of public policy and education, told Agri-Pulse.
As it relates to farm bill priorities, AFIA supports an increase in funding for the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development Program; enhanced utilization of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, and Conservation Stewardship Program – CSP – for feed management; and a mandatory funding level of $8 billion in ag research.
She said it: “California is its own country.” That was Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., talking about regional struggles in putting together a farm bill.
“The farm bill is not normally partisan,” she said at an event hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center. “It’s regions. It’s what you grow. It’s a struggle between the North and South or Midwest, Northeast. California is its own country.” The California comment drew laughter and Stabenow quickly followed up, saying, “We love California.”
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