CDFA held a networking event last week in San Francisco to connect buyers with California suppliers. More than 20 representatives from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South Korea and Taiwan attended, according to the department.
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross stressed that California exports nearly a quarter of its farm production, making trade critical for farmers and ranchers. Ross views California as disproportionately impacted by tariff disruptions and hopes to maintain its global engagement despite the Trump administration’s isolationist strategy.
CDFA hosted the meeting in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s directive earlier this month to pursue new strategic trade partnerships with international partners.
ALRB’s card check fix approved into law — after more fixes
Nearly three years after Newsom signed card check into law, the state has finalized the regulations. The Office of Administrative Law approved the last of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board’s regulatory package earlier this month. The rulemaking implements Newsom’s clean-up bill, removing the shell legislation proposing a vote-by-mail option that was used to mask the original intent, to enact the controversial card check system.
ALRB’s final action in the saga comes after several months of modifications and debates throughout last year, with the ag industry unsuccessfully pressing for more flexibility in the provisions. ALRB submitted the proposed regulations to OAL in January but withdrew them a month later to fix technical errors and then resubmitted them the following month. The regulations became effective this month.
Take note: Wonderful Nurseries LLC is engaged in four separate court cases against ALRB over card check, with two currently on appeal and one in federal court.
EPA allows use of E15 nationwide this summer
In what has turned into an annual tradition, the Environmental Protection Agency approved the use of E15 nationwide this summer, ending any lingering suspense over whether the Trump administration would fail to grant an emergency fuel waiver.
Read our full report at Agri-Pulse.com.
Mexico agrees to immediate Rio Grande water releases
The Mexican government has agreed to immediately transfer Rio Grande water from international reservoirs to the U.S. following a dispute over lagging water deliveries to Texas, the State Department announced Monday.
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Mexico has also agreed to "increase the U.S. share of the flow in six of Mexico's Rio Grande tributaries through the end of the current five-year water cycle," according to a press release.
Read our full report at Agri-Pulse.com.
RFK joins Rollins for look at ag research, sustainable ag
Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins is marking President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office in Texas today with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
RFK Jr., who shook up some in the ag industry with a declaration last week that sugar is “poison,” will visit laboratories at Texas A&M University’s Norman E. Borlaug Building, named for the father of the Green Revolution. He and Rollins also will get a briefing at A&M’s Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture, and they will tour the AgriLife Phenotyping Greenhouse.
Later, Kennedy and Rollins will tour Sawyer Farms, which “focuses on producing grains using sustainable practices which conserve the soil while improving its productivity,” according to the operation’s website.
By the way: USDA is highlighting the administration’s actions on illegal immigration during the first 100 days. In a press release, the department noted, for example, that state agencies have been directed to ensure that illegal immigrants do not receive federal benefits. “[Trump] is fighting to secure the border and hold countries like Mexico accountable for years of mistreatment against the United States,” Rollins said.
Trump’s USDA trade undersecretary pick faces senators
The Senate Ag Committee will vote today on Stephen Vaden’s nomination to be USDA’s deputy secretary and Tyler Clarkson to be general counsel.
The Trump administration’s pick for USDA’s trade undersecretary, Luke Lindberg, also appears before the committee for his confirmation hearing. The America First Policy Institute fellow will face questions on ag opportunities in ongoing tariff negotiations and the scope of any assistance to U.S. growers, lawmakers tell Agri-Pulse.
Committee Chair John Boozman, R-Ark., said producers continue to believe Trump will use tariffs to help U.S. farm products compete in foreign markets. “There's a lot of talk about talking to other countries and things like that,” Boozman said. “I think everybody's anxious to find out where we're at, and what he sees as the path forward.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., wants assurances that specialty crop producers impacted by retaliatory tariffs will receive assistance as part of any program stood up.
“They’ve traditionally not really been able to access much of that kind of funding,” Schiff said. “They weren't in the first Trump administration. So those are going to be some of my concerns.”
Mexico says it’s strengthening screwworm response
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says her government is bolstering its response to New World screwworm, just days after Rollins urged her counterpart to step up eradication efforts.
“There are many control systems that already existed in Mexico, but now we are strengthening them starting from the southern border,” Sheinbaum told reporters at a press conference on Monday.
Rollins wrote to Mexico’s agriculture minister, Julio Berdegué, on Saturday warning that if Mexico did not improve its policy response, the U.S. would reimpose trade restrictions.
The next day, Berdegué said in a post to X that he had responded to Rollins, but did not say whether his government would meet her policy demands.
“We collaborate, we cooperate, but we never submit,” Berdegué’s post reads, according to an informal translation.
Mexican officials did not respond to Agri-Pulse’s questions on Berdegué’s response.
USDA to lead Hong Kong trade mission
USDA will lead more than three dozen U.S. businesses on a trade mission to Hong Kong next month, including representatives from the grain, dairy, rice, soybean and wheat sectors. Participants will meet with buyers from both Hong Kong and the Philippines, and the mission coincides with a large food and hospitality trade show, USDA’s statement says.
Although Hong Kong exports were hit by recent U.S. tariff escalation on imports from China, China’s retaliatory tariffs do not hit Hong Kong-bound U.S. exports. Hong Kong is a separate customs territory and maintains zero tariffs. “
Hong Kong is a key gateway for U.S. agricultural exports, connecting our farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses with one of the most dynamic markets in Asia,” said the Foreign Agricultural Service’s Mark Slupek, who will lead the trade mission.
Biden USDA official concerned about cuts
A former USDA under secretary told a group of agricultural journalists on Monday that he fears the agency has been “severely weakened as an institute to service agriculture” following staff cutbacks.
Robert Bonnie, who in the Biden administration served as under secretary for farm production and conservation, told members of the North American Agricultural Journalists that he’s worried about “very senior people” leaving the department.
For instance, he pointed to the departure of Tim Griffiths, who led Natural Resources Conservation Service’s National Sage Grouse Initiative until Friday. He expressed concern about potential departures of senior officials working on wildfire response, which he worries could hamper federal efforts to fight fires this summer.
Take note: Bonnie also said he worries cuts to conservation resources have impacted a network of nonfederal agencies that help USDA fulfill conservation and technical assistance work.
“The pullback in resources on the conservation side has severely hampered the ability of those organizations to work in partnership with NRCS to get work done on the ground,” he said.
Final word
“It’s critical that every funding tool be available to improve affordability.” — Cannon Michael, board chair of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority. Michael applauded another effort to make water authorities eligible for federal water infrastructure loans.
