At least two members of the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. board of directors, who were appointed by former Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack to serve four-year terms, were removed last week via a letter from Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation Richard Fordyce. Those removed include former Risk Management Agency Administrator Brandon Willis, who was appointed in 2024, and Michigan farmer Chris Bardenhagen, who was appointed in 2023.
A USDA spokesperson did not respond to our request for comment or to confirm if other board members were also removed. Board members serve at the pleasure of the secretary of agriculture.
Shakeup at USB: The announcement comes after USDA separately failed to reappoint four women United Soybean Board directors, and chose not to appoint a woman who would have been a new director.
“The secretary took the states' second choices and in essence gutted USB of the diversity of women farmers. We are out here on the farms. We matter,” wrote USB past-Chair Vanessa Kummer on LinkedIn. “Why is Brooke Rollins stripping us of our voices and our roles in leadership?”
Susan Watkins, Carla Schultz, Sara Stelter and Dawn Scheier were recommended by their respective states to be USB directors but were not selected by USDA to continue in their roles. In December, Watkins was elected as treasurer and Schultz was elected to the executive committee for the 2026 term.
Asked for a comment on the post, a USDA spokesperson told Agri-Pulse, "the process for each commodity board is slightly different depending on the statutory requirements, but in the case of the [USB], the secretary selects board members from a slate of candidates put forward by state commodity marketing associations.”
Port operator betting big on future Brazilian ag exports
DP World, which operates a terminal at São Paolo’s Santos port, is upgrading its infrastructure with an eye on the continued growth of Brazil’s agriculture industry.
The company is partnering with rail operator Rumo to build a $500 million grain terminal. The project is still awaiting the necessary approvals. Once completed, the terminal will allow for another 8.5 to 9 million tons of grain exports annually and 3 million tons of fertilizer imports, Gabriel Setten, a company spokesperson, told Agri-Pulse during a tour of the port on Tuesday.
The expansion comes on the heels of China’s COFCO opening its largest agricultural port terminal outside China at the port. Once fully operational, it will be able to handle 14.5 million tons of grain, sugar and soybean meal.
DP World is also upgrading its terminal to handle more pulp and container exports.
Photos from Santos port
Workers load a container ship with around 1,000 containers bound for the U.S. West Coast at the DP World terminal in the Santos port.
A worker at DP World’s pulp export facility.
Agri-Pulse’s Oliver Ward taking photos for Daybreak in Brazil. (Agri-Pulse photos)
Millers slam former FDA leader’s petition targeting refined carbs
The North American Millers’ Association has added its voice to those opposing a petition targeting processed refined carbohydrates that include refined flour.
Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler submitted the petition in August, seeking to have FDA revoke the Generally Recognized as Safe designations for refined carbs.
His list includes corn syrup, corn solids, glucose syrups, dextrose, invert sugar, xylose, maltose and high-fructose corn syrups when used in industrial processing. “Nor can flour and starch be considered GRAS when used in extrusion processing,” the petition says.
In a news release, NAMA said that “revoking the GRAS status of flour and other common food ingredients would result in the arbitrary and unnecessary removal from the marketplace of safe, nutritious, and delicious grain foods that Americans have relied on for generations. The scientific consensus does not support this approach.”
“Categorizing grain foods as ‘ultra-processed’ and restricting them from diets could have a negative impact on public health by making it harder for people to get nutrients they are already under-consuming,” the group said.
FDA said in a Feb. 9 letter to Kessler that the petition has “been under continuous review since its submission” and it plans “to have a more fulsome response soon.”
FDA to reassess preservative
The Food and Drug Administration is reassessing the safety of butylated hydroxyanisole, a preservative used in many food products to keep fats and oils from spoiling.
BHA was listed by the agency as Generally Recognized as Safe in 1958 and was approved as a food additive in 1961, according to an FDA press release. In the release, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the scientific community "has raised significant concerns about some chemicals currently in the food supply.”
The FDA published a request for information seeking comments on current uses and safety data for the substance. Makary said in the release that once the BHA assessment is complete, "we expect to conduct similar assessments for butylated hydroxytoluene, a synthetic preservative known as BHT, and azodicarbonamide — a chemical used in yoga mats and also used as a dough conditioner.”
Lawsuit threatened over changes to Iowa impaired waters list
Environmental groups are threatening to sue the Environmental Protection Agency over its decision to leave seven segments of five rivers off a list of impaired waters.
The July decision reversed an earlier determination by EPA that the waterways should be included due to high nitrate levels. Food & Water Watch and the Iowa Environmental Council said the agency provided no scientific justification for the decision.
The waters at issue include “segments of the Cedar, Des Moines, Iowa, Raccoon, and South Skunk Rivers that supply drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people,” the groups said.
Rollins, Hegseth to sign MOU on national farm security plan
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will sign a memorandum of understanding this morning “advancing USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan,” the department said in a media advisory.
In the afternoon, Rollins will participate in a roundtable focused on ending “lawfare” against U.S. farmers. Attending will be Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, EPA Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi, Interior Department Associate Deputy Secretary Karen Budd-Falen, and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky.
Final word
“I'm probably going to have these guys and gals mad at me. But I don't think it helps at all, because, frankly, I don't see that they are keeping up. Maybe they are, but I don't see that they're keeping up with the things that I know that are going on in Washington. And to me, it's a little bit of ‘Look at us. We're still relevant.’” — Texas A & M ag economist Joe Outlaw reacting to a letter sent by former agricultural leaders and executives who warned earlier this week of the “widespread collapse of American agriculture and our rural communities” absent swift action by Congress.
