Trump announces agreement to end hostilities
President Donald Trump announced a “deal” with Iran Sunday involving the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said on X that “both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
The strait has been effectively closed to ships from the U.S for more than 100 days. While fuel and some fertilizer prices have eased a bit lately, they remain elevated. Trump has told family farmers struggling to stay afloat that surging inflation will fall rapidly when conflict ends and the strait reopens.
The potential of a worsening economy if the war continues has made Republicans nervous ahead of high-stakes congressional and state elections in November.
Approval rating drops: The announcement could help revive the president’s sagging poll numbers showing Trump continuing to lose support among voters as the midterm elections edge closer.
The president’s approval rating hit 42% in a poll from NBC News released June 14, with 57% of voters disapproving. Republicans continue to support the president, with 82% of them approving of the job he’s doing, 58% "strongly." In March, 63% said they strongly approved.
His approval rating with rural Americans hit a new low of 50% and fell to 39% overall, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
California startup completes first full conversion of raw dairy biogas to jet fuel
Circularity Fuels says it has completed the world’s first end-to-end conversion of raw agricultural biogas into sustainable aviation fuel, putting the California startup closer to making SAF at a cost rivaling standard jet fuel.
Through a six-month pilot project drawing biogas directly from a California dairy farm’s manure digester, the firm produced drop-in jet fuel that meets an approved SAF pathway involving biomass gasification, the company said in a statement on Monday.
The trial’s success puts commercial SAF within reach of being about a fifth the capital cost of green jet fuel plants currently under construction in Europe, an achievement that would make Circularity’s SAF cost-competitive with fossil jet fuel, according to the statement.
“The hard part of this industry was never designing a theoretical plant that could make SAF. It was proving you could do it continuously, from real biogas, at a cost that pencils,” said Stephen Beaton, founder and CEO of Circularity Fuels. “We’ve now done that.”
SAF production is roughly two to five times costlier than that of traditional airplane fuel, posing a major barrier to greater investment in the development biofuel market.
Georgia Senate runoff in focus as Trump backs Rep. Mike Collins
Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., won an endorsement from Trump less than 48 hours before his Senate primary election in Georgia.
The runoff on Tuesday between Collins and his Republican rival, former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, is the latest test of the MAGA movement Trump built a decade ago.
Collins, seen as the “more MAGA-friendly candidate,” is considered the frontrunner in the runoff election, though Dooley “may be the stronger potential general election candidate against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff,” say Jessica Taylor, an analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Cook has a “lean Democrat” rating on the Georgia race.
Wisconsin dairy farmers sue USDA over checkoff
Three Wisconsin dairy farmers are suing the Agriculture Department over its dairy checkoff program, arguing that the mandatory fees they pay to promote dairy products are being improperly used to fund environmental and sustainability programs they oppose.
Among the grievances listed by the producers in the lawsuit is a memorandum of understanding between USDA and the nonprofit Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy committing to dairy industry environmental stewardship goals. They say the “primary mission” of the Innovation Center is to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050 and allege that by supporting the Innovation Center, the dairy checkoff is not being used strictly for dairy promotion efforts.
"The message promoting that as a primary goal of the dairy industry is, at best, neutral but not germane to the regulatory interests prescribed for Dairy Checkoff fund use,” they allege in the lawsuit. "At worst, the message directly opposes those interests by accusing the dairy industry of harming the environment."
Forest Service employees told to open more land to grazing, improve relations with ranchers
Forest Service employees are being directed to use their authority to grant temporary grazing on unallocated forage, expand grazing to at least 500,000 head months over two years, speed up permitting and improve relationships with ranchers, according to a memo released by agency leaders on Friday.
The directive calls on the Forest Service to “take appropriate measures” to restore at least 500,000 head months of grazing over the next two years, noting that grazing on Forest Service lands has declined by “nearly 1 million” head months between 1966 and 2022. A head month is a measure of one cow on an allotment for one month.
It also says the agency should offer temporary grazing to producers, noting that many are seeing a dry grazing season this year. Additionally, the memo calls for employees to “treat ranchers with courtesy and respect at all times,” respond within three business days of a correspondence, and “eliminate retaliation” and “targeted enforcement."
Screwworm case count up to 12 as pest spreads northward in Texas
The Agriculture Department’s count of confirmed New World screwworm cases has reached 12, with new cases appearing in Texas’s Tom Green, Sutton, Edwards and Zavala counties last week.
The agency confirmed three cases in cattle and one in goats on Thursday and one case in sheep on Friday, according to its online tracker.
Pro-Prop 12 group starts $30M ad blitz ahead of Senate farm bill
A national $30 million ad campaign is blanketing key midterm election states and districts with a message against efforts to dismantle state animal welfare laws, such as California’s Proposition 12.
The American Meat Producers Association is launching the ads across television, radio and digital platforms. AMPA, which declines to identify its funders by name, says it’s backed by companies and groups that care about the “real-world impact” of ag policies.
The group also announced a new hybrid political action committee, the American Meat Producers PAC, which will pursue an independent expenditure campaign.
AMPA’s latest messaging push is timed to the expected release this month of a Senate farm bill. The goal is to keep a version of the so-called Save Our Bacon Act out of the legislation. The measure was part of a House-passed farm bill in April.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., has said language to nullify state laws like Prop 12 won’t be included in the Senate farm bill because it is too divisive and would jeopardize passage of the legislation. Still, lawmakers could attempt to add the provision when the bill is up for a vote on the Senate floor.
A growing chorus of Republican lawmakers have come out against the Save Our Bacon Act and similar measures. Last week, Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., withdrew his support from a Senate bill that would eliminate Prop 12, with his office saying he had bigger legislative priorities right now.
The AMPA campaign includes an ad in Kansas thanking the senator, according to the group.
Final word
“The full stack works end-to-end on real feedstock from a real dairy farm, and the economics put commercial SAF from dairy waste within reach of fossil jet fuel.” — Stephen Beaton, founder and CEO of California startup Circularity Fuels, on his company’s success in completing the first end-to-end conversion of raw agricultural biogas into sustainable aviation fuel.
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