WASHINGTON, May, 4, 2016 - Donald Trump is turning his sights on
Hillary Clinton after Ted Cruz dropped out of the Republican presidential race
last night following his poor
showing in the Indiana primary.
Trump is making it clear that trade is going to remain a major issue in
his campaign. In his victory speech, Trump declared that Clinton “doesn’t
understand trade,” citing her husband’s signing of the North American Free
Trade Agreement. Trump called NAFTA “perhaps ... the single worst trade deal
ever done.”
The president of the Indiana Farm Bureau, Don Villwock, tells Agri-Pulse that
John Kasich’s decision not to compete in Indiana left the GOP race without a
pro-agriculture candidate, even though farm trade supports 43,000 jobs in the
state.
Villwock has a blunt message for U.S. agriculture about the
presidential race: “The ag community will need to work hard to get the
importance of trade on the ultimate winning candidate's radar screen or get
ready to downsize.”
Bernie Sanders isn’t conceding the Democratic race yet. He won the
Democratic race in Indiana but his path to the nomination remains steep because
of the way delegates are apportioned.
Young wins GOP Senate race. Todd Young easily defeated Marlin
Stutzman in the Republican primary race to succeed retiring Indiana Sen. Dan
Coats. Stutzman, a fourth-generation farmer and Heritage Foundation favorite,
has been one of the most vocal advocates for splitting nutrition from the
“farm” programs in the farm bill.
House Agriculture Committee member Jackie Walorski easily won her GOP
primary race in the 2nd district.
Conservation compliance oversight questioned. USDA’s inspector
general says that the department doesn’t know how well farmers are meeting the
conservation compliance requirements for farm programs and crop insurance. The
Natural Resources Conservation Service is required to spot-check compliance using
data provided by the Farm Service Agency.
But an IG report says the sample reviews have been inadequate because
FSA omitted data on a significant number of tracts, including some that receive
conservation assistance but not commodity payments.
The auditors also took a close look at the 1.3 million tracts provided
to NRCS for last year’s review and found that there was so much double-counting
that there were actually only about 602,000 individual tracts.
The report said the problems take on increased importance since crop
insurance is being added to conservation compliance requirements, which will
require cooperation with the Risk Management Agency. In response to the report,
the three agencies said they are developing a memorandum of understanding to ensure
NRCS has the correct data.
Activists demand action on glyphosate. Friends of the Earth and
several other activists groups will hold a news conference in front of the
White House today to demand that the Environmental Protection Agency end the
use of glyphosate. The groups also claim to have 400,000 names on a petition
that will be delivered to the EPA itself.
The event comes after a bizarre chain of events in connection with an
EPA study of whether the popular herbicide, best known as Roundup, is likely to
cause cancer in humans. A
report posted to the agency’s website last Friday said it wasn’t likely to be a
carcinogen, but the study was pulled from the website Monday. The agency
said that the documents were “preliminary.”
The study was done in response to a controversial finding by the
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that glyphosate would likely
cause cancer in humans.
Oops, they did it again. As if the handling of the glyphosate
report wasn’t strange enough, yesterday the EPA posted, and then removed, an
extensive assessment on the ecological risks of the weedkiller atrazine. The
agency had no immediate response as to why the report was pulled.
The 502-page report found that the “level of concern" for chronic
risks to birds, mammals and fish has been exceeded significantly. The
assessment also says there is a potential for chronic risks to amphibians, as
well as likely impacts to plant biodiversity and plant communities from
off-field exposures via runoff and spray drift.
Syngenta, the primary registrant of atrazine, had no immediate comment
on the report.
State ag agencies back biotech mosquito. The National Association
of State Departments of Agriculture says it’s OK with the release for research
purposes of genetically engineered mosquitoes. The FDA asked for public comment
on a finding that there would be no significant impact from an investigational
release of the mosquitoes to combat the Zika virus.
In its comments,
NASDA says the mosquito “has the potential to be an important technology to
help address and mitigate the human health concerns.”
Farm group to intervene in organic lawsuit. A federal judge in
California has granted the Western Growers Association amicus status to defend
USDA’s guidance for the use of compost on organic farms. The Center for Food
Safety have filed suit to invalidate the guidance on grounds that it doesn’t
require testing of compost to make sure it’s free of disallowed synthetic
substances.
He said it. “Trump's America: North Dakotan spots 1st wolverine in
state since late 1800s, so he shoots it.” - New York Times editor Jonathan
Weisman, tweeting about
a ranch
hand shooting a wolverine that attacked some cattle.
Steve Davies contributed to this report.
