WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2016 - Tom Vilsack will be back on
Capitol Hill today in what could be his last appearance before Congress as
agriculture secretary. He’ll be answering questions from the Senate Agriculture
Committee. The slumping farm economy is certain to be a topic as well as the
farm bill.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, are working to wrap up a number of
loose ends in Washington so they can head home to campaign.
‘Outside chance’ for school meal bill. In addition to
passing a stopgap funding bill to keep the government running after the new
fiscal year starts Oct. 1, it’s still possible that the Senate could take up a
child nutrition reauthorization bill. The legislation has been stalled since it
came out of committee in January.
Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., has been trying to
get unanimous consent to bring the bill on the floor but he says some senators
are insisting that they still need time to study the legislation. “We haven’t
given up,” Roberts told Agri-Pulse. “There’s an outside chance” it could
pass.
The bill would
reauthorize nutrition programs for five years. The bill is a top priority for
fruit and vegetable growers because it largely preserves the higher school meal
standards implemented under a 2010 law.
WRDA resolution must wait for lame duck. Another piece
of unfinished business for Congress is a two-year authorization of water
resource projects, including locks and dams and ports. House Majority Leader
Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, said yesterday that the House will deal with the
legislation after the election.
The
Senate passed its version of the bill last week. The Senate
legislation includes a provision to give farms some relief from environmental
regulations on fuel and feed tanks.
Farm, biofuel groups lobby for tax extenders. The
American Farm Bureau Federation and several other farm groups are joining with
rural electric co-ops and the biofuel industry in an appeal to
Congress to extend a series of tax breaks set to expire at the end of December.
The expiring provisions include the $1-a-gallon tax credit that subsidizes
ethanol as well as tax breaks for cellulosic ethanol and E85 pumps.
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is
concerned about an expiring tax credit that helps offset the cost for geothermal
heat pumps.
Seed, chemical firms say they’re prepared to divest. Executives
with Dow, DuPont and Bayer say they won’t have any trouble finding buyers for
some of their seed businesses if the Justice Department forces them to divest
assets. That was one of the key takeaways from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s
hearing yesterday on the three pending mega-deals in the seed and agrochemical
industry.
Dow and DuPont already are in talks with Justice, but
officials wouldn’t say what was being discussed. BASF was identified as one
possible buyer for some of their business.
Syngenta CEO Erik Fyrwald told the skeptical senators that
his company’s acquisition by ChemChina would encourage the Chinese government
to speed up its approvals of new biotech traits. There’s concern that the deal
will have the opposite impact.
For more on the hearing read this week’s Agri-Pulse
newsletter.
Rival group forms for organic growers. A new
organization has formed to promote the interests of organic farmers. Rodale
Institute of Kutztown, Pa., which calls itself “the world’s leading organic
agriculture research organization,” is launching the new Organic Farmers
Association.
OFA will serve as a home for some growers who have chafed
with the direction that the Organic Trade Association has taken on some issues,
including its support for the new GMO disclosure law. OTA recently lost
high-profile member Dr. Bronner’s, which will be joining Rodale’s new
organization.
The new group's advocacy efforts will be led by Elizabeth Kucinich, who is
Rodale’s policy chair. Kucinich, who is married to former congressman and
presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, has long been involved in food policy
issues, having served previously as director of policy at the Center for Food
Safety and director of government affairs at the Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine.
The group has set up a website where farmers
can sign up for memberships.
Scorecard pressures fast food firms on antibiotics. Consumers
Union is out with a new scorecard on restaurant chains’ on the use of
antibiotics in their meat supplies. Subway and Wendy’s rated as the most
improved because of pledges it has made to reduce antibiotic usage.
Panera and Chipotle both earned A’s for their policies.
McDonald’s got a C-plus. Many major chains received F’s, including Applebees,
Burger King, KFC and Starbucks.
GAO faults USAID monitoring of cash aid. The U.S.
Agency for International Development is increasing its use of cash food
assistance overseas, but the congressional agency says USAID doesn’t have the
data to make sure the aid is protected from fraud. The Government Accountability Office reviewed
14 final reports of cash-aid projects and found most of them were lacking key
data, including prices for staple foods.
The government continues to distribute U.S. commodities
through the Food for Peace program, but in recent years USAID has been using
another account to provide food assistance through cash transfers or vouchers.
That cash aid grew from $76 million in 2010 to $432 million last year.
He said it. “I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know anti-trust.
I’ll leave that to the propeller heads at the antitrust division to figure out
whether or not there are bad percentages growing to where you could create some
kind of unfair market dynamic.” - Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., at the Senate
Judiciary Committee’s hearing on mergers in the seed and agrochemical
industries
Spencer Chase and Steve Davies contributed to this
report.
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