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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Thursday, October 28, 2021
The Agriculture Department is providing nearly $350 million in payments to dairy producers who lost revenue because of market disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic and a change to a federal pricing formula made by the 2018 farm bill.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian ministry of agriculture, is defending its government-run dairy price system and its compliance with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement as criticism rises from the U.S. dairy industry that Canada is doing an end-run around the trade pact to continue bolstering exports.
Canada is again using its national dairy pricing program to bolster exports, sidestepping commitments in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, according to fresh allegations from the U.S. dairy sector. Canada is following the letter of USMCA, but not the spirit, U.S. industry officials say.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced Tuesday that the U.S. is requesting a dispute panel to challenge Canada’s operation of dairy tariff-rate quotas that it agreed to under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Farm and environmental groups that often disagree on ag policy are urging the Agriculture Department to prioritize climate change in conservation programs and to consider changes to crop insurance that would promote the use of cover crops and other carbon-conserving practices.
The Agriculture Department is ending the Farmers to Families Food Box program and shifting to more effective ways of delivering fresh produce and dairy products, says Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
New regulations in Mexico threaten to disrupt more than $100 million in organic food trade with the U.S., and the Biden administration has less than three months to address the situation before the requirements take effect.
U.S. dairy farmers and exporters are offering a united front against the latest trade threat out of Mexico – proposed new standards that could make it more difficult, and a lot more expensive, to ship hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cheese south of the border every year.
The Department of Agriculture expects U.S. farm exports to hit a record $157 billion for fiscal 2021, an increase of $21 billion over the year before, as the global economy recovers and China increases its already strong demand for U.S. corn, soybeans and meat.
A surge of nationwide cheese demand driven at least in part by the Trump administration’s Farmers to Families Food Box program sparked wild swings in dairy markets and fueled a new debate over changes in federal milk pricing policy made in the 2018 farm bill.
