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.

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.

Farmers who were facing a steep drop in government payments in 2021 will instead see a third round of coronavirus relief payments and other producers and ag processors left out of previous aid programs this year will get help this time, under a massive stimulus package and government funding bill.

Like most dairy producers in late 2019, Ryan Klussendorf of Medford, Wis., was optimistic about 2020 dairy prices and he did not sign up for USDA’s Dairy Margin Coverage program. But after seeing the extreme volatility of this year, he’s not taking any chances for 2021 and said other producers shouldn’t either.

Multinational giants in retail, agribusiness, meat processing and food manufacturing, along with the largest restaurant chains and leading apparel brands, want U.S. farmers and ranchers to produce food and fiber more sustainably. This is the first of a five-part Agri-Pulse series that looks in-depth at how reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could have far-reaching effects on American farmers and ranchers.