Items Tagged with 'supply chain disruptions'

The Surface Transportation Board has notified the major railroads that it expects them on Thursday to outline their plans for moving this fall’s grain harvest to market.

The combination of factors that came together within the last two years for California food and agriculture “should be considered a Black Swan event” that was unpredictable yet can have severe impacts, according to a leading analyst.

The Biden administration plans to spend more than $2 billion on a strategy for making targeted improvements in nearly every aspect of food production and distribution, with an emphasis on assisting small and mid-size operations.

The Surface Transportation Board, looking to end rail delays that have snarled agricultural shippers, ordered four major railroads on Friday to  submit service recovery plans and to temporarily report biweekly on their progress in making improvements.

The Senate Agriculture Committee holds a long-awaited hearing this week on a bill to mandate more negotiated trading in the cattle markets, and then the panel launches its preparation for the next farm bill with a field hearing Friday in Michigan, the home state of Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow.

A coalition of farm and food industry groups is appealing to the Surface Transportation Board to take several steps that the organizations say could lower rail rates and ease shipping backlogs.

A nationwide trucking shortage that began well before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has worsened and is not anticipated to improve anytime soon. According to the American Trucking Associations, the United States currently needs an additional 80,000 truckers to meet the demands of shippers.

Congress heads into an election year with clouds over two major pieces of legislation that are seen as critical to helping farmers benefit from efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Lawmakers also are expected to begin farm bill hearings this year, and they will have to keep the government funded for the rest of the fiscal year.

Global demand for grain and protein is expected to remain strong going into 2022, according to several ag economists. But there are several challenges ahead including inflation, skyrocketing input prices, supply chain disruptions and uncertainty over agricultural trade. .