The deal unveiled this week for Britain to exit the European Union would block U.S. plans to negotiate a free trade agreement with the U.K., preventing a new opening for American agricultural trade with the country, several British officials tell Agri-Pulse.

Smithfield Foods and the Environmental Defense Fund are touting the company’s commitment to produce energy from manure on most of Smithfield’s hog farms in North Carolina, Utah and Missouri.

The Philippines, a country the Trump administration is considering for an eventual free trade accord, has reached new agreements with the U.S. to work on improving agricultural trade, according to an announcement today from the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has suspended pork imports from Poland over concerns about export protocols in the country as it deals with an outbreak of African swine fever.

I want to talk about a frog today, but before the frog hops up on the table – just a few words on the subject of trade.

The U.S. and Japan have agreed to enter into talks for a free trade agreement, a development the American agriculture sector has been hoping for ever since President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Argentina, in yet another show of good will towards the U.S., has offered to lift its longstanding ban on U.S. beef as negotiators for the two countries look for ways to bring down another trade barrier. Argentina’s ambassador to the U.S. visited USDA this week to discuss the process for lifting the ban, Argentine government officials told Agri-Pulse.

As U.S. leaders pledge to increase tariff rates on Chinese products and the Asian giant plans to retaliate, more farmers are asking: “How do tariffs really work?”