Farm Bureau Press for March 24

In Farm Bureau

FB leaders visit D.C. Arkansas Farm Bureau state board members and several staff members traveled to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. March 5-7 and met with one of President Donald Trump’s aides about agriculture, infrastructure and the environment.

The board members initiated the consultation.

“If you’re bold enough to ask, they might just say ‘yes,’” ArFB President Randy Veach said. “We called and asked. They gave us the meeting.”

Alex Herrgott, the associate director of infrastructure at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, briefed his guests on the president’s new infrastructure proposal, which envisions a $50 billion investment in rural infrastructure.

Afterward, the group of leaders were summoned to meet with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

“They found out that we were in D.C., and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt had

® Arkansas Farm Bureau’s Women’s Leadership Committee hosted the 2018 State Women’s Leadership Conference March 9-10 for women across the state.

During the conference, Donna Bemis (right), State Women’s Leadership Chair, and Magen Allen (left), Vice Chair, presented the Little Rock Ronald McDonald House with Sam’s Club gift cards to help feed the families they are housing.

Pictured from Ronald McDonald House is Janell Carons (middle left) and Donna Csunyo.

his people to call us and ask if we could meet with him,” Veach said. “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been coming to D.C. for a long time and this is probably one of the best meetings I’ve had in D.C.” Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general, met with about 30 ArFB leaders and left a good impression, Veach said.

“He is very, very understanding and smart.

Very understanding and he listened. He’s not telling you, ‘This is the way it’s going to Saline County Farm Bureau Agency Manger Robert Balentine (kneeling) burns the note on the organization’s Bryant office building March 12 during a special ceremony in Benton. The office was built in 2002 and the mortgage is now paid off. Former agency manager Jim Davis (standing behind Balentine) along with former members of the county board of directors were on hand for the event.

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be,’ and that’s huge.”

Pruitt, who traveled to Arkansas in July and discussed environmental matters with state officials, portrayed last week’s meeting as productive.

“We always appreciate hearing from our nation’s first environmentalists, including Arkansas Farm Bureau,” he said in a written statement. “EPA is working to provide regulatory certainty, promote environmental stewardship and reaffirm

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A Publication of Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation

March 23, 2018 • Vol. 21, No. 6

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President Trump’s commitment to farmers and ranchers across the country.”

Key topics of conversation were EPA water regulations and Arkansas’ Discovery Farms, a dozen farms where water quality is carefully studied.

The “research is coordinated by faculty from the University of Arkansas’ Agriculture Division and is conducted in collaboration with federal and state agencies promoting conservation of our natural resources,” the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website states.

Before leaving town, the group checked in with members of the state congressional delegation and their staff members.

It’s time for Congress to reauthorize the farm bill, which covers everything from crop insurance and agricultural subsidies to food programs.

U.S. Sen. John Boozman, a Republican from Rogers, serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee. U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican from Jonesboro, serves on the House version.

Veach is letting lawmakers know that farmers need a stronger safety net.

“If we have disasters and cattle drown, and crops are destroyed and poultry houses are blown away and things like that, then we’ve got to have some protection for those farmers. One event like that can actually take out generation

One break-out session at ArFB’s 2018 State Women’s Leadership Conference March 9-10 was led by Leigh Ann Bullington of the Woodruff County Cooperative Extension Service. Bullington held a cooking demostration for the women in attendance. During the presentation, Bullington shared easy and healthy recipes by using Arkansas-grown produce.

after generation of farmers, all in one fell swoop,” he said.

Article courtesy of the NWA Democrat Gazette.

In Arkansas Farms in 61 counties eligible for aid The U.S. Department of Agriculture has

The Arkansas Farm Bureau Foundation will be hosting a Trap Shoot Tournament May 16 at the Arkansas Game & Fish Foundation Shooting Sports Complex, in Jacksonville.

All proceeds from the tournament will support the ArFB Foundation. Its mission is to further understanding of agricultural and rural issues, and to support the agriculture and rural community through financial support for education, research, litigation and disaster relief.

Entry for the tournament is $500 for a five-man team. To register, contact Amanda Williams at amanda.williams@arfb.com or call 501-228-1493 by April 27.

Krista Cupp, vice president of The Herald Group in Washington, D.C., was be the keynote speaker during the Arkansas Women in Agriculture Conference in North Little Rock. She’s been working for years to help close the gap between food producers and consumers. Hear our interview with Cupp at bit.ly/arfb_cupp.

designated 61 drought-stricken Arkansas counties as disaster areas, making farmers and ranchers eligible for natural disaster assistance.

Agricultural officials said that the designation makes farmers and ranchers in the counties eligible for the Farm Service Agency’s emergency loans, as well as other assistance programs. Farmers have eight months to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses.

Counties designated as disaster areas are: Arkansas, Ashley, Baxter, Boone, Bradley, Calhoun, Carroll, Clark, Clay, Cleburne, Cleveland, Columbia, Conway, Crawford, Dallas, Drew, Faulkner, Franklin, Fulton, Garland, Grant, Greene, Hempstead, Hot Spring, Howard, Independence, Izard, Jefferson, Johnson, Lafayette, Lawrence, Lincoln, Little River, Logan, Lonoke, Madison, Marion, Miller, Montgomery, Nevada, Newton, Ouachita, Perry, Pike, Polk, Pope, Prairie, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline, Scott, Searcy, Sebastian, Sevier, Sharp, Stone, Union, Van Buren, Washington, White and Yell.

Farmers and ranchers in contiguous counties also qualify for natural-disaster assistance. Those counties are Benton, Chicot, Craighead, Desha, Jackson, Monroe, Phillips and Woodruff.

The National Weather Service said much of northern, northwest and west-central Arkansas is abnormally dry and that a small portion of northern Arkansas is experiencing

moderate drought.

Forecasters said rainfall in February that led to widespread flooding erased drought conditions in other parts of the state.

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USDA withdraws organic livestock and poultry rule USDA announced earlier this week it is scrapping the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices Rule. The rule went well beyond the original intent of the Organic Production Act by allowing for animal welfare standards and metrics to become part of the organic label, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

It was to be finalized on Nov. 14, 2017, but Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue last fall announced a 180-day extension, making May 14 the new implementation date. Perdue ultimately heeded the request of organic livestock and poultry farmers and the organizations that represent them, including Farm Bureau, to abandon the rule altogether.

“Livestock health and well-being is a priority for all farmers and ranchers. We rely on trained professionals, including animal scientists, nutritionists and veterinarians to ensure the health and safety of our food. The rule did not promote food safety or animal welfare,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement.

Calhoun County landowner and timber producer Allen Primm (left) and county extension agent Jaret Rushing examine one of Primm’s pine tree stands near his home in Hampton, March 13. Primm has been growing and marketing pine and hardwood timber in south-central Arkansas for more than four decades.

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Elsewhere

Magen Allen of Bismarck and Donna Bemis of Little Rock were among those in attendance for a presentation on “Going GLOCAL – Globally Engaged and Locally Empowered” by World Strategies founder and president Angela Marshall Hoffmann.

Hofmann was the opening speaker at ArFB’s 2018 Women’s Leadership Conference.

Duvall also warned that the regulation would have jeopardized organic farmers’ and ranchers’ livelihoods.

“Had the rule gone into effect, forcing organic farmers and ranchers to arbitrarily change their production practices, many would have been driven out of the organic sector or out of business entirely, reducing the supply of organic food choices for America’s consumers,” he said.

Secretary Perdue statement on extension of agriculture exemption from ELD mandate U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue applauded Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao for her announcement of an additional 90-day extension of the agriculture exemption from the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate. Agricultural compliance with the mandate, particularly the hours-ofservice requirements, would have been problematic for the agriculture industry.

The ELD rule went into effect in December 2017, with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) granting the agriculture industry an initial exemption that was set to expire on March 18, 2018.

With the granting of another extension, the agriculture industry will now have additional time to comply.

Sec. Sonny Perdue issued the following statement:

“The ELD mandate imposes restrictions upon the agriculture industry that lack flexibility necessary for the unique realities of hauling agriculture commodities. If the agriculture industry had been forced to comply by the March 18 deadline, live agricultural commodities, including plants and animals, would have been at risk of perishing before they reached their destination. The 90-day extension is critical to give DOT additional time to issue guidance on hours-of-service and other ELD exemptions that are troubling for agriculture haulers.

“Current ELD technologies do not recognize the hours-of-service exemptions for agriculture that are in federal law, leaving drivers to do twice the work by requiring use of both the ELD and traditional paper logs. This is a classic example of a one-size-fits-all federal regulation that ignores common sense to the detriment of sectors like agriculture.

“I applaud Sec. Chao for recognizing these obstacles and giving extra time for compliance while DOT issues guidance.

While public safety is a critical concern for all of trucking, the safety of living agricultural commodities in transport must also be considered.”

Editor Maddison Stewart

maddison.stewart@arfb.com

U.S. reaches regionalization agreement with South Korea

In the Market As of March 20, 2018 Omnibus now likely to carry 199A fix

The pending omnibus spending package to be released soon and voted on will include a fix for a provision in last year’s tax reform law that created inequities among agricultural businesses. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the measure will not include any plan to address the future of the undocumented immigrants covered by the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Democratic leaders appear to be at odds about including 199A language in the omnibus plan.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said earlier this week that he doesn’t want the inclusion until Republicans agree to include some additional tax reform measures favored by his party. However, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) signaled willingness to work to remedy the grain glitch.

Bayer, Monsanto merger stalled

Justice Department antitrust officials believe Bayer and Monsanto’s proposed deal could hurt competition in agriculture, and do not think Bayer’s proposal to sell off assets is enough to counter that problem, according to Bloomberg News. The Department of Justice’s review of the $66 billion merger is expected to last several more months.

China gives Bayer acquisition of Monsanto green light

China’s commerce ministry has conditionally approved the German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto Co., the world’s top seed company. The conditions of the approval included requirements for Bayer to spin off some of its businesses globally.

The agreement reached between U.S. and South Korea would set in place a regionalization system that would allow trade restrictions at the state level should the U.S. detect HPAI in the future. That would temper the trade impacts in the event of another U.S. HPAI find.

Drought weighs on Argentina’s economy

Argentina’s economy will likely expand 0.5 percent to 1 percent in the first quarter of 2018 versus the previous quarter and rise 3 percent from year-ago levels, according to a Treasury Ministry official. Four months of drought conditions have lowered corn and soybean crop estimates for the country, likely cutting between 0.5 and one point off the country’s headline growth rate for 2018, the official details. Growth of 3 percent is still better than year-ago when Argentina’s economy climbed 2.8 percent, but the figure is under the 3 percent growth rate the government used in its budget.

Demand for cotton in China fades

China’s daily cotton auctions kicked off with nearly all of the 30,000 MT of cotton offered from China’s reserves being sold. Each day since, that tally dropped. By weeks end the auction saw 19,200 MT of cotton, or 64 percent of the offering, sell at an average price of 14,233 yuan ($2,253.13) per MT. U.S. challenges Indian at WTO

The U.S. has launched a World Trade Organization challenge against India over export subsidies, arguing the programs give Indian companies an unfair advantage. The case is the first one the Trump administration has launched under the WTO’s dispute settlement process. Lighthizer announced the initiation of the dispute just two days after swearing in Dennis Shea to serve as U.S. ambassador to the WTO in Geneva.

Settlement in Syngenta suit

A $1.5-billion settlement was reached in a class-action lawsuit against Syngenta over its introduction of a genetically engineered corn seed.

Payments will be made to U.S. corn farmers, grain handling facilities and ethanol plants. Lawsuits in state and federal courts challenged Syngenta’s decision to introduce its modified Viptera and Duracade corn seed strains to the U.S. market for the 2011 growing season before having approval for import by China in 2014. The plaintiffs said Syngenta’s decision cut off access to the large Chinese corn market and caused price drops for several years. The settlement must be approved by a federal judge in Kansas.

It will create a fund to pay claims by farmers and others who contracted to price corn or corn byproducts after Sept. 15, 2013, including farmers who opted out of previous Syngenta lawsuits. If approved, money could be distributed to class members in the first half of 2019. This is believed to be the largest agricultural litigation settlement in U.S. history.

El Nino could be coming

India’s monsoon rains will likely be a bit lighter than normal this year as an El Nino weather pattern may develop during the second half of 2018, Kyle Tapley, senior ag meteorologist at Radiant Solutions, told Reuters. This could also result in drier weather for Australia’s eastern grain belt according to Tapley. Historically, El Nino weather patterns are associated with dry weather in areas of Asia and abovenormal rains for South America.

CONTACT

Matt King 501-228-1297, matt.king@arfb.com