Agribusiness

High-stakes pesticide battle pits farmer against farmer

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With the new planting season beginning, legal battles over dicamba are heating up in
federal and state courts.

Monsanto, BASF and DowDuPont are defendants in lawsuits initiated by farmers
seeking millions in compensation for crops they say were damaged last summer.

The plaintiffs have brought 14 cases in Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri but, as a result of a February ruling, they will be heard together by a federal panel in St. Louis.

Meanwhile, a coalition of food safety, environmental and farming groups is asking the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to rescind the Environmental Protection Agency’s conditional approval of the new version of Monsanto’s dicamba herbicide, known as
XtendiMax with VaporGrip Technology.

Indiana-based farm issues recall for more than 200 million eggs

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An Indiana-based company has recalled more than 206 million eggs over reports of illness related to a strain of salmonella. 

Rose Acre Farms of Seymour, Indiana, issued the voluntary recall Friday of eggs produced from its Hyde County, North Carolina farm after an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration traced the rare strain back to the farm.

Trade With China

Farmers worry trade war would damage relationship with top customer

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As China and the U.S. swap threats of import taxes on billions of dollars of goods, financial markets fluctuated and farmers are frustrated, saying they worry over hard-built trade relationships with one of their largest customers.

Trade With China

Brazil, Argentina may fill the U.S. soybean export gap

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Argentina and Brazil may fill China’s soybean needs if China imposes a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybean exports. And experts say : “China is the world’s largest consumer, and the U.S. is the largest producer, … so they’ll need to replace the U.S. with some other country,”

Trade With China

On China tariffs, farm groups say no

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Earlier this month, the U.S. and China both announced billions of dollars in taxes on billions of dollars worth of imported goods - China is seeking tariffs on $50 billion worth of U.S. products that include soybeans and pork while the U.S. announced taxes on $150 billion worth of 1,300 Chinese products, including electronics. Here’s a look at what farm organizations in the Midwest have to say.

Trade With China

Crop insurance help for tariff fallout could affect upcoming Farm Bill

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Congressional leaders said they would explore federal help for farmers should tariffs be put in place but Tamara Nelson, senior director of commodities for the Illinois Farm Bureau, said the moves would not help. “Farmers don’t want aid, farmers want to be able to trade,” she said.

Agribusiness

In Ohio, ranchers say beef checkoff program flouts prohibition on lobbying

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Some Ohio ranchers have long taken issue with the administration of the beef checkoff, fighting the program at the state and federal level. They allege that some checkoff funds go toward political activity and lobbying, which is prohibited by the Agricultural Marketing Service, the body of the USDA that oversees the 22 checkoff programs.

Serious criminal immigration convictions still infrequent under Trump

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The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during November 2017 the government reported 4,758 new immigration convictions.

According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, this number is down 5.3 percent over the previous month.