From the Spokesman-Review Both U.S. senators from Washington signed an analysis by congressional staffers that shows the Trump administration’s $16 billion bailout of U.S. farmers has mostly benefited those growers in the South and large companies over small operations. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray joined 15 other Democratic senators in critiquing how the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Agriculture ... Read More »
From the Tri-City Herald For the eight days beginning on Halloween, Washington state and the Northwest got a stark look at the danger of replacing hydro power with renewables like wind power. During that period of time, there was virtually no wind across the states served by the Bonneville Power Administration, leaving hydro, nuclear, and fossil fuels to make up ... Read More »
From agweb.com The House could vote on the U.S., Mexico, Canada Agreement (USMCA) as soon as next week, according to House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.). Read the rest of the article here. Read More »
Columbia River Treaty negotiations between the U.S. and Canada are ongoing, with the latest round taking place in September in British Columbia. According to a press release from the government of B.C., delegations from tribes of both nations presented on ecosystem work collaboration. Other issues discussed were flood-risk management and hydropower. The U.S. team is led by chief negotiator, Jill ... Read More »
House Agriculture Committee member Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) joined with two of her colleagues, Rep. Jimmy Pannetta (D-Calif.) and Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill), to introduce a bill that would authorize an annual 5 percent funding increase at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In a press release, the group said the bill, The America Grows Act, restores the U.S. public’s ... Read More »
From U.S. Wheat Associates U.S. Wheat Associates Assistant Director Michael Anderson recently spent a week on a tugboat that was pushing grain barges down the Snake, Columbia and Willamette rivers from Lewiston, Idaho, to Portland, Ore. Read More »
By Dalton Henry, USW Vice President of Policy While the trade policy headlines from the month of October have mostly been written about a possible “phase one” trade deal between the United States and China, much less has been said about the recently revised and published China Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) rules for importing wheat and other agricultural products—though their ... Read More »
The National Wheat Foundation officially began accepting applications for the Jerry Minore Scholarship, honoring students pursuing a career in agriculture. The scholarship is available to both high school and college students for the 2019-2020 academic year with an application deadline of Dec. 01, 2019. “The scholarship is meant to aid those students who have shown a passion for agriculture both ... Read More »
From the Capital Press Passage of the USMCA trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico may be getting closer, says the head of the U.S. wheat industry’s overseas marketing arm. “We need it very badly as a sign to the Mexicans that we’re in this for good, we’re not backing out of this,” said Vince Peterson, president of U.S. ... Read More »
From Bloomberg The U.S. and China reached a partial agreement Friday that would broker a truce in the trade war and lay the groundwork for a broader deal that Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping could sign later this year, according to people familiar with the matter. Read the rest of the article here. Read More »
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