Chris Clayton

More Farm Bureau Policy Highlights From the Notebook

The pendulum again swung in the way waters will be regulated under the Clean Water Act, as the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released the "Navigable Waters Protection Rule" as a new definition...

More than 300 farmers from across the country made changes to their policy book on an array of issues ranging from trade aid and dairy policy to farm labor, as well as defining their recommendations for changes to USDA's...

Speaking Monday at the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said new trade deals with China and others will require the Trump administration to look at helping farmers with labor...

The speech to AFBF's annual meeting marked the third consecutive year Trump has spoken at the convention. On Sunday, Trump reminded the farmer audience he had protected them from economic harm with trade-aid payments while at...

One reason for optimism is recent progress on trade agreements, following a couple of years of tariffs and trade disputes. Further helping boost income, USDA will likely provide a third tranche of Market Facilitation Program (MFP...

Senate passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement marked the second day in a row that President Donald Trump has been able to notch a significant trade victory for his administration. Given that Mexico has already...

The phase-one trade agreement between the U.S. and China signed Wednesday calls for China to buy at least $40 billion in agricultural products each of the next two years, according to the...

Ken Isley, administrator of USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, was a keynote speaker Tuesday at the Land Expo 2020 in downtown Des Moines. While speaking little about the trade deal with China, Isley looked ahead at some of the...

The president of the United States will speak at the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting for the third year in a row. The speech, set for Sunday, will likely serve as a victory lap for the president after he signs a...

A bill introduced by Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., mirrors a Senate bill that would prevent checkoff programs from contracting with groups that engage in policy or may have conflicts of interest "or anticompetitive activities that harm...

The Senate Finance Committee, in its first business of the year, passed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement out of committee on a 25-3 vote. The trade agreement could come to the floor potentially later this week or early next...

People across eastern Colorado and western Nebraska are reporting and filming unexplained sightings of drones flying around the area, according to several media reports.

Commodity groups largely see benefits in the USMCA before Congress adjourns for the year. The trade deal will move to the Senate early next year. While ratification seems assured, some groups representing cattlemen are angry...

Digital technology is slowly transforming different areas of agriculture, including how ag businesses operate, speakers at the 2019 Fertilizer Outlook and Technology Conference said this week.

NFU's Roger Johnson announced last month he would not seek re-election at the group's upcoming annual meeting in March. Johnson said he thinks U.S. agriculture could see eventual negative repercussions over the way the Trump...

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 385-41 Thursday to pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is expected to boost U.S. agricultural exports by about $2.2 billion.

EPA released a final rule revising 2020 Renewable Fuel Standard volume obligations that the agency maintains will assure 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol will be used. Biofuel advocates maintain the strategy EPA came up with...

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is the top priority for the American Farm Bureau Federation. The National Farmers Union board is more divided, but the group broke its tradition to support USMCA.

A $1.4 trillion spending bill cleared the House on Tuesday and moves to the Senate now for a vote. The bill includes an extension of the $1-per-gallon Biodiesel Tax Credit, which will be retroactive to the start of 2018 and will run...

A deal reached Tuesday, Dec. 10, on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will allow the House of Representatives to vote on the trade pact as early as this week. According to an International Trade Commission report last spring, USMCA...

President Donald Trump on Thursday agreed to a trade deal that would hold off on new tariffs and possibly scale back others. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue missed Thursday's trade talks at the White House as he spoke...

Ag-labor bills have come up in nearly every session of Congress over the past two decades only to whither somewhere in the process. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act introduced on Wednesday has 24 Democrat and 18 Republican...

A deal reached Tuesday on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will allow the House of Representatives to vote on the trade pact as early as next week. According to an International Trade Commission report last spring, USMCA would...

The DTN 2019 Ag Summit kicked off Monday in Chicago with Luke Chandler, chief economist at Deere and Co., offering a look at macroeconomic trends and risks facing producers. Crop prices have largely flatlined over the past five...

With 18 candidates running for president and campaigning across the nation, Iowa right now is the center of attention for a core group who see the state's first-in-the-nation caucuses on Feb. 3 as the critical starting point in...

The U.S. Cattlemen's Association wants the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to look into the purchase of National Beef by Brazil's Marfrig Global Foods.

In a brief statement on its website, the Chinese Finance Ministry on Friday announced it would exclude tariffs for U.S. pork and soybeans into the country to meet domestic demand.

Advocates for USMCA's positive impacts on agriculture keep pushing for congressional votes this year on the trade deal, but Congress has about two weeks left in the work year and negotiations continue over labor provisions.

A decade after the biggest carbon market for agriculture in the U.S. collapsed, carbon and ecosystem service markets are truly starting over. One group, the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, received a $10.3 million grant this...

My sources tell me the vast majority of turkeys will be eaten, and not pardoned, on Thanksgiving.

We're a little more than two months from the Iowa Caucuses, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is rising in the field of more established candidates such as Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Pushing from...

Agricultural export competitors could eventually use the lack of U.S. action on climate to push trade measures. Companies and industries need to show how farmers and their supply chains use sustainability measures to avoid getting...

Agriculture has been one of the strongest industries backing passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated Thursday the House might not take up the legislation in 2019.

A researcher who worked on a key digital nutrient tool for The Climate Corporation and Monsanto was recruited by the Chinese government and offered a position working for a major Chinese soil institute. He was arrested trying...

POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels in Emmetsburg, Iowa, one of the few commercial cellulosic ethanol plants operating in the country, will pause cellulosic production and focus on research and development. Company officials pointed to the...

As the CFTC takes another crack at rules that would place trading limits on speculative noncommercial traders, the commission's new chairman said CFTC has incorporated several recommendations to try to ease some concerns of...

A House subcommittee held a hearing Thursday on invasive species that included horror stories about feral hogs, swamp rats and non-native insects.

At a conference in downtown Washington, D.C., Brazilian agribusiness groups sought to shift the narrative by highlighting "sustainable food" and a "science-based model" for agriculture. They also strongly criticized the view that...

A report on the Market Facilitation Program released Tuesday by Senate Democrats challenges USDA's trade aid, arguing the highest payments went to Southern farmers who grow cotton while USDA also ignored typical protocols such...

Despite tariffs hitting 72% from China, the U.S. reported record pork exports in July and August. USMEF expects that kind of growth to continue into 2020.

The National Pork Producers Council is making another push to encourage Congress to pass the USMCA before the end of 2019. The group is launching a campaign, "It's Pork O'Clock Somewhere" to highlight pork recipes in Canada, the...

Republican senators from key biofuel states and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds each wrote EPA over its plan to account for small-refinery exemptions. Senators questioned EPA's method for offsetting the exemptions and stated the biofuels...

Despite tariffs hitting 72% from China, the U.S. reported record pork exports in July and August. USMEF expects that kind of growth to continue into 2020.

Ag labor bills have come up in nearly every session of Congress over the past two decades only to whither somewhere in the process. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act introduced on Wednesday has 24 Democrats and 18...

On Tuesday, USDA released its long-awaited rules for allowing hemp production nationally. States and tribes will submit plans to USDA for overseeing hemp production in their states or tribal grounds. Farmers will be eligible for USDA...

USDA will detail its interim rules for hemp production on Tuesday. The White House Office of Management and Budget has been reviewing the rules since June.

With saturated soils, high reservoir levels and water flows on the Missouri River already high, the possibility of above-normal winter precipitation again leads to a high risk of the 2019 flooding carrying into spring 2020 along the...