Ag Policy Blog

Editor's note: Any and all agricultural policy forecasts for 2023 are based on analysis, observation and pure speculation.

Spanning the globe once again to bring our readers a constant variety of news analysis, DTN looks ahead to the top agricultural policy stories for 2023.

Here are a few of the stories we expect will happen in the next 12 months.

Georgia farmer Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), disappears from the group's annual meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after scoring tickets to the Georgia-Michigan college football national championship game.

Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack lays out an aggressive agenda of trade missions for the year in which he leads trips to Bora Bora, Tahiti and Bali to promote U.S. farm products. He sends Deputy Secretary Jewel Bronaugh on similar trade missions to Iceland, Finland and Norway.

Gambling sites looking for new prey -- er players -- open up betting odds on the farm bill getting done in 2023 at 10,000 to 1.

The world's largest plant-based food company announces the purchase of a pork plant in Minnesota as a diversification strategy.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) gushes over House GOP efforts to reduce government mandates and regulations until Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., introduces a bill to end all USDA checkoff programs.

Mexican officials agree to revisit possible biotech corn ban after U.S. custom officials demand to hand-inspect every avocado imported from Mexico.

Iowa officials advise Des Moines residents to only drink bottled water then join a lawsuit against the Biden administration's job-killing regulatory overreach on the WOTUS rule.

To be included in the 2023 farm bill, the National Cannabis Growers Association (NCGA) is formed, sparking complaints from the National Corn Growers Association over the acronym confusion. NCGA is successful in setting reference prices for cannabis and a new crop insurance program.

USDA forecasts cannabis acreage in 2024 at 35 million acres.

An unplanned farmer tractor rally in Washington, D.C., goes viral after FOX News records a Kansas farmer giving Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a ride in his 9630 John Deere tractor. A federal judge later grants an injunction blocking AOC from visiting Salina, Kansas.

GOP House appropriators put riders on USDA funds, preventing the department from spending money on climate-smart agriculture, Packers and Stockyards enforcement and toilet paper at the Whitten building in Washington.

Democrats, determined to gain back some credibility in rural America, introduce the Go Vegan Act in the U.S. Senate.

To stabilize soybean imports, China announces the purchase of Mato Grosso.

After a fight over wording of a joint statement about food sustainability at the COP 28 climate conference in United Arab Emirates, President Joe Biden is overheard on a hot mic, "Let them eat cake."

Elon Musk decides he can improve the meat industry and decides to buy ... Nope, we're not going there.

Everybody have a Happy New Year!

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN

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