Top 10 Ag Stories of 2019

By DTN Staff

OMAHA (DTN) -- As Americans prepare to cast their ballots for president next year, DTN reporters and editors conducted our own discussion and "vote" this month to elect which stories we covered this past year to include in our annual Top 10 Ag Stories series.

There were many worthy candidates this year: from the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China to more freak weather events, such as the bomb cyclone that resulted in devastating flooding in parts of the Midwest. We'll be revealing our top 10 vote-getters each weekday starting Dec. 26 until Dec. 31.

But just as only one person can be elected commander-in-chief, we only had 10 positions to fill with the biggest stories affecting farmers and ranchers this year.

When our newsroom polls closed and the votes were reviewed, several notable stories had failed to garner enough support to make it into those top spots. Among those were USDA's Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture moving to Kansas City, Missouri; the fight over whether plant-based protein products should be allowed to use the label "meat"; and farmers' battle against a bumper crop of weeds.

In recognition of the importance of these stories to agriculture, we're presenting them here in what we call the "Best of the Rest" list, in no particular order:

-- ERS, NIFA Packed Up in 2019

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue got to take somewhat of a victory lap in November when he toured the future home of USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in Kansas City, Missouri.

After more than a year of political fighting over the future of the two agencies, they were moved to temporary offices in Kansas City with the Trump administration cutting the staff for both agencies in the process. Perdue maintained throughout the year that moving the two agencies would bring them closer to agriculture.

"I think it will help farmers because it brings those researchers who make the decisions and analyses really closer to the heartland," Perdue said in Kansas City. "It gives them a feel of a fragrance of what a state like Kansas and Missouri do for agriculture. There's a certain culture here and it influences your on-the-ground truthing ability rather than sitting some place that doesn't have any agriculture."

In the process of moving, though, USDA detailed that roughly 80% of employees had left ERS rather than relocate. At the end of September, 141 staff left ERS while 16 people moved to Kansas City. NIFA had similar job losses as 45 employees initially relocated out of 294 staff who were scheduled to move. USDA highlighted in a memo that at least 38 ERS reports would be delayed or discontinued. "Due to decreased staffing levels, ERS will for considerable time be unable to provide the same level of breadth and depth in its economic research and outlook analysis as it did in the past."

Earlier in December, Democrats on the House Science Committee asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine the justification for moving the two agencies and the cost-benefit analysis used by USDA that was conducted by the accounting firm Ernst & Young.

-- 'Fake Meat' Sales Not Fake

Burger King ran more ads touting its "Impossible Whopper" in 2019 than the company advertised its beef Whoppers.

Nationally, Burger King helped meatless protein products with its campaign as Impossible Burgers even ran into shortages at its restaurants. Its competitor, Beyond Meat, established itself in more retailers, and McDonald's, which launched a Beyond Meat burger in Canada, is expected to bring it to the U.S. in 2020.

The meatless craze also moved into sausages and chicken products. Even major U.S. meatpackers such as Tyson Foods came out with meatless products. Et tu, Tyson?

All of this left livestock producers fuming, even though these fake meat products take up a tiny sliver of the market right now. At the behest of livestock producers, several states have passed legislation trying to block plant-based proteins from being called "meat," "beef" or "burger." A federal judge in Arkansas in early December blocked that state's law from going into effect after litigation from the company that sells Tofurky. A judge in Missouri allowed that state's labeling law to go into effect.

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., has introduced legislation on the federal level dubbed the "Real MEAT Act." Fischer's bill would tighten definitions for beef and beef products.

The battle between meat and their imitators has only just begun.

-- Trump Clashes With Democratic-Controlled House

President Donald Trump faced a new reality when Democrats took control of the House of Representatives last January. The year began with a shutdown of the federal government shutdown that had started Dec. 22, 2018, and carried through until Jan. 25, 2019, as Congress and the president fought over funding for a border wall. That government shutdown caused USDA to delay or suspend farm-bill programs and key crop reports throughout that time.

Trump's battle with Congress culminated just a few days ago when Democrats voted on two articles of impeachment against the president. The move to impeach began in July, but Democrats had pushed oversight hearings, including the report by special counsel Robert Mueller into the Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign.

A Democratic-controlled House also stymied some of the president's agenda, most notably holding up the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement until the House voted on it Dec. 19.

Certainly, the battles between Trump and House Democrats will continue throughout 2020 leading up to next November's election.

-- Weeds Have Banner Year

Crops may have struggled in 2019, but weeds had a banner year. Persistent rain and flooding through the spring and early summer forced many producers to miss crucial pre-emergence and in-season herbicide applications. Farmers also resorted to a record number of prevented planting acres, and many were unable to control the weeds that filled in those fallow fields.

Autumn didn't bring much relief, as many farmers watched the narrow window for fall herbicide applications disappear amid a wet, delayed harvest season. All of these factors allowed higher-than-average weed populations to go to seed, setting producers up for major weed control headaches in 2020.

To add to the threat, the development of herbicide resistance continued to outpace the addition of new herbicide-tolerant traits on the market this year. Of most concern are weed populations with resistance to two or more herbicide modes of action, which continued to expand this year.

-- Land Markets Remain Mostly Flat

Land markets remained mostly flat in 2019 despite another year of low farm income. While state and national averages conceal some localized pockets of pressure, experts say the combination of limited inventory, a deep pool of buyers, low interest rates and Market Facilitation Program payments helped keep national averages steady.

At the same time, cash rents took baby steps backwards as land owners held tight to their returns. More farmers decided to stop renting ground that couldn't pencil a profit this year, leaving opportunities for financially well-positioned operations to expand.

-- Bayer Faces Continued Legal Woes Over Glyphosate

Throughout 2019, pressure continued to build on Bayer to reach a settlement with plaintiffs in tens of thousands of lawsuits nationwide alleging the company's glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup caused cancer.

Back in May 2019, a couple that battled cancer after decades of using Roundup was awarded $2.055 billion in damages in a California case. It was the largest of awards handed out by juries since the company acquired Monsanto in 2018. In 2018, another jury in the state awarded $289 million to a groundskeeper with cancer who used the chemical. The award was later reduced to $78 million.

Near the close of 2019, trials were put on hold as Bayer reportedly was considering a national settlement with thousands of plaintiffs.

-- Amazon Fires Lead to Firestorm of Debate

Fires in the South America Amazon rain forest -- a vast canopy almost the size of Europe -- led to a firestorm of debate over the environment, climate change and agriculture development in 2019.

The Amazon rainforest had more than 70,000 fires during the summer months in 2019 -- the largest number in more than a decade. The increase in fires was blamed on Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro's support for aggressive farming expansion into the Brazilian frontier, which is now pushing into the Amazon basin. Rainforest burning is the first step in clearing the land for grain and livestock production.

Critics of the Bolsonaro policy said further destruction of the rainforest threatens the production of an estimated 20% of the Earth's oxygen. The Amazon rainforests are also identified as a major absorber of carbon dioxide; thus, it is an important defense against rising temperatures and other disruptions caused by climate change.

Brazil government supporters, including Brazilian agricultural leaders, pointed to laws that require an 80% land reserve that ag producers must meet in the Amazon area of Brazil as proof that the rainforests are not being destroyed wholesale. Bolsonaro supporters also cited an exceptionally dry period from July through September as contributing to the greater number of fires.

Analysis done by scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory concluded that the Amazon basin has undergone net drying in the 30-year period from 1987 through 2016, with half the cause related to climate change and the other half related to human activity, including burning to clear land.

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Editor's note: DTN Staff Reporter Emily Unglesbee, DTN Staff Reporter Todd Neeley, DTN Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton, DTN Farm Business Editor Katie Dehlinger, DTN Senior Ag Meteorologist Bryce Anderson and DTN Managing Editor Anthony Greder contributed to this article.

You can find Numbers 10, 9 and 8 in DTN's top 10 list on Dec. 26.

(ES/CZ)

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