Farmer and staff leaders of 13 commodity groups met in Washington, D.C. Tuesday and Wednesday to build relationships and consensus around farm policy priorities.

At the session, they confirmed their commitment to work together in the coming process and their common belief that a new farm bill should be completed this year to provide certainty to farmers and the industries they support.

“American agriculture stands out as one of the few sectors of the economy that has, throughout the economic downturn, still contributed positively to our nation’s balance of trade while helping to create jobs and put this country back on its economic feet,” the groups said in a joint statement following the meeting.

“And we have accomplished these things with a farm policy that also stands out as consistently under budget over the past 10 years and for leading the way on deficit reduction, contributing disproportionately and, in some cases, even alone, in the effort to get our nation’s fiscal house in order.

“The economy is fragile, unemployment is high, and Americans are worried. Given the need for economic growth and deficit reduction, for our part, we have offered to do more with less. If Washington provides America’s farmers and ranchers with some certainty, we can continue to help lead our nation’s economic recovery.”

The groups with leadership in the sessions represent the vast majority of commodity producers who participate in programs offered under Title I of the 2008 Farm Bill.

They included NAWG, American Farm Bureau Federation, American Soybean Association, National Barley Growers Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Cotton Council, National Farmers Union, National Sorghum Producers, National Sunflower Association, Southern Peanut Farmers Federation, US Canola Association, USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council and USA Rice Federation.

On Wednesday, Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) announced her Committee will hold four hearings in February and March on farm bill issues.

A hearing set for Feb. 15 will cover energy issues; a hearing set for Feb. 29 will cover conservation issues; a hearing set for March 14 will cover nutrition issues; and a hearing set for March 21 will tackle what is expected to be the biggest road block to quick completion of the bill, risk management and commodity title policies.

The Committee announcement said witness lists and times will be released at a later date. It is widely expected the Senate Committee will complete its work on a new farm bill first, perhaps before the work of the House Agriculture Committee officially begins.

Farm bill watchers got another piece of interesting data this week from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which provides the official estimates, or scores, of costs associated with proposed government programs.

In its Budget and Economic Outlook, released Tuesday, CBO said mandatory spending for agricultural support is expected to rise very slightly and remain stable over the next 10 years, accounting for $15 billion in 2011 and a projected average of $16 billion per year between 2012 and 2022. In 2013, CBO suggested mandatory agriculture spending will fall to about $13 billion.

By contrast, mandatory spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps, came to about $77 billion per year in 2011, and is projected to remain in that range through 2022.

CBO’s projections of farm policy spending will be essential components of finalizing a farm bill in 2012, as overall program spending is expected to decline, putting pressure on policy makers to design a better safety net with ever-fewer dollars.

The Obama Administration is scheduled to release its budget proposal in mid-February, which will begin official budget discussions for the coming fiscal year.

More on the planned Senate Agriculture hearings is at http://ag.senate.gov.

The full commodity group joint statement is available at http://www.wheatworld.org/news-events/2012/02/commodity-group-release-statement-following-joint-meeting/.

In a release, DOL said a re-proposed portion of the rule covering the “parental exemption” will be available for comment in the summer. The parental exemption allows children of any age who are employed by their parent, or a person standing in the place of a parent, to perform any job on a farm owned by the parent or the person in place of the parent.

The Department said its decision came partly because of feedback from the public and Members of Congress following the publication of a proposed rule on child labor, issued in September.

The fall proposal was intended to make farm work safer for children, but largely overlooked the fact that most modern farms are enterprises encompassing extended families, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and long-time, but unrelated, farm workers. Farm groups, including NAWG, believed it would have had sweeping impact on farm operations, rural economies and valuable educational opportunities for children in rural communities participating in 4-H and FFA programs.

DOL said the re-proposal “will seek comments and inputs as to how the department can comply with statutory requirements to protect children, while respecting rural traditions.”

Until the rule under consideration is final, DOL also said it will interpret the parental exemption as it has in recent years.

In a statement, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack applauded the Department for listening to farmers and ranchers and said the additional commenting period represents “a common-sense approach to strengthen our agricultural economy while keeping farm kids safe.”

More on the re-proposal process is at http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/whd/WHD20120203.htm.

An agriculture industry letter outlining many of the concerns expressed in recent months by farmers and ranchers is at http://www.wheatworld.org/issues/othercorrespondence/.

The Foundation was founded by the Gates’ in 1994 and is now the world’s largest philanthropic organization. Guided by the philosophy that every life has equal value, the Foundation spends the majority of its funds on global health and development projects, both of which are intimately tied to agriculture.

Gates’ comments in his 2012 letter expand on his longstanding interest in agricultural development, to which he says his Foundation has devoted $2 billion.

Research commissioned by the Foundation shows just $3 billion a year is spent researching the seven most important crops, including wheat, maize, rice, cassava, sorghum, legumes and sweet potatoes. Of that, $1.5 billion comes from countries’ public funds, $1.2 billion from private companies and $300 million from international research organization CGIAR. By comparison, the Foundation made $2.4 billion in grant payments across a range of program areas in 2010.

“Given the central role that food plays in human welfare and national stability, it is shocking – not to mention short-sighted and potentially dangerous – how little money is spent on agricultural research,” he wrote.

In the letter, Gates said the world population is projected to swell to 9.7 billion by 2050. To meet the needs of this growing number of people, he said it is imperative to “help poor farmers sustainably increase their productivity so they can feed themselves and their families,” but he realized that is only achievable “if we prioritize agricultural innovation.”

Gates also highlighted research being done to combat Ug99, which has been funded by the Foundation through the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project. Ug99 is a virulent wheat stem rust that has devastated crops in Africa and parts of the Middle East and is poised to spread into some of the most populous and volatile parts of the world.

It is the first such disease to rear its head since the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, and, in his letter, Gates compared the potential danger a disease like Ug99 can cause to the widespread starvation and poverty caused by potato blight in Europe in the 1840s.

Gates’ focus on agricultural research has the potential to dramatically amplify growing concern about the overall stagnation, and in some areas, decrease, in funding for agricultural research.

This is a particular worry for the wheat industry, which is disproportionally dependent on public-sector research dollars that have decreased in recent years because of squeezed state and federal budgets.

At the same time, more private research organizations have announced new investments in wheat research since 2008, and there is increasing recognition that coordination and collaboration among wheat researchers in the U.S. and abroad is necessary to meet growing challenges of diseases and pests while still increasing yields to keep up with population growth.

Gates’ letter in its entirety is at http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annual-letter/2012/Documents/2012-annual-letter-english.pdf.

More about wheat research and NAWG’s research priorities is at www.wheatworld.org/research.

• American Farm Bureau Federation
• American Soybean Association
• National Association of Wheat Growers
• National Barley Growers Association
• National Corn Growers Association
• National Cotton Council
• National Farmers Union
• National Sorghum Producers
• National Sunflower Association
• Southern Peanut Farmers Federation
• US Canola Association
• USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council
• USA Rice Federation

“Over the past two days, producer leaders have met to discuss policy priorities, to hear the perspectives of key policymakers and to work toward consensus on the future of U.S. farm policy. What was confirmed in our meeting is that we are committed to work together to come up with a viable farm policy.

“Also confirmed is our common belief that Congress should pass and the President should sign a strong new farm bill into law this year. The law expires at the end of this year and producers – like all job creators – need certainty from Washington.

“American agriculture has a solid record that we are proud of.

“The people we represent ensure that American consumers spend less of their paycheck at the grocery than anyone else in the world.

“American agriculture stands out as one of the few sectors of the economy that has, throughout the economic downturn, still contributed positively to our nation’s balance of trade while helping to create jobs and put this country back on its economic feet.

“And we have accomplished these things with a farm policy that also stands out as consistently under budget over the past 10 years and for leading the way on deficit reduction, contributing disproportionately and in some cases even alone in the effort to get our nation’s fiscal house in order.

“The economy is fragile, unemployment is high, and Americans are worried. Given the need for economic growth and deficit reduction, for our part we have offered to do more with less. If Washington provides America’s farmers and ranchers with some certainty, we can continue to help lead our nation’s economic recovery.”

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Contact:

Dana Peterson, National Association of Wheat Growers, dpeterson (at) wheatworld.org

Reece Langley, USA Rice Federation, rlangley (at) usarice.com

Under a December 2011 law, which still faces some legal challenges, the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) will lose its grain marketing monopoly Aug. 1, allowing western Canadian farmers to sell their wheat and barley in the open market.

The United States is routinely Canada’s top wheat export market, but Canada’s open market changes could affect the ways wheat moves into the United States.

“We believe that in an open market, some Canadian wheat will move to U.S. country elevators near the border,” said Gordon Stoner, a Montana wheat farmer who serves as the head of the USW/NAWG Joint International Trade Policy Committee.

“Our wheat farmers are ready to accept that outcome as long as we similarly have a fair opportunity to deliver into the Canadian handling system. This resolution gives NAWG and USW the authority to work with farmers, the grain trade and government agencies here and in Canada to give U.S. farmers reciprocal access to the Canadian market. We seek an open border — in both directions.”

Stoner said some key issues must be resolved before U.S. farmers could sell their wheat to cash markets in Canada, such as Canada’s narrow wheat class variety eligibility lists that do not allow most U.S. varieties to be marketed in the country as top grade milling wheat.

“Ultimately, open trade across the border will be good for both Canadian and U.S. wheat farmers by adding efficiency and allowing Canadian and U.S. wheat handlers, users and growers to compete on the basis of quality and location,” Stoner said. “At the same time, with the CWB monopoly gone, the international market that determines our prices will become more transparent, fair and efficient.”

For an audio report from Stoner on happenings at the NAWG/USW Joint International Trade Policy Committee meeting Jan. 28, please visit http://www.wheatworld.org/wp-content/uploads/audio-stoner-report-jitpc-20120131.mp3.

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The Wheat Leader of the Year Award, the wheat industry’s highest public service award, is given annually to one Member of Congress based on his or her demonstrated commitment to the well-being and goals of the wheat industry.

Baucus was chosen by NAWG’s leadership to receive the 2011 award because of his tireless support of three free trade agreements that were approved last year; his efforts to protect crop insurance within the federal budget; and his general advocacy for agricultural priorities.

“We in Montana know how much Sen. Baucus and his staff care about our state’s farmers and about farmers around the country,” said Bing Von Bergen, NAWG’s second vice president and a wheat farmer from Moccasin, Mont. “Sen. Baucus has proven time and time again that he’s a champion of the wheat industry. He understands our concerns and does a spectacular job of fighting for them.”

Baucus received his award at a NAWG open house Thursday evening, held during the Wheat Industry Winter Conference in Washington, D.C.

“America’s farmers commend Chairman Baucus for his leadership in the effort to approve trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, and for his strong defense of essential programs that support the foundation of our nation’s economy – agriculture,” said NAWG Chief Executive Officer Dana Peterson.

Baucus is a repeat winner of the Wheat Leader award, having also won it in 2008 and 2002.

Previous Wheat Leaders include Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) (2010); Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) (2009 and 2007); Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) (2006); Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) (2005); Rep. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) (2004); Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) (2003); Rep. Larry Combest (R-Texas) (2001); Rep. George Nethercutt (R-Wash.) (2000); and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) (1999).

Representatives from NAWG’s member-states, in town for NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates meetings and Hill visits, have also been delivering other wheat awards given by the national association.

The Wheat Advocate Award is given annually to Members of Congress who have demonstrated support for the wheat industry above and beyond the norm.

Those receiving 2011 Wheat Advocate awards include:

• Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.)
• Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio)
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
• House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.)
• House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.)
• Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)
• Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio)
• Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho)
• Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)

The Friend of Wheat Award is given annually by NAWG for superior action in support of the goals and policies of the wheat industry. This award is given to Congressional and administrative staff members who have demonstrated support for the wheat industry above and beyond the norm.

The 2011 Friend of Wheat Awards were given to:

• Jonathan Coppess – Senate Agriculture Committee Majority Staff
• Ryan Flickner – Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)
• Krysta Harden – USDA’s Office of the Secretary
• Tina May – Senate Agriculture Committee Majority Staff
• Jim Miller – Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.)
• Bill Murphy – USDA-Risk Management Agency
• Clark Ogilvie – House Agriculture Committee Minority Staff
• Joe Schultz – Senate Agriculture Committee Majority Staff
• Mike Seyfert – Senate Agriculture Committee Minority Staff
• Anne Simmons – House Agriculture Committee Minority Staff
• Alexis Taylor – Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.)

Awards that couldn’t be delivered to winners during this week’s activities in Washington will be presented to Members and staff members at a later date.

More about the Congressional awards, including more about past winners, is available at http://www.wheatworld.org/about-us/policy-process/.

Pictures of Baucus and other winners receiving their awards are at www.facebook.com/wheatworld.

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Contact: Melissa Kessler, NAWG, mkessler (at) wheatworld.org, 202-547-7800

As in years past, the speech was wide ranging, ambitious and, of course, political, offering far more extensive proposals than are likely to be seriously considered in a divisive political climate and an election year.

In a section on trade priorities, the President said U.S. businesses were tracking ahead of his goal to double U.S. exports in five years and praised recently-passed free trade agreements, though it look more than four years for them to be approved. He also pledged to “go anywhere in the world to open new markets for American products” and announced a new “trade enforcement unit” to investigate unfair trading practices.

Addressing the power of small businesses and start-ups, he urged Congress to “tear down regulations that prevent aspiring entrepreneurs from getting the financing to grow.” Later, he said “there’s no question that some regulations are outdated, unnecessary or too costly,” using as an example proposed requirements for dairy farmers to have Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) plans for spilled milk.

Obama talked extensively about the need for domestic energy production, adopting a mantra more typical of Republicans by saying the U.S. needs “an all-out, all-of-the-above” approach to domestic energy development.

He called for Congress to set a “clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation” and announced plans to create enough clean energy on public land to power 3 million homes. For energy and other areas, he touted the power of “basic research,” citing examples in the health care and technical areas, though not in agriculture.

Importantly to farmers, Obama addressed the need for infrastructure improvements, urging funding for construction projects, roads and bridges, modernization of the power grid and, in one of few direct mentions of rural needs, rural broadband.

Text of the full State of the Union address is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/01/24/remarks-president-state-union-address.

USDA rolled out the new school meal regulations on Wednesday with the assistance of First Lady Michelle Obama.

The new meal requirements will modify the standards for the first time in 15 years, touching meals consumed by an estimated 32 million children each school day.

USDA highlighted five key changes in the new standards, including:

• substantially increasing offerings of whole grain-rich foods;
• ensuring students are offered both fruits and vegetables every day of the week;
• offering only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties;
• limiting calories based on the age of children being served to ensure proper portion size; and
• increasing the focus on reducing the amounts of saturated fat, trans fats and sodium.

Existing lunch standards called for eight servings a week, a minimum of one per day, of grains, with whole grains encouraged. The new standards set required minimum daily and weekly servings, based on grade level, with at least half of grains required to be whole grain rich beginning on July 1 of this year. By July 2014, all grains must be whole grain rich.

Current breakfast standards call for daily meals to include either two grains, two meats or one of each. The new standards set daily minimums for grains alone, again varying by grade level, and require half of those grains to be whole grain rich by July 1, 2013, with all of them whole grain rich by July 1, 2014.

The Wheat Foods Council, wheat farmers’ nutrition education organization, embraced the new requirements while also reminding legislators of the importance of enriched grain products.

A full statement from WFC is at http://www.wheatfoods.org/blog/2012/01/26/wheat-foods-council-statement-usda-school-meal-nutrition-standards.

USDA developed the new standards based on recommendations from an expert panel and the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is the latest revision of the government’s nutritional guidelines.

The Department said it received 132,000 comments on the proposed standards, which are part of a larger law, the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, passed in 2010. The law also provides increased funding for school meals; offers technical assistance and training to help schools reach the new standards; and regulates other food available in schools, for example, through vending machines.

Much more about the new school meal standards is online at http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/Legislation/nutritionstandards.htm.

Yahoo Education, a news division of the search engine giant, published the piece by writer Terence Loose, listing agriculture, animal science and horticulture as three of the five “most useless” degrees available to college students.

The article was based on figures from the Department of Labor assessing the number of available positions for farm managers, animal scientists, and farmers and ranchers. Perhaps showing the cultural divide between those who work in the farming and food industries and those who don’t, it didn’t take into consideration the many jobs related to agriculture that aren’t directly on the farm, including with input suppliers, farm services, food processing and distribution and the agricultural media. The result was a very narrow view of an industry that encompasses 21 million U.S. jobs.

The Yahoo piece was also highly antithetical to those who actually work in the industry and know it is one of the few bright spots in an economy that has stagnated for nearly four years. While other U.S. industries that produce tangible products, like manufacturing, have struggled to compete in a global market, U.S. agriculture is thriving, with ag exports worth $137 billion in the last fiscal year.

Farmers, editors of agriculture publications and agriculture educators responded in force against the article’s allegations, pointing out the generalizations and gaps in its argument and reminding people that, as an editorial from Drovers CattleNetwork put it, “[d]on’t criticize our chosen profession…with your mouth full.”

The deans of agriculture at Purdue University, the University of Illinois, the Ohio State University and Iowa State University released a detailed press statement citing studies showing the need for agriculture industry workers and low unemployment rates for ag graduates compared to their peers in other fields.

The article was still producing Twitter traffic as of press time, with the hash tag #productofagedu marking some tweets. On Facebook, a new group titled “I Studied Agriculture & I Have A Job” had nearly 4,500 likes on Thursday.

The greater irony of the Yahoo piece for those who did study agriculture – and those who didn’t but work in the industry anyway – is that even as the number of on-farm jobs decreases, farmers still struggle to find qualified workers, and many industries that support the farming and food systems are in dire need of young, talented people.

Agricultural research is one of these areas, with both public and private research organizations raising concerns about finding the qualified, and highly-paid, professionals they need now and will need in the coming decades. Experienced wheat researchers, for instance, are in high demand as more and more investment goes into producing the world’s most widely cultivated crop with less water and land and yet to feed more people.

As longtime aggies continue to tackle these real challenges, they can be heartened that their backlash against the Yahoo piece might have a happy consequence: showing their urban friends the rich opportunities available in one of our country’s most fundamental industries.

The full Yahoo article is at http://education.yahoo.net/articles/most_useless_degrees.htm.

That was the main message of a letter sent last week by the group’s co-chairmen to the Department of Commerce, noting that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has also concluded the technology could interfere with flight-safety systems that depend on GPS.

The co-chairs of the interagency review panel, who are deputy secretaries of the Departments of Defense and Transportation, indicated in their letter that the level of interference, even with proposed fixes, is so severe “no additional testing is warranted at this time.”

LightSquared has applied for a spectrum use waiver from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow it to deploy technology to dramatically expand broadband access, including in rural areas.

However, extensive testing has shown the technology also causes significant interference with GPS systems, which are well-integrated into the agricultural, construction, aviation and other industries, as well as commonly used by members of the general public.

Agriculture groups are heavily engaged on this issue because without a technical fix, LightSquared’s technology would knock out most of an estimated 500,000 precision receivers used in farm equipment, which have allowed for critical safety and environmental benefits and billions of dollars of savings on the farm.

LightSquared reacted quickly to the interagency determination, saying the review process was “fraught with inappropriate involvement of the GPS manufacturers, lax controls, obvious bias, lack of transparency and unexplained delays,” and that its private tests have shown its proposed fix for the interference problem “works flawlessly.”

The Coalition to Save Our GPS, which has advised caution in moving forward, said in a statement, “LightSquared has been afforded every possible opportunity to make its technical case and has failed to demonstrate that it can avoid interference to many critical GPS-based activities… At this point, there is no evidence that any further modifications to its proposal would yield a different conclusion.”

NAWG and other groups have stood firm in the opinion that a workable fix must be found before the FCC grants LightSquared’s waiver, and that the cost of any modifications required to existing systems be borne by the company, not the GPS user.

Letters sent by NAWG on this matter are available online at http://www.wheatworld.org/issues/othercorrespondence.

More about the issue from the Coalition to Save Our GPS is at www.saveourgps.org.

About 120 stakeholders attended the sessions last weekend in San Diego, Calif., including most of the 56 scientists who participate in the wheat and barley research program.

While the bulk of the meeting’s time was spent on technical research reports, education and collaboration efforts were also key topics.

One of the objectives of the T-CAP project, which is funded by a $25 million grant from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), is to train undergraduate and graduate students at participating universities and minority-serving institutions in essential scientific skills.

There is increasing recognition among project leaders that communication and collaboration are also vital skills for researchers that could be incorporated into future training. A pool of scientists is needed who can explain to the general public, the media and lawmakers the impact plant sciences have on the day-to-day lives of every person who eats food.

T-CAP scientists are also undertaking a number of efforts to help younger students learn about and become interested in plant science. Resources are being developed for undergraduate and advanced high school students, like a recruitment film showing what T-CAP scientists do and why their work matters.

In an age of increased collaboration and coordination with other researchers at home and abroad, the development of databases was also a focus of the meeting conversation. New technologies like DNA markers dramatically increase the volume of information available to scientists, which must be channeled into a useable, and searchable, form. The need for adequate data management tools is seen as an international priority and is also a key focus of the international wheat research initiative that was created by the G20. In the case of the T-CAP project, scientists are already seeing the need for more server space to manage the explosion of data that has been developed.

NAWG is a strong supporter of the T-CAP project, which is one of the premier public wheat research collaborations funded by USDA. NAWG Chief Executive Officer Dana Peterson attended the T-CAP meeting on behalf of the Association and wheat producers.

She later attended the annual meeting of the Wheat Foods Council, which is a nutrition education organization funded by wheat growers and users.

That meeting focused on the Wheat Foods’ outreach plans for the coming year, including a presence at various events in the nutrition and dietician community; expansion of the WFC Network, Wheat Foods’ revitalized website; publication of a new e-magazine; and coordination of a wheat tour for nutrition bloggers, chefs and other influencers.

More about the T-CAP project is at http://wheat.pw.usda.gov/triticeaecap/.

More from Wheat Foods Council is at http://www.wheatfoods.org/.

The session was sponsored by the Commodity Markets Council and included statements from Ann Shuman, a deputy general counsel for the CME Group.

CME representatives could not offer new details about the whereabouts of the missing money, which is currently estimated to be just over $1 billion, but they did reiterate statements made in Congressional hearings that the crisis arose due to poor, and possibly illegal, decisions by MF Global rather than a lack of oversight.

At the briefing, it was noted that CME was auditing MF Global in the week leading up to its bankruptcy because of the possibility that MF was going to be sold to another firm. During this audit, CME found a sizeable shortfall in funds that they first attributed to an “accounting error,” but later said may have been due to an illegal transfer of funds.

On Oct. 31, 2011, MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection, citing its $31.7 billion of debts against its $41 billion of assets, making it the eighth largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. In its filing, the company also cited the fact it had made unwise decisions investing on European sovereign debt.

Customers with missing money have currently been compensated for about 72 percent of their account values, but there will not be any additional distributions until the end of the bankruptcy trustee process.

The current deadline for all commodity customers to submit claims to the trustee is Jan. 31, though MF Global’s bankruptcy court was set to consider on Thursday an extension to that deadline. The deadline for all non-commodity-related creditor claims is June 2.

NAWG is continuing to monitor the MF Global bankruptcy proceedings as the investigation into the missing funds continues, and NAWG staff attended the briefing this week. The bankruptcy will also be a topic of discussion at NAWG’s upcoming winter committee and Board meetings.

A letter sent previously by the agriculture industry on this matter is at http://www.wheatworld.org/issues/othercorrespondence/.

Classic 2012 is set to be held March 1 – 3 at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tenn. NAWG policy committee meetings held in association with the convention will begin Wednesday, Feb. 29, and the Evening of Entertainment that caps off official Classic events is scheduled for the evening of Saturday, March 3.

Early-bird registration is available at a rate of $190 for grower-members, $290 for non-members, $145 for spouses and older teens, and $75 for children to age 15. After Jan. 20, rates will rise to $215 for grower-members, $315 for non-members and $165 for spouses and older teens.

As in past years, the $100 difference between member and non-member rates means a farmer who isn’t currently a member of a NAWG state association could join and register for the convention for about the same total cost.

NAWG encourages all individuals within the wheat chain to indicate their affiliation with NAWG on their registration forms.

Classic is the annual convention and trade show for NAWG, the National Corn Growers Association, the American Soybean Association and the National Sorghum Producers.

Attendees can expect to enjoy a wide variety of educational sessions, networking opportunities and a trade show displaying the newest technology and equipment.

Educational sessions will also help producers be better at what they do by demonstrating how policy and regulations will affect their bottom lines and how new technology and innovation can impact profitability and production.

More about the show, including outlines of the event’s agenda and housing possibilities, is available at www.commodityclassic.com.

The House of Representatives is scheduled to return next Tuesday, with the Senate reconvening Jan. 23. The annual State of the Union address by President Barack Obama, the traditional start of the Congressional season, is scheduled for Jan. 24.

Conventional wisdom that little legislating happens during an election year is bolstered in 2012 by memories of a rough 2011, during which political differences took the country to the brink of a government shutdown three times.

The year ended with a standoff between House Republicans and the Senate and President over an extension of an existing payroll tax holiday. That extension was approved two days before Christmas, but it only lasts two months.

A longer-term payroll holiday package is likely to be one of a few priorities tackled effectively in the new Congressional session. Other must-dos include a 2013 fiscal year budget, which will probably involve a continuing resolution of the FY2012 budget, and debate over whether or not to allow $1.2 trillion in sequestration budget cuts to go into effect early next year.

Of course, the 2008 Farm Bill expires on Sept. 30. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has said her Committee will begin hearings on the farm bill rewrite early in the year, with the goal of having an “initial product” by spring. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) has not been as direct about his plans, but it’s likely all efforts will run into the same tense negotiating environment that existed in 2011.

Other wheat grower priorities on the horizon for 2012 include resolution of duplicative pesticide permitting requirements addressed in H.R. 872; continued congressional oversight of the MF Global bankruptcy and loss of $1.2 billion of customer funds; and work on the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks.

The Fieldprint Calculator was first released in 2009 to help growers assess their corn, wheat, soybean, cotton and rice operations in terms of land use, soil conservation, soil carbon, water use, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

The online tool is interactive, allowing growers to input their data and see how they compare to other, similar operations. The new version of the Fieldprint Calculator was improved based on recommendations from growers and to incorporate new data, including from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

The update is aiming to make the Calculator’s results more accurate and consistent while also making the tool easier for individuals to use.

Growers can now compare their Fieldprint to similar operations across the county, state and nation, through comparisons and scenario-based options. Other new features allow growers to include crop rotations, calculate soil carbon and analyze cost savings for on-farm decisions through a budgeting function.

The new version of the Calculator is undergoing several pilot projects supported by Field to Market members to test the new features with corn, wheat and rice growers.

The Calculator was originally developed to help accelerate environmental gains made within the farm gate and to help demonstrate those practices outside the farm gate. It is the hallmark effort of the Field to Market coalition, which includes participants from commodity groups like NAWG, agribusinesses, universities, major food companies and environmental groups.

To learn more about Field to Market or try out the new calculator, visit www.fieldtomarket.org.

The endowments will be worth $2 million over time and will fund wheat breeding and wheat agronomist professorships located at the University’s Aberdeen Research and Extension Center.

The Commission is the quasi-state agency that collects and invests Idaho wheat checkoff dollars to support the state’s 4,500 wheat growers and their $766 million-per-year harvest.

The new professorships will enhance a separate partnership announced between Limagrain Cereal Seeds and the College to breed new wheat varieties for the Pacific Northwest region.

Limagrain Cereal Seeds is a joint venture between the France-based Limagrain Group, the largest cereal seed company in Europe, and Arcadia Biosciences, a U.S. biotech company.

Under the new public-private partnership, both the College and the company are expected to contribute germplasm, technology and expertise to more rapidly develop varieties with improved productivity and tolerance to diseases and stress. While financial terms of agreement were not disclosed, the Commission said Limagrain will also fund a significant endowment for cropping systems research and graduate training at the university.

In making the endowment and public-private partnership announcements, the Wheat Commission also said that the College has committed to further assist the grain industry by reallocating resources to cereal research and extension capacity, which were hard hit during the severe economic downturn of the past several years.

The Commission said the strategic and collaborative partnerships will enable the college to fill two cropping positions in the coming year, one each in Moscow and Aberdeen, along with a plant nutrition position. To further improve adaptation of new wheat varieties in northern Idaho, an area-wide extension educator position will be filled to support cereal agronomic and yield test sites in northern Idaho.

“Wheat growers of Idaho are very aware of how important research is to our bottom line,” said Gordon Gallup of Ririe, chairman of the Idaho Wheat Commission. “If wheat is to remain competitive in our state and region, growers of Idaho must look to public/private partnerships, as well as requiring increased efficiencies in our public research programs.”

The announcements out of Idaho are the latest in a stream of new wheat research investments since 2008. Since that time, many in the business and governmental sectors around the world have recognized a reality growers have known for years: more money and more efficiency are needed within wheat research to help keep the crop competitive and feed a growing global population. A briefer outlining recent announcements is at http://www.wheatworld.org/wp-content/uploads/biotech-research-announcements-since-2008-20111003.pdf.

The full Idaho Wheat Commission release is at http://idahowheat.org/.

WOLF is designed as an advanced leadership program for state wheat grower leaders who will soon become members of the NAWG Board of Directors, though other individuals are welcome to apply.

The goal of the program is to provide a solid foundation of knowledge about NAWG and about board leadership.

Training sessions focus on the responsibilities of Board members, the wheat industry’s structure and leadership skills like meeting management and conflict resolution. Other sessions include information about effective communication with the media and Capitol Hill stakeholders.

The WOLF program is put on annually as a regular Foundation program. It is generously sponsored by Bayer CropScience, and Bayer representatives will join the growers throughout the program’s sessions.

Members of the 2012 WOLF class include:

• Tyler Anderson, Pine Bluff, Wyo.
• Caroline Brauer, Lincoln, Neb.
• Dayton Christensen, Big Springs, Neb.
• Clark Hamilton, Ririe, Idaho
• Ryan McCormick, Kremlin, Mont.
• Raymond Parrish, Hunter, Okla.
• James Parsons, Ducor, Calif.
• Marvin Schlatter, Hutchinson, Kan.

WOLF sessions will begin Wednesday, Jan. 25, ahead of the Wheat Industry Winter Conference.

More about the Conference is available online at http://www.wheatworld.org/meetings-events/winterconference/.

The spending bill, which was passed by the House on Friday and the Senate on Saturday, is being called a “megabus” because it combines most but not all of the 12 regular appropriations bills, totaling more than $900 billion.

It was the last piece of work Congress was required to finish before breaking for the year, with a continuing resolution funding the government expiring last Friday.

Shortly before press time, it appeared the leadership of both Congressional chambers and President Barack Obama had also coalesced around a plan to extend expiring payroll tax holiday provisions for two months pending a longer-term extension after the first of the year. This had been a major point of contention that kept some House Members in town until late in the week.

Despite this dispute, passage of a long-term spending bill is encouraging ahead of a year expected to be heavy on both priorities and politicking before the 2012 elections.

Of note to the agriculture community, the megabus bill included $1.17 billion allocated for food security and agricultural development work through the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), some of which should go to international wheat and maize research organization CIMMYT. The World Bank’s Global Agriculture and Food Security Program was funded at $135 million. Both of these are particular achievements in the current budget environment for important international work.

Related to trade policy, the bill did not include a proposed rider that would have reversed recent policy changes for Cuba travel, which at one point was a major roadblock for the measure’s passage.

However, the bill also did not include language from H.R. 872 or another legislative fix for new and duplicative pesticide permitting requirements that emanate from a 2009 Sixth Circuit Court ruling. Work will continue to resolve this issue as quickly as possible in the new year.

Funding for USDA programs was not a part of the megabus bill, having been approved in November as part of a smaller appropriations and continuing resolution measure.

That bill funded USDA agencies and programs at $136.6 billion, a reduction of $4.6 billion from the Obama Administration’s request. Discretionary spending made up $19.8 billion of the total, $350 million below last year’s level and $2.5 billion below the Administration’s request.

Agricultural research programs took a hit in the bill, though conferees avoided the draconian cuts included the House-passed appropriations measure.

The agriculture appropriations measure provided $2.297 billion for the National Institute on Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), which is approximately $12 million below the Senate level and $282 million above the House.

The Senate’s number for ARS prevailed, with the bill ultimately providing $1.095 billion, down from $1.133 billion in FY2011. The House had proposed a funding level of $995.3 million, which would have represented a cut of more than 12 percent.

That bill’s conference committee largely rejected House-level cuts to conservation programs and fully funded both the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program, which are key to the wheat industry’s marketing work around the world.

In addition to U.S. Wheat Associates’ work helping public and private wheat buyers get the most value possible from U.S. wheat imports, the U.S. wheat industry advocates for trade policies that support open and fair competition. Looking back on 2011, several trade policy achievements hold the promise of an even more rewarding year in 2012 for wheat buyers and producers.

Perhaps most important, the United States ratified three free trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama that add value to the partnership with U.S. wheat farmers. Swift implementation of these three important agreements will ensure that customers in these countries are no longer subject to tariffs on U.S. wheat imports.

Negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) gained momentum this year. Several countries – most notably Japan – expressed interest in joining the nine current TPP negotiating countries. Details of the agreement are taking shape and, after a successful Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, there is hope for a final agreement in 2012. Once complete, the TPP will help lower tariffs and other trade barriers facing U.S. wheat and help improve economic opportunity for each member country.

While progress in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Round in 2011 was slow at best, the WTO remains a useful organization for the international trading system. USW fully supports the fundamental objective of the Doha Round to improve the trading prospects of developing countries. Last month, Director-General Pascal Lamy told WTO members that “in a context of greater economic uncertainty and rising global risks, it is all the more important that the process of global trade opening continues.”

U.S. wheat importers made record use of the USDA’s GSM-102 Export Credit Guarantee Program. GSM-102 provides credit guarantees to encourage financing of commercial exports of U.S. agricultural products, while providing competitive credit terms to buyers, especially in developing countries.

Finally, in the face of critical budget challenges, the U.S. Congress has agreed to maintain full funding of the Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) programs for fiscal year 2012. We believe that is because these programs provide an excellent return to U.S. farmers and their overseas customers. USW and the entire U.S. wheat industry will continue advocating for MAP and FMD so that we can continue offering the trade service, technical assistance and market information on which our customers rely.

More about wheat industry trade priorities is at www.wheatworld.org/trade and http://www.uswheat.org/whatWeDo/tradePolicy.

Festive cookies, served at year-end holiday gatherings, may in the future be made with a larger proportion of whole-grain flour instead of familiar, highly refined white flour. That’s a goal of ongoing studies by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists in Wooster, Ohio.

A study by scientists with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Soft Wheat Quality Research Unit in Wooster was published earlier this year in Crop Science. The research may help plant breeders zero in on promising new wheat plants that might be tomorrow’s superstar producers of whole-grain soft wheat flours for cookie doughs.

ARS is USDA’s chief intramural scientific research agency.

Consumption of whole grains has been associated, in some studies, with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. But Americans don’t eat enough whole grains, according to wheat expert Edward J. Souza. A former ARS research leader and plant geneticist at Wooster, Souza now directs wheat breeding for an international plant science company.

Souza conducted the cookie-flour study in collaboration with Clay H. Sneller of Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center at Wooster, and with Mary J. Guttieri, formerly with the center.

New, detailed evidence from their investigation confirms that two inexpensive, readily available and relatively simple tests are reliable tools for getting an early in-the-laboratory indication of how good a promising new wheat may prove to be as a future source of whole-grain cookie flour.

The two procedures – the sucrose SRC (solvent retention capacity) test and the milling softness equivalent test – aren’t new. But the Wooster team’s study is perhaps the most thorough examination of the tests’ reliability as an early screen for a new soft-wheat flour’s performance in whole-grain cookie doughs.

The scientists used 14 different commercial varieties of soft wheat for this research. The study showed that breeders and foodmakers can rely on the SRC and softness tests for early screening. Later, when they want to narrow their focus to only those plants that are uniquely superior sources of whole-grain cookie dough flour, they can invest in the “wire-cut cookie test,” a more expensive procedure.

ARS, Ohio State University, and Kraft Foods North America funded the research. Read more about it in the November/December 2011 issue of Agricultural Research magazine or at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov11/flour1111.htm.

MF Global, a derivatives broker-dealer, declared bankruptcy on Oct. 31. Since that time, investigators have been working to determine where an estimated $1.2 billion in missing customer money went in the final, hectic days of the company’s life.

It is widely suspected – though there have been no formal charges made – that the money held for customers was somehow mixed in with the firm’s own money, and then lost or put up to cover a firm margin call.

At a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on Tuesday, CME Group Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy testified someone in his company has indicated former MF Global chief executive Jon Corzine knew about a loan from customer to firm accounts – a revelation that is the only real break in the case thus far.

At a House Financial Services Committee Subcommittee on Oversight Investigations hearing held Thursday, Corzine, who had completed his Senate testimony before Duffy was empanelled, again denied directing or intending for customer money to be used.

In addition to Corzine, Agriculture Committee Members in the Senate heard from a farmer panel about the impacts they are seeing from the funds loss. Additional panels included other MF Global executives and government and industry regulators.

It now appears that through a claims process, customers who have not been made whole may receive slightly more than 70 percent of their funds.

In addition to the financial losses faced by former MF Global customers, the circumstances surrounding the bankruptcy have created serious uncertainty about the safety of customer money held by brokers.

NAWG will remain engaged in this issue as Congress, the CFTC and others continue their investigations. A letter sent previously by the agriculture industry on this matter is at http://www.wheatworld.org/issues/othercorrespondence/.

In individual and group comments, NAWG told USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that full deregulation of Roundup Ready sugar beets, which have been determined to be safe by a number of government reviews, would be the appropriate regulatory decision.

Roundup Ready sugar beets were deregulated in 2005 by USDA, but in 2010, a U.S. District Court judge ruled the Department should conduct a more extensive review, known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Since the court challenge was based on process and not safety, the widely-adopted crop was partially deregulated in early 2011, in time to allow farmers to plant it this growing season.

In the Association’s individual statement, NAWG Chief Executive Officer Dana Peterson told regulators NAWG strongly believes growers should have the choice to plant new and safe agricultural technologies, and they should have access to a reliable regulatory process.

“Farmers, processors and consumers should be able to count on biotech crop approvals issued by the experts in federal agencies,” she wrote.

In the coalition comments, signatories stressed the financial and intangible costs of the “lengthy and unpredictable” regulatory and litigation processes faced by biotech sugar beets and other crops.

These themes echoed recent coalition comments to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) related to its effort to create a “national bioeconomy blueprint.”

The agency had requested input on grand challenges that could be addressed utilizing new technology, as well as regulatory issues surrounding their introduction into the marketplace.

The agriculture coalition in which NAWG joined focused its comments on plant biotechnology issues, describing the importance of biotech applications to meeting global food demand while using fewer resources and assisting crop adaptation to climatic changes around the world.

The groups urged policy makers to “maintain the integrity of the regulatory process with respect to biotechnology crops” and supported the continued development of the regulatory process known as the “coordinated framework,” which brings to bear resources in USDA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.

Wheat produced using biotechnology is not in commercial production anywhere in the world. However, wheat growers support the use of biotechnology as a tool to help farmers achieve better yields and improved crop quality while reducing inputs.

Additional comments were submitted to the Science and Technology office by the National Coalition for Food and Agriculture Research (NC-FAR), of which NAWG is a member. Those comments said the food and agricultural sciences are building blocks of the bio-based economy and urged a high priority on federal funding for food and agricultural research, which has stagnated for at least two decades.

The full comments submitted this week and more about NAWG’s work toward wheat biotechnology is at www.wheatworld.org/biotech.

NAWG President Wayne Hurst, a wheat farmer from Burley, Idaho, traveled to Washington for the meeting and other legislative visits.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson led the meeting on Wednesday, with more than a dozen agriculture stakeholder groups sending representatives.

The attendees heard comments from Vilsack and Jackson about their working relationship and continued efforts to ensure EPA is improving its outreach with the agriculture community. Each stakeholder also had the opportunity to make comments and ask questions.

While in town, Hurst and NAWG staff members also held meetings on Capitol Hill, primarily focusing on the likely trajectory of the 2012 Farm Bill process. In those meetings, Hurst described NAWG’s policy-making process and expressed farmers’ desire to balance serious deficit reduction efforts with crafting a workable safety net.

Following failure of an earlier effort to write farm policy provisions into a super committee deficit reduction product, it seems the 2012 Bill will be written in regular order, with hearings beginning again in 2012. Still, the chances of success in what is expected to be a very partisan election year are questionable.

Hurst and NAWG staff also met with Surface Transportation Board (STB) Chairman Daniel Elliott to learn about the Board’s priorities.

To hear an audio update from Hurst on his take-aways from the meetings, visit http://www.wheatworld.org/podcasts/2011/12/hurst-talks-mid-december-d-c-visit/.

In his first Congressional testimony on the matter, Corzine said he, too, has questions about what happened at the company and without records and documents he no longer has access to, he can’t provide much help to investigators.

Corzine appeared at the hearing under a subpoena, the first of three issued so far by Congressional committees.

In his opening statement, he accepted responsibility for trades involving European sovereign debt, saying he “strongly advocated” the strategy. He also said, however, that MF Global’s board members were “independent and sophisticated” and while he ultimately had overall responsibility for the firm, he didn’t have day-to-day oversight and is not an expert on all relevant regulations.

Witnesses from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the law firm working with the bankruptcy trustee also testified before the Committee Thursday, shedding some light on the situation as investigators currently understand it.

James Kobak, lead counsel for the bankruptcy trustee, said the shortfall could be as “as much as $1.2 billion or more,” and the trustee is focused on determining how much money is missing, where it went and how to get it back.

Though he said no one will know exactly how much money is owed to customers until the claims process is complete in about seven weeks, based on what is known now, those who don’t have their funds back in hand could expect to receive an estimated 69-70 percent.

When questioned about the priority customers will have in getting back their money, as compared with other debt holders, Kobak said customers have an “exclusive right” to their funds and that the trustee would pursue other sources of funds if they are available legally.

Both Kobak and CFTC Commissioner Jill Sommers emphasized how complicated MF Global’s trades and records were, noting that the investigation is not yet able to draw many definitive conclusions.

Earlier in the week, the CFTC approved a new rule about how commodity firms can use customer funds, which has been generally praised though its full impact is not yet clear.

MF Global, a derivatives broker-dealer, declared bankruptcy on Oct. 31. Since that time, federal and international investigators have been working through the company’s records to determine what precipitated its failure and to locate the missing customer money.

The bankruptcy and lost money has touched farmers, grain handlers and others throughout the country, with nearly every Member on the House Ag panel saying he or she had heard from affected constituents.

In addition to the customer losses, which may or may not ever be recovered, the bankruptcy has threatened systemic confidence in the futures market, which is the key tool for agricultural interests seeking to manage their risk.

The Senate Agriculture Committee announced this week a witness list for its MF Global oversight hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 13. That panel unanimously voted to subpoena Corzine to appear at the session alongside other executives of the company, regulators and MF Global customers.

The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has also subpoenaed Corzine, for a Dec. 15 hearing.

NAWG and other farmer and ag finance organizations recently wrote Congressional agriculture leaders urging careful oversight of the situation. Those letters are available at www.wheatworld.org/othercorrespondence.

The USWBSI meeting was the National Fusarium Head Blight Forum, which is held each year to allow scientists working on Fusarium head blight, commonly known as scab, to share their findings.

Meeting activities included a poster session and presentations about the progress being made on research to combat scab infection and DON, the mycotoxin scab causes.

Scientists and stakeholders in attendance were particularly excited about discussions relating to new techniques they are using for genomic selection for Fusarium head blight resistance.

There was also increased interest in producing and releasing scab-resistant varieties for the hard red winter wheat region. Fusarium head blight infections have not traditionally been a top concern for hard red winter areas, but are increasingly an annual problem.

The USWBSI meetings were followed by the first meeting of the newly-restructured National Wheat Improvement Committee (NWIC).

NWIC recently reorganized to include an executive committee and regional representatives from each wheat region and class, as well as ex officio members and formal subcommittees. Grower representatives attending the NWIC meeting included Mike Miller from Washington, Jody Bellah from Texas and Bob Wisness from North Dakota.

NWIC members heard reports from the group’s four regional chairs focusing on state budget shortfalls and the net loss of researcher positions facing most state and federal programs. Many members from around the country expressed particular concern about the loss of funding for the Wheat Genetic and Genomic Resources Center at Kansas State University.

Dave Marshall, the acting national program leader for grain crops at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), gave the group an update on ARS’ budget situation. He told NWIC members about the dramatic implications the budget cuts will have to ARS staffing, including a continued hiring freeze that makes it impossible to bring in new or needed researchers. ARS has taken deep cuts in recent years and, based on its FY2012 budget allocation, will be closing nine locations and one program entirely.

Despite these very real concerns, NWIC members also had positive discussions about the renewed interest in wheat research in recent years. Six private companies sent representatives to the meeting to give updates on their work. And, NWIC members began planning for the group’s annual fly-in to educate federal stakeholders about the importance of wheat research.

NAWG Director of Government Affairs for Research and Technology Jane DeMarchi attended both meetings. DeMarchi is the secretariat for NWIC and a member of the USWBSI steering committee.

Art Brandli, a wheat farmer from Minnesota, and Dr. Dave Van Sanford, the wheat breeder at the University of Kentucky, are the co-chairs of the USWBSI. More about the USWBSI is available at http://www.scabusa.org.

An organizational chart for the new NWIC structure is at www.wheatworld.org/research under “Related Resources”.

In letters to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk sent Monday, the groups said Japan’s joining the negotiations would make an eventual TPP agreement more significant and strengthen the support of stakeholders.

Japan is one of the largest buyers of U.S. agricultural products despite extensive and complicated import barriers for food products, which could prove problematic to its inclusion in the talks.

“We understand that there are important issues to be tackled before any final decision can be made with respect to Japan’s participation, not the least of which is to gain assurances from Japan that it recognizes and accepts that the TPP must be a comprehensive agreement,” the groups said.

“We believe the Japanese government is beginning to undertake the necessary changes to domestic programs that will permit it to negotiate on that basis.”

Ag exports to Japan from the U.S. in 2010 were worth nearly $12 billion. Japan is routinely the largest buyer of U.S. wheat, purchasing up to 10 percent of U.S. wheat exports worth an estimated $1 billion in marketing year 2010/2011.

The groups writing included most major commodity groups and their affiliated export market development organizations; many producers and processors of fruit and meat products; and major food companies like Kraft.

While keenly aware of the current and growing value of Asian markets, led by China and Japan, the groups are also cognizant that there is a flurry of trade negotiations going on without U.S. participation. It is likely Japan will begin negotiating a trade agreement with the European Union in 2012, making a successful TPP including the country all the more important for U.S. exporters.

NAWG and USW support a comprehensive TPP agreement that provides improved market access and includes ambitious language on modern trade issues. The organizations also support Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia joining the talks.

On a related note, the House Ways and Means Committee’s trade subcommittee announced this week it will hold a hearing on the TPP negotiations Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 10 a.m.

More about the TPP negotiations is at http://www.ustr.gov/tpp. The full letters sent this week are available online at www.wheatworld.org/trade.

The ag community is supporting a Dear Colleague letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), originally circulated by Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

The letter outlines the urgent need for action on the legislation, which was approved by the House in March and the Senate Agriculture Committee in June, both on a bipartisan basis.

The legislation would clarify Congressional intent with regard to new permitting requirements for pesticide applications under the Clean Water Act (CWA), which went into effect at the end of October.

A January 2009 Sixth Circuit Court ruling said for the first time that pesticide applications can be a point source of pollution under CWA, meaning they would require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit in addition to compliance with extensive regulations under Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

Many state regulators remain unprepared to implement the decision, and a “pesticide general permit” recently issued but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) only covers aquatic applications. This means wheat and other farmers whose applications may possibly interact with a regulated body of water are not even eligible to apply for it.

NAWG and other agricultural groups are very concerned that this general lack of legal clarity could mean farmers inadvertently become subject to citizen suits and other legal actions if they don’t secure new permits but are following all other applicable laws and product labels.

Ag groups and legislators on both sides of the aisle are also concerned about the logistical burden of issuing the millions of permits that are likely needed under the new requirements in a time of reduced budgets across the board.

NAWG has urged all wheat-state Senators to sign on to this week’s Dear Colleague, and NAWG staff is working with coalition partners to pen an agriculture community letter to bolster the Senators’ efforts.

Much more about the NPDES permitting issue is available on NAWG’s website at www.wheatworld.org/environmentalregulation.

MF Global, a derivatives broker-dealer, declared bankruptcy on Oct. 31. Since that time, federal and international investigators have been searching for as much as $1.2 billion in lost customer money.

While no individual has been charged with wrongdoing in the case, it is widely suspected the company broke industry norms by combining customer and company money – making information about what money is available and what is seemingly lost very challenging for investigators to ascertain.

The 19 groups writing this week, including NAWG, described two goals to Ag Committee leaders: pursing all possible actions to ensure assets of MF Global customers are returned quickly – and ensuring a similar situation never happens again.

“Producers and agribusiness firms that rely on exchange-trading to facilitate risk management, as well as the lending institutions that support them, have had their confidence shaken in recent days,” the groups told Ag Committee Members.

“We have always believed that the risk to customer funds when trading on-exchange was virtually zero. Now, we see that is not the case.”

The groups described effects of the bankruptcy, including customers having trouble accessing funds, knowing how much funds are in their accounts and having accounts transferred to other institutions. Many customers have significant amounts of cash that is accounted but is tied up in the bankruptcy process.

The groups strongly asserted that customers’ commodity segregated funds receive highest priority in the hierarchy of claims as the bankruptcy proceeds.

The groups writing also focused on the confidence issues created by the bankruptcy, which is expected to be the eighth largest in U.S. history.

The U.S. agricultural sector relies heavily on regulated exchanges for risk management, and all lenders involved must have confidence the system will work to keep the market up and running. The coalition writing this week called for broad Congressional review of the protections in the system to help restore the lost confidence.

At a hearing Thursday, Members of the Senate Agriculture Committee focused many of their comments on the MF Global bankruptcy, and they will review the situation further at another hearing set for Dec. 13, at which former Sen. Jon Corzine, the former head of MF Global, has been called to testify.

The House Agriculture Committee has scheduled a hearing on the situation for Thursday, Dec. 8.

Both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees have jurisdiction over the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which is involved in the investigation of MF Global’s final dealings.

While this sometimes seems to be an odd division of responsibilities for agriculture leaders, they have historically retained these oversight responsibilities because of the potential impact futures markets can have on farmers and the farm economy.

The full letter sent this week is available at www.wheatworld.org/othercorrespondence.

Members of the America’s Heartland Advisory Board met in Washington, D.C., this week to get updated on and provide feedback about the show’s new season, which began airing in September.

The show runs on PBS stations around the country and RFD-TV. To date, about half of the season’s episodes have aired, though each PBS station independently decides when to start and end a show’s season on its channels.

Producers told Advisory Board members this week that the 150 episodes that make up seasons one through seven encompass 800 stories of approximately 700 farm families. Over the years, the show has visited every state – many over and over – and done multiple segments on practically any commodity or food imaginable.

The show’s TV presence is supplemented by robust online offerings, including a website that hosts every Heartland segment and episode; a YouTube channel viewed more than 3 million times; active Facebook and Twitter feeds; and a blog and e-newsletter to keep fans up to date.

At the meeting this week, Advisory Board members heard updates on the show’s carriage and new media strategy and about promotional activities undertaken by show sponsors Farm Credit, the American Farm Bureau Foundation and the United Soybean Board.

Outside speakers included Jose Fernandez, the assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs, and Tad Segal, communications director for agriculture coalition AGree.

The Advisory Board meets twice a year, along with a smaller group of farm organizations that serve as promotional partners for the show. NAWG is part of both bodies, and NAWG Director of Communications Melissa George Kessler attended the meetings this week on growers’ behalf.

Much more from America’s Heartland is available online at www.americasheartland.org.

NAWG’s leadership and staff wish all readers a peaceful and safe holiday filled with the abundance American farmers provide us all.

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Super Committee Folds, Ending Attempt at Farm Bill Rewrite

Leaders of the debt-deficit super committee said Monday their panel has failed to agree to more than $1 t

rillion in deficit reduction measures and would not be making a recommendation to Congress. This means the efforts to craft a farm policy proposal to be included in a super committee recommendation have also ceased, confirmed by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) on Monday afternoon.

Under the law passed this summer to raise the debt ceiling and establish the super committee, its failure will trigger automatic cuts through a process known as sequestration. Cuts will begin in early 2013 and take an estimated 8 percent from federal budgets, with a significant portion coming from defense spending and none coming from a still-undetermined list of programs. President Barack Obama said Monday he would veto any attempt to reduce the planned cuts or exempt additional programs or departments, like the Department of Defense.

A regular order rewrite of the 2008 Farm Bill, which expires Sept. 30, 2012, will likely begin late this year or early next, though the process remains unclear and will likely depend in part on the effects of sequestration-required cuts to farm bill programs.

Minibus Incorporating FY2012 Ag Funding Finalized

A “minibus” appropriations bill incorporating FY2012 agriculture program spending was finalized and signed into law late last week. The Senate voted 70 to 30 late Thursday to approve the measure, which also included funding for transportation, housing, commerce, science and justice programs as well as a continuing resolution for other programs until Dec. 16. President Barack Obama signed the bill Friday. A summary of relevant agriculture allocations was available in last week’s newsletter or at http://www.wheatworld.org/news-events/2011/11/conference-report-passes-house-with-ag-approps-short-term-cr/.

Biotech Sugarbeet Comment Period Open Until Dec. 13

USDA is accepting comments on a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for biotech sugarbeets until Dec. 13. The biotech crop, known commercially as Genuity Roundup Ready Sugarbeets and scientifically as Glyphosate-Tolerant H7-1 sugar beets, was first deregulated in 2005. USDA has undertaken the EIS in response to an August 2010 court ruling banning the planting and sale of the crop on administrative grounds. Farmers were allowed to plant the crop this year with certain restrictions and pending USDA’s current review. NAWG supports full deregulation of the crop to allow farmers choice and certainty in their planting decisions. More information about this issue and instructions for commenting are at www.supportsugarbeets.com.

Gaede Talks Biotech at Adaptation Workshop

NAWG Director of Government Affairs for Environmental Policy Mark Gaede emphasized the importance of wheat biotechnology at an agriculture and adaptation workshop held last Friday. The event was sponsored by USDA, the Bipartisan Policy Center and Farmers Feeding the World. Gaede spoke on a panel focusing on farming and food security in the face of increasing production challenges. He emphasized the wheat industry’s support for biotechnology to help wheat farmers continue to increase yields while using fewer resources and facing unpredictable weather events.

Hexima Announces Licensing Agreement with Monsanto

Hexima Limited announced Tuesday it has signed a research license and commercial agreement with Monsanto related to its anti-fungal protein technology in wheat. The company said the research is still “early” but shows potential for helping wheat growers combat fungal disease, which is a major source of yield loss for major food crops. Financial details were not disclosed. The full announcement is at http://www.hexima.com.au/pdf_files/announcements/Monsanto-Wheat_1111.pdf.

Thanksgiving Costs Up 13 Percent; Still Less Than $5 Per Person

The retail cost of menu items for a classic Thanksgiving dinner increased about 13 percent this year, according to an annual, informal survey done by the American Farm Bureau Federation. The organization’s annual price survey found the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 at $49.20, a $5.73 price increase from last year’s average of $43.47. While the dinner of eight dishes has gone up, the total price is still less than $5 per person served – a testament to the affordability of food in the United States. More information about the survey and some recipes for Thanksgiving classics are at http://www.fb.org/index.php?action=newsroom.news&year=2011&file=nr1110.html.

Hurst to Be Featured on AgDay’s “Harvest of Thanks”

NAWG President Wayne Hurst, who farms with his family in Idaho, will be featured with other growers in this week’s “Harvest of Thanks” segments on AgDay and the U.S. Farm Report. The special presentation will air on Thursday’s edition of AgDay and as part of the U.S. Farm Report on Saturday and Sunday. Both shows air on RFD-TV. A list of stations airing AgDay is at http://www.agweb.com/agday/agday_stations.aspx. A list of stations airing the U.S. Farm Report is at http://www.agweb.com/usfr/stations.aspx.

The measure, which is being called a “minibus,” also includes funding for transportation, housing, commerce, science and justice programs. It is expected to be taken up by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama on Friday, the day the current continuing resolution expires.

USDA agencies and programs funded in the bill will receive $136.6 billion in discretionary and mandatory funding, a reduction of $4.6 billion from the Obama Administration’s request. Discretionary spending alone makes up $19.8 billion of the total, $350 million below last year’s level and $2.5 billion below the Administration’s request.

Agricultural research programs took a hit in the bill, though conferees avoided the draconian cuts included the House-passed appropriations measure.

According to a Senate Appropriations Committee summary of the bill, it provides $2.297 billion for the National Institute on Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), which is approximately $12 million below the Senate level and $282 million above the House.

The Senate’s number for ARS prevailed, with the bill ultimately providing $1.095 billion, down from $1.133 billion in FY2011. The House had proposed a funding level of $995.3 million, which would have represented a cut of more than 12 percent.

The bill’s conference committee also largely rejected House-level cuts to conservation programs.

Overall, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) programs were funded at $844 million, down $45 million from FY2011. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is capped at $1.4 billion, the Conservation Security Program (CSP) is capped at $768.4 million and the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) is capped to enroll not more than 185,800 acres – all increases above the House-passed level.

In the area of energy programs, the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) is capped at $17 million and the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) is capped at $22 million. BCAP had been zeroed out by the House.

The bill fully funded both the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program. These programs share costs with agricultural producers for overseas promotion and are key to the wheat industry’s marketing work around the world.

The bill also included an amendment from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to cap at $1 million the adjusted gross income (AGI) level under which individuals can receive direct payments.

Completion of the minibus will finalize three of 12 appropriations bills for the new fiscal year, which started on Oct. 1. The remaining nine regular bills will almost certainly be lumped into an omnibus piece of legislation, though that process remains unclear.

The continuing resolution in the legislation simply extends current funding levels until Dec. 16 without changing funding levels for any of the programs it covers.

More about the final measure is available at http://appropriations.house.gov or http://appropriations.senate.gov/.

TPP negotiators recently concluded their ninth round of talks between countries that are currently part of the process, including the U.S., Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Canada and Mexico have also recently voiced interest in joining the growing negotiations, though it is unlikely the U.S. would see any direct benefit from their participation because preferences already exist under NAFTA.

Since approval of long-pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, attention has shifted to the TPP talks, which will almost certainly produce the next large, multilateral agreement benefiting the U.S.

The wheat industry – and ag exports generally – stand to see significant benefits from the talks if Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia join the talks. Japan is routinely one of the largest buyers of U.S. wheat, purchasing up to 10 percent of U.S. wheat exports worth an estimated $700 million.

At their recent meetings, the Boards of Directors for both NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates, which represents the industry in trade negotiations, adopted a resolution supporting a comprehensive TPP agreement that provides improved market access and includes ambitious language on modern trade issues. The resolution also encouraged Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia to join the TPP framework.

The U.S. joined TPP talks in 2009. The Obama Administration has made a TPP agreement a key part of its trade agenda, and Administration officials have said they’d like to complete the overall negotiations within a year. Countries joining the talks could eventually represent more than 40 percent of world trade.

More about the TPP negotiations is at http://www.ustr.gov/tpp.

On Tuesday, NAWG joined a coalition in writing the principal leaders of both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, praising their bipartisan and bicameral work while also laying a number of concerns about a proposed target price option.

The groups supported flexibility in planting decisions, as well as a revenue program that helps to moderate volatility in weather and markets and functions at the farm level. The groups also said that any new or revised safety net program should build on the foundation of crop insurance.

Other groups signing onto the letter included the American Soybean Association, the National Barley Growers Association, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Sunflower Association, the U.S. Canola Association and the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council – which together represent more than 70 percent of the nation’s field crop acreage.

By law, the super committee must vote on a proposal to reduce the federal deficit by at least $1.5 trillion by next Wednesday, Nov. 23. Both chambers of Congress must then take up the super committee proposal for an up-or-down vote by Dec. 23, or the necessary cuts will be taken from across the federal budget through an automatic process known as sequestration.

The 12-person panel, which includes two Members from each party in each chamber, will reportedly meet for a public mark-up next week, though details of when and where remain uncertain. The super committee has yet to release a public proposal; it is also unclear if a proposal that would achieve the necessary cuts has been submitted to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for scoring.

Leadership from the Agriculture Committees told the super committee last month that cuts to their jurisdictional programs should be no more than $23 billion.

They and other key ag leaders have been working to create a proposal that will reauthorize at least Title I of the 2008 Farm Bill – the farm safety net provisions – as part of the super committee process. This is necessary in part because the majority of the cuts will come from that title, making the current programs effectively non-functional.

NAWG grower-leaders and staff, along with other major agriculture groups and other interest groups, have been working with Members as they attempt to craft a workable safety net with dramatically less funds than before the 2008 Farm Bill.

To read the full letter sent this week, please visit http://www.wheatworld.org/wp-content/uploads/farmbill-coalition-letter-super-committee-proposal-20111115.pdf.

The deadline by which the heads of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees told the super committee they would offer a legislative proposal for the cuts came and went 10 days ago.

The farm community is looking for a compromise that will allow the cuts without decimating programs that help farmers in times of unpredictable weather and markets. Talks are centering around ideas for a revenue program with price protection to supplement crop insurance coverage, which most farmers consider the core of the safety net.

Talking to reporters at the National Association of Farm Broadcasters’ Trade Talk, NAWG President Wayne Hurst, a farmer from Burley, Idaho, said wheat leadership continues to work with many Members of Congress and fellow ag groups as the process develops.

Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Senate Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) are the key negotiators in the process thus far, though Members of both Committees and other ag-state leaders are also heavily involved.

Key policymakers include Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), a member of the super committee and the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), a key author of past farm bills and the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. All four Ag Committee principals, Baucus, Conrad and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who is a co-chair of the super committee, are from states with extensive wheat production.

In mid-October, leaders of the Congressional Ag Committees told the super committee agriculture-jurisdiction programs should be cut by no more than $23 billion on top of more than $40 billion in cuts and spending reductions in recent years.

NAWG’s policy priorities for the negotiations are outlined in a letter recently sent to Congress, which is at http://www.wheatworld.org/wp-content/uploads/farmbill-letter-on-ag-policy-deficit-reduction-20111025.pdf.

The message was delivered at more than a dozen meetings between agriculture group staff and Members of Congress and their staffs as part of a Hill push on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Groups participating in the outreach included NAWG, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Soybean Association, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Cotton Council and agricultural systems suppliers John Deere and Trimble.

The group met with Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) as well as staff for Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.).

On the House side, the group met with staff from the offices of House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Rep. Tim Johnson (R-Ill.), Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.), Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) and Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.).

The Federal Communications Commission is considering a condition it placed on a spectrum use waiver requested by LightSquared, a company with technology that could dramatically expand rural broadband access but that studies show could also emit signal interference that effectively disables GPS systems.

Agriculture groups have become engaged in this issue because without a technical fix, LightSquared’s technology would knock out most of an estimated 500,000 precision receivers, which have allowed for critical safety and environmental benefits and billions of dollars of savings on the farm.

NAWG and other groups have called for continued testing to find a fix to these technical issues before the FCC removes the conditional waiver for LightSquared. NAWG and ag groups have also repeatedly said that LightSquared should bear any cost associated with modifying existing GPS systems to work with its new broadband system.

Letters NAWG has sent on this issue are available online at www.wheatworld.org/othercorrespondence. More detail about the GPS concerns is at www.saveourgps.org.

Interviews with NAWG President Wayne Hurst, who farms near Burley, Idaho, focused on priorities for farm policy as legislators seek to cut $1.5 trillion or more from federal spending, likely necessitating a rewrite of farm bill provisions before the end of the year.

Leaders of the Congressional Agriculture Committees have told the debt-deficit super committee that they believe cuts to agriculture jurisdiction programs should be around $23 billion, but are still working on a proposal for how those cuts should be distributed.

Hurst also talked with broadcasters about the importance of a legislative fix like H.R. 872 for new and duplicative pesticide permitting requirements, which went into effect at the beginning of the month. The new requirements emanated from a 2009 Sixth Circuit Court ruling and could open up producers to enormous liability even if they are following already-strict pesticide-use laws.

Additionally, he praised the recent completion of free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea and urged caution on a proposal from broadband company LightSquared, which could authorize use of the electronic spectrum in a way that disables farm GPS systems.

In interviews he did, USW Chairman Randy Suess, who farms near Colfax, Wash., stressed the return on grower and federal investment from export market development.

Suess told broadcasters that the federal government’s minimal investment in promotion activities through the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program, combined with producer dollars, produce $115 gross return to the wheat industry for every $1 spent.

USW’s focus in the Nigerian market has led to sales that support average farm gate prices by an estimated 15 cents. A decline of that magnitude in market prices would reduce total farm income from wheat by nearly $300 million this year alone.

Both farm leaders spoke at the Wheat Industry booth at NAFB’s annual Trade Talk event. USW President Alan Tracy, who is headquartered near Washington, D.C., was also on hand for interviews; NAWG CEO Dana Peterson was scheduled to attend but returned to Washington to remain fully engaged in farm bill discussions.

Members of the media who did not make it to the booth during Trade Talk can contact Melissa Kessler, NAWG’s director of communications, at mkessler (at) wheatworld.org, or Steve Mercer, USW’s director of communications, at smercer (at) uswheat.org, to schedule an interview time.

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No Ag Committee Leadership Proposal Yet

As of press time Thursday, Congressional Agriculture Committee leaders continued to negotiate their legislative proposal for $23 billion in cuts to programs within their jurisdiction. The Ag Committee leaders had said they would present a proposal by Nov. 1 to outline how the cuts they recommended to the debt-deficit super committee should be distributed – and what changes would be necessitated in farm programs to allow for the reductions. Word from the Hill this week is that negotiations are ongoing but challenging considering the magnitude of the needed changes.

Last week, NAWG sent a letter to the Ag Committee principals in both chambers outlining the Association’s farm policy priorities for the super committee and farm bill processes. That letter is at http://www.wheatworld.org/wp-content/uploads/farmbill-letter-on-ag-policy-deficit-reduction-20111025.pdf.

H.R. 872 Moves Fail; New Permitting Goes Into Effect

An Oct. 31 deadline for action to prevent duplicative and ambiguous pesticide permitting regulations came and went without Senate action on a legislative proposal to clarify the requirements. The new regulations emanate from a 2009 ruling by the Sixth Circuit Court, which said for the first time that pesticide applications require a Clean Water Act permit in addition to compliance with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

NAWG and coalition partners continue to urge quick passage of H.R. 872 or another legislative solution to delay or eliminate the new requirements, particularly in light of the lack of legal clarity around in what situations the new permits are needed. The NAWG Board reiterated its support of such an approach at its meeting on Wednesday.

Senate Approves Ag Appropriations Bill

The Senate approved its version of the fiscal year 2012 agriculture appropriations bill this week. The measure was incorporated into what has become known as a “minibus” – a combination of multiple appropriations bills that is supposed to move through the Senate process more quickly than a full omnibus that incorporates all 12 regular bills.

In general, the Senate-passed agriculture bill cut programs less than the House bill, which was draconian in some of its provisions. Agriculture research, conservation and food aid programs all fared better under the Senate bill, while trade promotion programs including the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program were at authorized levels in both bills. NAWG will work with Congressional leaders and coalition partners as the bill’s conference begins to ensure any cuts to key programs don’t undermine their functioning.

USDA Announces Celebrations for 150th Anniversary

USDA began celebrating its 150th anniversary year this week, prepping for celebrations throughout 2012 that Secretary Tom Vilsack hopes will educate Americans about the Department’s important role. USDA launched a 150th anniversary microsite following a celebration announcement by Vilsack at the Old Illinois State Capitol, located in the hometown of President Abraham Lincoln, who signed legislation establishing USDA in 1862. The Department will formally launch its commemoration activities in February at its annual Agricultural Outlook Forum. To join the celebration, visit www.usda.gov/usda150.

Fall Wheat Conference Brings Growers Together

NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates leaders gathered for the 2011 Fall Wheat Conference this week in Scottsdale, Ariz. The conference included fall committee and Board meetings for both organizations, as well as meetings of the two organizations’ joint committees on trade and biotechnology policy.

More about the outcomes from the NAWG meetings will be available in future editions of the Report. Information about the happenings is already accessible on the NAWG and USW Facebook pages and Twitter feeds, and an audio report from each NAWG committee chairman is available on NAWG’s website at www.wheatworld.org/audio.

NAWG, USW Coming to NAFB’s Trade Talk

NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates will be together in booth 27 at the National Association of Farm Broadcasters’ Trade Talk interview fair, scheduled for next Thursday, Nov. 10. Wheat leaders on hand for interviews will be NAWG President Wayne Hurst, a wheat farmer from Idaho; NAWG Chief Executive Officer Dana Peterson; USW Chairman Randy Suess, a wheat farmer from Washington; and USW President Alan Tracy.

NAWG Communications Director Melissa George Kessler and USW Communications Director Steve Mercer will also be at the event to help arrange interviews. If you are a member of the media interested in setting an interview time, please contact Kessler or Mercer at mkessler (at) wheatworld.org or smercer (at) uswheat.org.

Principals at both committees are reportedly working toward a legislative proposal to send early next week to super committee members, who are charged with finding $1.5 trillion in federal spending to cut.

Last week, Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Senate Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and House Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) wrote the 12 committee members, saying agriculture-area programs should take no more than $23 billion in cuts through the ongoing debt-reduction process. Those cuts would come on top of more than $40 billion in cuts in recent years to crop insurance, nutrition and other programs.

In his letter, Hurst identified crop insurance as NAWG’s top priority, saying NAWG strongly opposes any reductions to the baseline available for crop insurance programs.

Hurst reiterated NAWG’s long-standing support for the direct payment program even while acknowledging it has lost public support. He said NAWG believes a phase-down of the direct payment, perhaps over as few as three years, would allow farmers, their landlords and lenders and rural economies to adjust.

Hurst also outlined preferred triggers for the development of a target price component to cushion farmer businesses in disastrous price decline situations.

Outside of Title I programs, Hurst’s letter voiced strong support for market development and agriculture research programs, including for the authorization of a cereal research initiative for wheat, barley and oats, incorporating mandatory and discretionary funding.

The letter also addressed conservation programs, where the Association believes leaders can find room for consolidation and increased efficiency.

The letter sent this week formalized positions taken by NAWG policy committees and the NAWG Board since the last formal Board meeting in March. It also reflected conversations Hurst and other NAWG officers and staff have had with agriculture leaders on Capitol Hill in recent weeks.

While the super committee’s report to Congress isn’t due until Nov. 23, the Congressional Budget Office needs proposals by Nov. 1 for its staff to have sufficient time to evaluate them properly. In a letter sent last week, Ag Committee leaders committed to “provide a complete legislative package” by Nov. 1, which is Tuesday, though it is not yet clear what that package will entail.

NAWG’s full letter sent this week is available online at http://www.wheatworld.org/wp-content/uploads/farmbill-letter-on-ag-policy-deficit-reduction-20111025.pdf.

The problem was created by a January 2009 Sixth Circuit Court decision saying pesticide discharge is a point source of pollution subject to additional regulation under the Clean Water Act, necessitating National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for each application.

The decision has been stayed twice to allow time for government agencies to implement it. It is now set to go into effect at the end of the month, though federal and local governments remain unprepared for the mountain of paperwork it could cause.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated the ruling will affect approximately 365,000 pesticide applicators that perform 5.6 million pesticide applications annually.

When the new requirement goes into effect, farmers running afoul of it could be subject to fines of up to $37,500 per day.

The House passed a bipartisan bill, H.R. 872, in June to clarify Congressional intent with regard to the new requirements, but the bill has been subject to multiple holds in the Senate, and attempts to attach it to other legislation have proved unsuccessful.

NAWG remains deeply involved in ongoing Hill discussions about moving the pending legislation before the deadline.

NAWG also continues to press upon Members of Congress, the Administration and the public the importance of a clarification of the new requirements in light of confusion over the legal definition of the “waters of the United States”, which are subject to regulation under the Clean Water Act.

Claims continue that farmers applying pesticides only on land will not need additional permits and, in fact, producers in that situation are not even eligible for a new general permit developed by EPA.

Still, recent legal decisions, including one by the Supreme Court, have muddied the definition of “waters of the United States” to the extent that it is unclear if common farm structures, like ditches, that only sometimes experience water would qualify or not.

This means farmers applying crop protection products could be subject to citizen suits and other legal actions if they don’t secure new permits but are following all other applicable laws and product labels under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

More about this issue is available online at www.wheatworld.org/environmentalregulation.

Hearty, nutritious and affordable for large gatherings, pasta is a wonderful dinner-time staple and a key component of many family traditions.

October is National Pasta Month in the U.S., and Tuesday was World Pasta Day, according to the International Pasta Organization.

The North Dakota Wheat Commission, which represents growers who typically produce enough durum wheat to make nearly 17 billion servings of pasta, has been celebrating all month long and explaining to consumers why durum wheat production is down this year, saying:

“Growing quality durum is harder than it looks – producers must select the right variety, manage the developing crop for disease and pest threats and hope that the weather cooperates to produce a high yielding, quality durum crop.

“This year, wet conditions and flooding prevented about one-half of North Dakota’s traditional durum acres from being planted, which is leading to tighter durum supplies.”

There are many resources available online for those who want to know more about pasta and the durum wheat that goes into it.

Public TV program America’s Heartland has done several pasta-perfect stories in its seven seasons, including:

• Off the Shelf – Pasta, a short segment about the staple food, here.
• a piece on durum production in North Dakota, from season 3, here.
• a profile of Dakota Growers Pasta Company, a local producer of pasta using durum from North Dakota, Minnesota and Montana, here.

The International Pasta Organization offers a detailed history of the yummy treat at http://www.internationalpasta.org/index.php?cat=21&item=6&lang=2.

And, if you just want to get in on the celebration before Pasta Month is gone for another year, check out the National Pasta Association’s web page at www.ilovepasta.org or for recipe ideas.

The full letter is available here.

Information inquiries on the letter can be directed to NAWG Communications Director Melissa George Kessler, mkessler (at) wheatworld.org.

The agreements were passed by both chambers of Congress last week on a bipartisan basis. National Association of Wheat Growers President Wayne Hurst, a wheat farmer from Burley, Idaho, and U.S. Wheat Associates Chairman Randy Suess, a wheat farmer from Colfax, Wash., attended a ceremony Friday at the White House Rose Garden, held to mark the occasion.

Hurst, Suess and the Boards of both organizations are now urging the Administration to work closely with our trading partners to be sure the agreements enter into force as quickly as possible.

The delay in Congressional consideration of the agreements, which were signed in 2006 and 2007, has significantly hurt wheat exports, especially to Colombia.

As recently as 2007/2008, 70 percent of Colombia’s total annual wheat imports came from U.S. farmers. U.S. sales have fallen since then to a low of 46 percent of total imports. At the same time, Canada negotiated and ratified an FTA with Colombia that entered into force in August, allowing Canadian wheat to enter Colombia duty free.

“Since June, Canadian wheat exports to Colombia have doubled versus last year while U.S. wheat exports have fallen 20 percent,” Hurst said. “We need the U.S.-Colombia FTA implemented quickly to get our tariffs to zero and put us back on equal footing with Canadian wheat again.”

The FTAs with Panama and South Korea also eliminate duties on U.S. wheat. While current tariffs do not significantly affect wheat exports to those countries, research commissioned by U.S. Wheat Associates in 2010 showed that lowering barriers to trade increases the value and volume of all U.S. agricultural exports, an industry that already supports more than 800,000 U.S. jobs. As Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has stated, every $1 billion increase in exports creates more than 8,000 jobs. Liberalized trade also helps boost standards of living and quality of life for our trading partners.

“We are very pleased to see these FTAs signed into law today and we have already started the push to win back the wheat export business we lost without them,” Suess said. “Our competitors are negotiating at least 120 other bilateral trade agreements that do not include the United States. So even as we work in these markets, we will continue to urge our government to take every opportunity to expand market access for U.S. wheat and other commodities around the world.”

The U.S. wheat industry has been highly supportive of these FTAs and other free trade measures. More on the industry’s trade work is at www.wheatworld.org/trade or www.uswheat.org/whatwedo/tradepolicy.

###

Contact:

Melissa George Kessler, NAWG, mkessler (at) wheatworld.org

Steve Mercer, U.S. Wheat, smercer (at)uswheat.org

The recommendation came Monday in a letter signed by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.); Senate Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.); House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.); and House Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.).

In a statement released simultaneously by the four leaders, they indicated they will continue working together to fashion a detailed proposal for the spending cuts, which is expected to be submitted to the super committee by Nov. 1.

They noted in their letter that $23 billion in cuts is more than would be achieved through a sequestration process and would come in addition to multiple cuts to programs within their jurisdictions in recent years.

Crop insurance was cut $6 billion during the recent renegotiation of the contract between USDA and private crop insurance companies, in addition to $6 billion in cuts in the 2008 Farm Bill and $2 billion in cuts in the 2002 Farm Bill.

In addition, conservation programs have been cut by $3 billion during the last five years; key nutrition programs have been cut by nearly $12 billion in recent years to offset other spending; and there are 37 programs, totaling nearly $10 billion, which expire in this farm bill cycle with no baseline into future years.

The leaders also noted their effort to work on a bipartisan basis, which seems to be unique to the Agriculture Committees but will be essential to producing a legislative proposal equivalent to a 2012 Farm Bill that is acceptable to constituents of all agriculture-area programs.

The recommendation this week hued closely to information NAWG grower-leaders and staff have received in recent meetings on Capitol Hill.

NAWG will continue to work with agriculture industry partners and Members over the next few weeks as ag leaders draft their legislative proposal for super committee consideration.

The agreements were passed on a bipartisan basis in both chambers of Congress last week after years of delay for political, logistical and policy reasons. Along with the FTAs, Obama will also sign provisions renewing the generalized system of preferences (GSP) and trade adjustment assistance (TAA), which were key to gaining his support for finalizing the free trade pacts.

Obama is set to sign the agreements Friday morning in the Oval Office, then speak at a Rose Garden Ceremony marking their completion. NAWG President Wayne Hurst, a wheat farmer from Burley, Idaho, and U.S. Wheat Associates Chairman Randy Suess, a wheat farmer from Colfax, Wash., are scheduled to attend the Rose Garden ceremony to represent wheat growers, who have strongly supported the agreements since they were penned in 2006 and 2007.

Once signed by the President, the agreements must go through an implementation process to activate them, known as “entering into force”.

This process can take a number of months because it requires all parties to certify that they consider one another to be abiding by the agreements’ terms and legal conditions.

NAWG and U.S. Wheat are urging this process to begin immediately and come to a conclusion as quickly as possible so the U.S. wheat industry can begin benefiting from the FTA’s preferences.

The delay in Congressional consideration of the agreements has significantly hurt wheat exports, especially to Colombia.

As recently as 2007/2008, 70 percent of Colombia’s total annual wheat imports came from U.S. farmers. U.S. sales have fallen since then to a low of 46 percent of total imports. At the same time, Canada negotiated and ratified an FTA with Colombia that entered into force in August, allowing Canadian wheat to enter Colombia duty free. Since June, Canadian wheat exports to Colombia have doubled versus last year while U.S. wheat exports have fallen 20 percent.

The FTAs with Panama and South Korea also eliminate duties on U.S. wheat. While current tariffs do not significantly affect wheat exports to those countries, research commissioned by U.S. Wheat Associates in 2010 showed that lowering barriers to trade increases the value and volume of all U.S. agricultural exports, an industry that already supports more than 800,000 U.S. jobs.

The U.S. is the world’s largest wheat exporter, typically sending about half of each year’s crop overseas. For this reason, the wheat industry also plans to continue pursuing an aggressive trade agenda. At least 120 other bilateral trade agreements that do not include the United States are under negotiation around the world. Many multi-lateral agreements are also under negotiation.

More on the industry’s trade work is at www.wheatworld.org/trade.

This announcement brings to an end more than a year of speculation about EPA’s intention on coarse PM, which includes dust kicked up by cars and trucks, moving cattle or field work.

Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is required to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards for coarse PM every five years. In 2006, EPA set that standard at 150 micrograms per cubic meter based on a precautionary viewpoint because science at the time was inconclusive about coarse PM’s health effects.

During the latest review of this standard, a policy assessment had given Jackson the choice of retaining the current regulation or making it twice as strict, though the relevant science remains inconclusive.

In a letter to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jackson said this week that “[b]ased on my consideration of the scientific record, analysis provided by EPA scientists, and advice from the Clean Air Science Advisory Council, I am prepared to propose the retention – with no revision – of the current [coarse particulate matter] standard and form when it is sent to OMB for interagency review”.

Had the Administration opted to tighten the standard, much of rural America could have fallen into a state of “nonattainment”, which could have had drastic impacts on the ability of farmers to undertake the daily operations of their businesses.

In a statement, Klobuchar, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), said they had recently asked Jackson to provide “written assurance” on the issue and were happy to see her response.

“Dust is a fact of life in rural America, and imposing new dust regulations on farmers and rural communities would stifle the agriculture industry and hurt rural economies,” Klobuchar said. “I am pleased that the EPA has listened to our concerns and the concerns from across rural America and decided against imposing new burdensome regulations.”

“We raised this issue earlier in the year with the EPA Administrator and the Secretary of Agriculture, and I’m glad they listened to the serious concerns raised by the agriculture community about possible dust regulations,” Stabenow said. “I will continue working with farmers and the EPA to find common ground and common-sense solutions to these issues.”

On the House side, Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), who has led legislative efforts to clarify the dust regulation issue, said that if EPA has “no intention” of tighter dust regulations, the Agency should voice support for her pending bill, H.R. 1633.

“EPA’s announcement does nothing to change the fact that they are still able to regulate farm dust,” Noem said in a statement. “EPA’s announcement to keep the current standard in place is welcome news but it does not give farmers and ranchers the certainty they need moving forward.”

Last week, NAWG joined a coalition of more than 70 groups in expressing support for the bill, which would restrict additional regulation of farm dust under the Clean Air Act in areas where states or localities are already regulating it.

More on NAWG’s work related to environmental regulation is available at www.wheatworld.org/environmentalregulation.

The House and Senate both passed the agreements on Wednesday. The Colombia agreement was passed by 262-167 in the House and 66-33 in the Senate. The Panama agreement was passed by 300-129 in the House and 77-22 in the Senate. The South Korea agreement was passed by 278-151 in the House and 82-15 in the Senate.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign the agreements quickly, though he had not done so as of press time.

NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates have long supported the trio of trade measures, which will remove duties and level the playing field for U.S. wheat in those countries.

The wheat industry quickly applauded Congressional passage of the agreements.

In a press statement, NAWG President Wayne Hurst and USW Chairman Randy Suess said:

“We have waited for the day these agreements would be taken up for many years now. Based on our work within the wheat industry, we know these agreements and others like them will help us rebuild and expand markets, grow our economy here at home and remain the most reliable supplier of wheat in the world.”

The industry is now urging quick implementation of the three agreements to help build and maintain critical market share.

The long delay in Congressional consideration of the measures, which were signed in 2006 and 2007, has significantly hurt wheat exports, especially to Colombia.

As recently as 2007/2008, 70 percent of Colombia’s total annual wheat imports came from U.S. farmers. U.S. sales have fallen since then to a low of 46 percent of total imports.

At the same time, Canada negotiated and ratified an FTA with Colombia that entered into force in August, allowing Canadian wheat to enter Colombia duty free. Since June, Canadian wheat exports to Colombia have doubled versus last year while U.S. wheat exports have fallen 20 percent.

While current tariffs do not significantly affect wheat exports to Panama and South Korea, those FTAs also eliminate duties on U.S. wheat and, in general, lowering barriers to trade typically increases the value and volume of all U.S. agricultural exports.

With the three long-pending FTAs now nearly finalized, both NAWG and USW, who work jointly on trade policy issues on behalf of U.S. wheat farmers, remain dedicated to the ongoing work of opening additional markets and winning back market share lost in recent years.

More on the industry’s trade work is at www.wheatworld.org/trade.

As of press time, indications from Capitol Hill have been that the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are preparing to submit ideas to super committee members, who are charged with finding at least $1.5 trillion in cuts for deficit-reduction efforts.

However, what the Ag Committee recommendations will entail is not yet clear, with negotiations ongoing and the possibility also on the table of the Committee offering some information in the coming days and more near the end of the month.

Since the establishment of the super committee over the summer, differing perspectives have emerged on what kind of information Ag Committee Members should offer to its process, which is slated to produce a proposal for Congressional approval by the end of the year.

Agriculture leaders, and agricultural policy groups, almost uniformly agree changes to farm policies should be made by the Ag Committees. It is possible that cuts to agriculture programs required by the super committee – or by across-the-board sequestration measures if the committee fails – could be so deep they virtually require a rewrite of the 2008 Farm Bill in the next few months.

On Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) submitted her caucus’ ideas for the committee, including recommendations from several ranking members, but not House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.).

That fact supports comments Peterson made to D.C. publication The Hagstrom Report on Wednesday, where he indicated that he, House Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), Senate Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) are working together on a proposal.

As the process intensified, NAWG President Wayne Hurst, a wheat farmer from Burley, Idaho, and First Vice President Erik Younggren, a wheat farmer from Hallock, Minn., were in Washington Wednesday and Thursday, holding meetings on Capitol Hill along with NAWG’s policy staff members.

NAWG is closely watching the negotiations and working to communicate the importance of long-term investments in a functional farm safety net, agricultural research, export market development programs and conservation efforts.

The FCC is considering a waiver requested by LightSquared, a company with technology that could dramatically expand rural broadband access, but that studies show could emit signal interference effectively disabling GPS systems.

Ag groups writing this week said additional testing of the system and proposed fixes is “imperative” because they and their members need to know for certain that LightSquared’s technology will work for new and existing precision agriculture tools.

The groups called for testing of proposed fixes in the field as well as in a laboratory environment, and said the investigations must look at a full range of scenarios to ensure GPS signals aren’t degraded. The groups also said that costs associated with retrofitting or replacing GPS devices made unusable by LightSquared’s technology should be borne by the company.

The letter reiterated signatories’ support for LightSquared’s goal of increasing broadband access, especially in rural areas. But, they said, this goal must not be achieved at the cost of disabling GPS devices that offer agricultural producers critical safety and environmental benefits, saving billions of dollars in the process.

“At the end of the appropriate testing process, it is our hope that the results are favorable, making it possible to realize a longstanding agricultural industry goal of expanded rural broadband,” they wrote. “That said, this laudable goal must not be accomplished at the expense of precision agriculture.”

Groups signing on to the letter represent growers of corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, cotton, rice, barley, potatoes, sunflowers and dry beans and lentils, which collectively account for the vast majority of commodity production in the U.S.

NAWG and coalition partners have been engaged on this issue for a number of months and continue to work with the Obama Administration and Members of Congress to protect agricultural GPS applications as the LightSquared proposal is reviewed.

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee held a hearing on the issue last month. NAWG staff participated in a follow-up briefing with Congressional staff on Thursday.

The full letter sent this week is available at www.wheatworld.org/othercorrespondence.

“We were extremely pleased to see Congress pass on Wednesday the long-pending free trade agreements our country has negotiated with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. We have waited for the day these agreements would be taken up for many years now. Based on our work within the wheat industry, we know these agreements and others like them will help us rebuild and expand markets, grow our economy here at home and remain the most reliable supplier of wheat in the world. We strongly urge the President to sign these agreements quickly.”

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The agreements, with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, were sent to the Hill on Monday after years of anticipation and advocacy by trade supporters. All three agreements were originally penned by the George W. Bush Administration and have been held up for years because of various policy, political and logistical considerations.

The latest of these roadblocks has been insistence by the Obama Administration and some Congressional Democrats on renewal of trade adjustment assistance (TAA), a program that helps U.S. workers harmed by trade measures, before consideration of the FTAs.

After months of negotiations, Members have undertaken a complex but seemingly workable series of votes on TAA and related measures, which should set the stage for simultaneous approval of the FTAs and TAA when the trade agreements come to the House and Senate floors.

In sending the bills Monday, Obama called on Congress to “pass them without delay, along with the bipartisan agreement on [TAA]”.

On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee approved all three agreements, paving the way for floor consideration in that chamber.

The Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the measures in that body, has the trade agreements listed on its agenda for an open executive session set for Tuesday, Oct. 11.

On Monday, NAWG, U.S. Wheat Associates and a number of state wheat organizations signed on to broad agriculture coalition letters sent to Congressional leadership in both chambers, urging them to vote favorably for the FTAs.

NAWG and USW were also one of many organizations applauding the Administration move in press statements send on Monday.

In the wheat industry release, NAWG President Wayne Hurst, a wheat farmer from near Burley, Idaho, said “[w]e want Members to work day and night until these agreements are done and duty free access is in place for our growers and exporters.”

For more information about the free trade agreements’ effects on the wheat industry and the letters sent this week, please visit www.wheatworld.org/trade.

The short-term CR was approved by the Senate last week.

It follows an even shorter-term measure, which ran from the beginning of the 2012 fiscal year on Saturday until Tuesday and was necessitated because of a House recess last week.

While the latest CR answers the immediate funding question, it does not lay out a plan for funding past mid-November, which is expected to be controversial and wrapped up in the larger process of cutting trillions from federal spending.

Thus far, the regular-order appropriations process has not produced any of the 12 traditional spending bills. The House has approved six, including an agriculture measure that cut deeply into research programs, while the Senate has approved just one.

The super committee charged with finding cuts – at least $1.5 trillion over ten years – is set to report its recommendations to Congress by Nov. 23, with Congressional approval required before Dec. 23 to avoid automatic cuts under a process called sequestration.

While the regular appropriations process and the super committee process are logistically separate, FY2012 negotiations are proceeding based on a budget cap of $1.043 trillion, which was agreed to by President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders earlier in the year as part of the same negotiations that led to the debt reduction effort.

NAWG and other agricultural groups are closely watching both spending negotiation tracks to ensure key discretionary spending investments are made in the short term for agricultural research, market development and other programs, as well as to gain information about the long-term effects of debt reduction efforts on mandatory farm policy spending.

That problem was created by a January 2009 Sixth Circuit Court decision saying pesticide discharge is a point source of pollution subject to additional regulation under the Clean Water Act.

This means agricultural producers seeking to control aquatic plant pests, urban public health officials seeking to control disease-spreading mosquitoes and others would have to apply for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits to use products already regulated and permitted under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) – spending tens of millions of dollars without adding any environmental benefit.

The decision has been stayed twice to allow time for government agencies to implement it, though regulators at the state and national levels remain uniformly unprepared to review and issue permits for an estimated 5 million applications annually.

A draft pesticide general permit produced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) only applies to aquatic applications of pesticides, meaning farmers are not covered by EPA’s pending permit, unless the application happens to end up in a “water of the United States” – itself an ill-defined legal term.

In that case, farmers could face potentially catastrophic financial liability. Fines for those found to be out of compliance could reach $37,500 a day – enough to put most producers out of business quickly.

The unclear regulations and permitting process also open farmers up to lawsuits from activists who have proven themselves hungry for court fights based on process issues.

A bill to amend FIFRA and the Clean Water Act to clarify Congressional intent and eliminate the requirement for additional permits for applications approved under FIFRA has passed the House of Representatives and the Senate Agriculture Committee, but remains stalled due to multiple holds by Democratic Senators.

This week, Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) filed an amendment that would have attached the provisions of H.R. 872 to a pending bill on Chinese currency. Though the amendment was ultimately not chosen by leadership to move forward, the proposal was an important effort to add H.R. 872 to legislation that could move forward, showing the seriousness with which agriculture leaders in Congress are taking the deadline.

Earlier in the week, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) also spoke out, urging a vote on H.R. 872 on the Senate floor.

Despite the seemingly partisan nature of recent moves, H.R. 872 has achieved widespread bipartisan and bicameral support from Congressional leaders concerned about increasing regulation without environmental benefit and burdening government officials and farmers with new and complicated requirements in a time of tighter budgets.

It was approved in June by the Senate Agriculture Committee, without amendment and by a voice vote. It passed the House in March by a 292 to 130 vote.

NAWG continues to work with agriculture coalition partners and Members of Congress to determine a path forward for the legislation prior to the new requirements’ implementation.

More about H.R. 872 is available online at www.wheatworld.org/environmentalregulation.

The U.S. wheat industry strongly supports these bilateral agreements as critical steps toward competing on a level playing field in the global wheat market, and now urges Congress to pass them as quickly as possible.

The Colombia agreement, in particular, is vital to the wheat industry’s efforts to maintain market share in what has traditionally been the largest market for U.S. wheat in South America.

Under trade agreements with Canada and Argentina, wheat from these origins enters Colombia duty free while U.S. wheat faces a 10 percent tariff. Colombian buyers want to import U.S. wheat, but they do not want to pay the extra cost associated with the tariff. U.S. wheat sales to Colombia have dropped 20 percent since June alone, a rate of loss that is likely to grow now that an FTA between Canada and Colombia is in place. In fact, USW estimates that U.S. wheat growers could lose at least $100 million in sales in this competitive market every year.

“We know there is strong support for these trade agreements on both sides of the aisle and in both Congressional chambers,” said Wayne Hurst, NAWG president and a wheat farmer from Burley, Idaho. “We want Members to work day and night until these agreements are done and duty free access is in place for our growers and exporters.”

“Our industry is uniquely trade-dependent, with about half of our production moving to export markets each year,” said Randy Suess, USW chairman and a wheat farmer from Colfax, Wash. “Not long ago we supplied 70 percent of Colombia’s wheat imports so we know we can compete there. It is very frustrating that the delay in ratifying this agreement that was signed in 2006 is now costing us sales every day.”

The U.S. is the world’s largest wheat exporter, offering customers around the globe a reliable, high-quality supply of all six wheat classes. In the 2010/2011 marketing year, ended May 31, 2011, the U.S. exported nearly 1.3 billion bushels of wheat valued at $10.3 billion, supporting thousands of jobs and economic benefits across the country. U.S. wheat is also a common component in U.S. food aid efforts.

More about the industry’s trade priorities and the impact of the pending FTAs on U.S. wheat is at www.wheatworld.org/trade or www.uswheat.org/whatwedo/tradepolicy.

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Contact:

Melissa George Kessler, NAWG, mkessler (at) wheatworld.org
Steve Mercer, U.S. Wheat, smercer (at) uswheat.org

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Shutdown Averted, Until Tuesday

The House of Representatives approved in a pro forma session Thursday a continuing resolution to keep the government’s lights on as FY2012 begins – but only until Tuesday. The extremely short-term extension was necessitated by the Senate’s rejection last Friday of a CR passed by the House before that chamber left for a one-week recess. The House is expected to take up a longer-term resolution – which should run through Nov. 18 – when it returns to D.C. next week. It is unclear how smooth the path for that bill will be because of controversial disaster assistance provisions.

NPDES Permitting Debacle Bearing Down

An organization representing state regulators responsible for implementing new pesticide permitting requirements asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week to request a further stay of the regulations since practically no government agency is ready to implement them when they go into effect next month.

The new regulations emanate from a 2009 ruling by the Sixth Circuit Court, which said for the first time that pesticide applications require a Clean Water Act permit in addition to compliance with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). NAWG and coalition partners continue to urge quick passage of H.R. 872 or another legislative solution to delay or eliminate the new and duplicative requirements.

Ag Groups Emphasize Importance of Broadband and GPS

NAWG and six other associations representing American farmers wrote the leaders and Members of the Congressional Agriculture Committees this week, urging them to press the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the importance of both rural broadband and a functional GPS system that allows for precision agriculture. The FCC is considering a waiver requested by LightSquared, a company with technology that could dramatically expand rural broadband access, but that studies show could also effectively disable GPS systems. The full letter is available at www.wheatworld.org/othercorrespondence.

NAWG Submits Comments on Common Acreage Reporting

NAWG recently submitted comments to USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) in response to a request from that agency and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) for ideas on how to streamline data collection. Among other things, NAWG said the Association supports FSA and RMA working together closely to use the same acreage reporting deadlines, which would enable more accurate reporting from producers and help reduce acreage reporting errors and discrepancies between the two agencies. The full comments are available online at www.wheatworld.org/othercorrespondence.

Obama Appoints New Under Secretary, USDA Announces New Staff

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday his intention to nominate Michael Scuse as USDA’s under secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS). Scuse has been deputy under secretary at FFAS since 2009, where he overseas domestic programs, and was named acting under secretary early this year.

Also, USDA recently announced the appointments of Elanor Starmer as a special assistant to the under secretary for marketing and regulatory affairs and Juan Garcia as deputy administrator for farm programs at the Farm Service Agency (FSA). Starmer previously worked at activist group Food and Water Watch. Garcia has been acting in his new role since this spring and was previously an FSA executive in Texas.

Towson Grad Joins NAWG Office for Fall Internship

Will Stafford, a recent graduate of Towson University, has joined the NAWG office for a fall internship. Stafford was born and raised in Bethesda, Md., near Washington, and graduated from Towson with a degree in economics. He said he is excited to be at NAWG and to learn more about both public policy and the agriculture industry.

The bill passed extends the generalized system of preferences (GSP) and provides assistance for U.S. workers who are hurt economically by trade agreements, known as trade adjustment assistance (TAA).

The Obama Administration has required TAA approval before submission of the three agreements, with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, which were negotiated during the last Bush Administration.

This position has been supported by some Congressional Democrats but was a non-starter for many Congressional Republicans.

To overcome the impasse, lawmakers have worked out a complex but seemingly workable compromise, in which the House passed GSP; the Senate took up the House bill with a TAA amendment; and now the entire measure is set to be sent back to the House.

It is expected to meet approval there, but will not be enrolled – or made ready for the President Barack Obama’s signature – until the FTAs are in play, so both pieces will move simultaneously but not attached together.

Despite different priorities for trade policy and the compromise’s complexity, Senators seem willing to hew to it, giving hope it will soon lead to submission of the FTAs.

A vote early in the week on a motion to end debate on the GSP measure passed 82 to 8 vote, showing strong bipartisan support for established process. The body has also rejected amendments, including adding trade promotion authority to the bill, because that could have upset the delicate process.

It’s most likely the FTAs will be sent to the Hill sometime after returning from recess next week. Once on the Hill, Members will have 90 days to hold up-or-down votes on them.

The U.S. wheat industry is strongly supportive of all three FTAs, and particularly interested in quick movement on that with Colombia, where U.S. wheat has been losing market share to competitors who benefit from more favorable trade preferences.

More about the wheat industry’s work on trade is at www.wheatworld.org/trade.

Obama unveiled the plan Monday, a week after releasing the $447 billion jobs bill it is meant to complement.

The agriculture proposals outlined included:

• eliminating the direct payment.
• reducing federal government assistance to crop insurance companies and farmers using crop insurance – reductions that would come on top of $12 billion in cuts to that important program since 2008.
• reducing conservation spending by $2 billion over 10 years.
• extending until 2016 the SURE disaster assistance program, which has no money allocated to it after this fiscal year.

It is unclear how seriously the proposal will be taken on Capitol Hill, particularly since it included tax cuts Republicans almost immediately labeled as “class warfare”.

Still, the proposal fell at the very high end of estimated potential cuts to safety net programs through the debt-reduction process. Previous numbers floated have ranged from $10-11 billion in the President’s debt commission report and the Gang of Six discussions to $30 billion or more in debt talks led by Vice President Joe Biden and the House-passed budget resolution.

In addition to dramatic cuts in spending in farm safety net areas, the proposal would also make serious changes to farm policy most agriculture associations and farmers think should only be made by the Congressional agriculture committees.

Leaders of those Committees have generally supported that view and have made statements supporting agriculture stakeholders’ contentions that any cuts to the farm safety net should be proportionate to cuts in other areas of federal spending.

On that test, the Obama proposal also fails. Longtime agriculture policy reporter Jim Wiesemeyer published analysis Tuesday showing that if assumed savings from tax policy changes and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are excluded, total cuts in the Obama proposal hit around $600 billion, of which more than $33 billion are from cuts to direct payments, crop insurance and conservation programs.

Wiesemeyer said that means 5.5 percent of all government domestic savings would actually come from agriculture programs – compared to the less than ½ of 1 percent of federal spending devoted to the programs in the first place.

The President’s full proposal is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/jointcommitteereport.pdf.

The House on Wednesday rejected on a 195 to 230 vote a CR proposal that would have would have provided $3.6 billion in disaster aid, showing in vivid detail the continued disagreements on Capitol Hill about spending priorities.

Negotiations are ongoing, but the path forward for FY2011 funding remains unclear as Members head into a scheduled one-week recess next week.

While policymakers are largely focused on work to craft a long-term plan to cut at least $1.5 trillion in federal spending, the appropriations process for the coming year is also an essential and pressing priority. The new fiscal year starts Oct. 1 and none of the 12 regular appropriations bills has been finished.

It is widely expected long-term FY2012 funding levels and priorities will be dictated in part by the ultimate agreement – or lack thereof – penned by members of the so-called super committee by their Nov. 23 deadline.

Ongoing calls for some stimulus efforts to help create jobs in a still struggling economy could also affect final spending measures for FY2012.

Both chambers of Congress must approve the super committee recommendations by Dec. 23 or sequestration measures, which will cut funding across most but not all federal programs, will go into place in early January.

NAWG continues to work with coalition partners and Members of Congress to follow the development of the FY2012 budget and super committee negotiations, particularly with regards to discretionary spending priorities like trade development programs and ag research.

The bipartisan and bicameral group charged with finding at least $1.5 trillion – and maybe much more – to cut from federal spending met publicly and privately this week, as new questions about its task and timeline emerged.

At a hearing on Tuesday, Members of the committee heard from CBO Director Doug Elmendorf, who outlined in sometimes exhaustive detail the nation’s fiscal situation and the negative effects of the slowed economy.

Without making recommendations, he outlined the role, and likely need, for both revenue enhancements and spending cuts, noting multiple times that efficiencies and cuts around the edges of major programs would not achieve the savings needed by the committee’s effort.

He also confirmed the well-known fact that if legislation comes out of the super committee requiring a full CBO score – a near certainty – legislative language must arrive to analysts no later than early November.

Elmendorf’s testimony about the gravity of the situation came as discussion intensifies about the appropriate role for the super committee in future stimulus efforts.

On Monday, Obama unveiled his jobs bill, which includes proposals to cut payroll taxes for employees and employers; spend money on preventing layoffs for teachers and first-responders; and engage in new infrastructure projects.

To pay for the $447 billion plan, Obama proposed increasing the amount of savings the super committee must find – bringing the total to around $2 trillion – and/or increasing some taxes, which is generally seen as a non-starter by Republicans. Obama is set to release his plan for deficit reduction early next week.

For his part, Boehner said in a speech Thursday that the super committee should seek to undertake tax reform, even if a full overhaul is not possible in the next six weeks or so.

Railing against the Obama jobs plan and any notions of tax increases, he said too many regulations, too much spending and the tax code are holding the economy back and, as has become de rigueur, called for policymakers to put aside differences and get work done.

Of course, discussions continue in Washington regarding how best to approach a 2012 Farm Bill in anticipation of whatever the super committee’s recommendations may be.

With new fiscal realities in mind, both the National Corn Growers Association and the National Farmers Union released ideas this week for possible farm bill policies. The National Cotton Council has also made a statement about its priorities in the 2012 Bill.

Members of NAWG’s Board of Directors talked this week via conference call to learn more about the current political climate in Washington and to receive reports from policy-specific committees that have met since the full Board’s last meeting at Commodity Classic.

NAWG’s leadership anticipates these discussions continuing as deadlines related to the super committee’s work approach and the fiscal situation for the 2012 Bill develops.

More from the super committee is available online at http://deficitreduction.senate.gov.

The Senate version was introduced by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Committee Member John Thune (R-S.D.).

The legislation has seven other original co-sponsors in the Senate, who span nearly the breadth of the ideological spectrum in that body. They include Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.); Roy Blunt (R-Mo.); Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio); Thad Cochran (R-Miss.); Chris Coons (D-Del.); Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.); and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

In the House, the bill was introduced by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), with 15 original cosponsors, including House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.).

The new legislation would amend federal tax code to allow for the establishment of public charities focused specifically on agricultural research, called agriculture research organizations, or AROs.

Modeled after similarly-structured medical research organizations (MROs), AROs would be required to be engaged in research with a land-grant university or other college of agriculture.

There would be no tax differences between AROs and regular charitable organizations, which would allow donors – individuals or families – to commit funds to agricultural research with tax advantages.

Supporters of the bills believe their provisions could draw significant new funds to important work that is receiving fewer and fewer public dollars.

According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, farm productivity has risen 158 percent since 1948, though agricultural research funding has become stagnant and has fallen far behind other federal agencies since the 1970s.

Private analysis done as the bill was being drafted showed the ARO concept would cost around $12 million over 10 years – practically nothing in federal budget terms.

NAWG strongly supports the proposed legislation as one effort to attract needed research funds to programs around the country, and NAWG will continue to encourage quick action on the bill.

In other research-related news, NAWG Director of Government Affairs for Research and Technology Jane DeMarchi traveled to Paris, France, this week to participate in the first meeting of the International Research Initiative for Wheat Improvement.

The objective of this new effort is to coordinate major research efforts around the globe aimed at wheat improvement. It is being led by the French national research organization INRA, which organized in the meeting.

DeMarchi joined representatives from wheat research organizations from around the globe, CropLife International and a number of private companies. Dr. Kay Simmons, USDA-Agricultural Research Service deputy administrator for crop production and protection and a long-time wheat worker, is the U.S. government’s representative at the meeting.

Other U.S. participants include Dr. Jorge Dubcovsky, co-lead of the wheat and barley T-CAP grant; Dr. Mark Sorrells of Cornell University; and Kellye Eversole, executive director of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium.

DeMarchi will hold additional meetings with local and U.S. embassy stakeholders before returning to the States on Sunday.

The coalition said the day-long virtual town hall will launch a new effort to bring together different viewpoints on farming and ranching and discuss the issues and challenges facing the U.S. agriculture industry.

USFRA is inviting people of all backgrounds to be part of the discussion incorporated into the program, which will also include a series of panels answering questions Americans have about how their food is grown and raised.

The day’s events will focus on communicating widely who America’s farmers and ranchers are; why the agriculture community is committed to listening to consumers’ questions and improving how they raise food; and how farmers are working to address Americans’ health concerns.

The virtual town hall will be emceed by Claire Shipman from ABC News with panelists in four locations: Washington, D.C.; New York City; Fair Oaks, Ind.; and Davis, Calif.

Participants from around the country will be able watch the Dialogues online at www.fooddialogues.com or via a Facebook app accessible at apps.facebook.com/fooddialogues.

Users can follow the discussion on Twitter through the @USFRA account and the #FoodD hashtag.

USFRA is also encouraging farmers and consumers to hold “viewing parties” to watch the event.

NAWG President Wayne Hurst, a wheat producer from the Burley, Idaho, area, and NAWG CEO Dana Peterson are scheduled to attend the Food Dialogues event in Washington, D.C. NAWG is an affiliate member of USFRA.

Before leaving for August recess, the House had passed a budget resolution, though it was largely considered unacceptable in the Senate, and six of 12 appropriations bills, including the agriculture measure. The Senate had not passed a budget resolution or largely started the formal appropriations process.

This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee made up for some lost time by approving a FY2012 spending plan and the agriculture, energy and water and homeland security measures, while House Appropriations subcommittees were slated to look at transportation and labor and education measures on Thursday.

The agriculture spending bill, approved by a 28 to two vote, would allocate a total of $19.780 billion for spending by USDA and the Food and Drug Administration.

The total is somewhat less than FY2011 spending but nearly 14 percent more than the House-passed agriculture appropriations measure, which was considered draconian in many of its cuts.

The hoped-for increases in the Senate were particularly important for ag research, which has suffered in recent years as budgets have become tighter and earmarks – the historic mechanism for funding all projects in specific regions – have been banned.

A total of $2.309 billion was allocated for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The Senate restored $100 million in funding to ARS from the House bill, though even Senate levels of funding bring the program down 12 percent from FY2010 levels. NIFA’s key grant program was funded by the Senate at $266 million, on par with FY2011 levels, and $41 million more than House-passed levels.

Differences in the House and Senate were also apparent in the area of conservation funding. While the House cut the budget for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to $2.006 billion, the Senate fully funded it at $2.029 billion. The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) had a 2011 baseline of $844 million; the House elected to fund it at $634 million in FY2012, while the Senate allocated $809 million.

Both the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) also saw reductions. The Biomass Conservation Assistance Program (BCAP) had a 2011 baseline of $248 million, which the House zeroed out and the Senate fully funded.

Food aid programs were also pulsed-up from House-approved levels, and trade promotion programs were funded at authorized levels.

Committee Members held off on amendments to the bill until floor consideration, a request of Chairman Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), who heads the panel’s agriculture subcommittee.

Despite this week’s progress, a short-term continuing resolution will be necessary to fund the government while the process is completed. Though vigorous debate is expected on spending in many areas, so far, lawmakers have not demonstrated the level of partisan rancor that surrounded the FY2011 process, which nearly shut down the government, or the debt ceiling debate.

More on the Senate Appropriations Committee’s agriculture measure is at http://appropriations.senate.gov/.

The session was largely organizational, allowing Members to make opening statements about the process and approve rules, which they did by a voice vote.

Those rules include requirements that hearings be announced seven days in advance; that meeting agendas be provided to committee members 48 hours prior to a session; that proposal text be available 24 hours prior to consideration; and that public meetings be available for listening and viewing.

Though Members on the committee have promised an open and transparent process, the super committee will be able to hold private meetings – unsurprising considering the subject matter and tight deadlines.

The committee has not just an aggressive mandate, but also an aggressive schedule that will probably necessitate it drawing heavily on past looks at deficit reduction and standing committee recommendations.

It is not clear yet how most standing committees will handle the request for cuts to be made within their jurisdiction. Within agriculture, there are ongoing discussions about the relative merits of super committee cuts versus the across-the-board cuts that will be made if no consensus can be reached. There also continues to be discussion about whether the best strategy is to recommend further cuts or not.

It is also unclear how the super committee’s operations will be affected by increasing calls to implement new programs to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

The panel’s first hearing is set for next Tuesday, Sept. 13. That meeting is expected to be informational, reviewing how the country arrived at its current state of indebtedness.

Other key deadlines for the process include:

• Oct. 14 – deadline for standing policy committees to send recommendations to the super committee.
• Nov. 23 – deadline for super committee vote on policy proposals.
• Dec. 2 – deadline for super committee report.
• Dec. 23 – deadline for House and Senate to vote on super committee report.
• Jan. 15 – deadline for cuts to be enacted or across-the-board sequestration measures will be put in place.

The agreements – negotiated with Colombia, Panama and South Korea as long as four years ago – generally enjoy bipartisan support, even while stuck in the equivalent of political muck.

The latest concerns revolve around trade adjustment assistance (TAA), which aids U.S. workers hurt by trade agreements. The Obama Administration and, thus, Congressional Democrats have insisted on simultaneous passage of TAA and the FTAs, which Republicans disagree with.

The House of Representatives took a very initial first step Wednesday toward a potential path forward by passing, via a voice vote and under suspension of the rules, legislation to renew the generalized system of preferences (GSP), which is a program designed to promote economic growth in developing countries through reduced duties.

GSP is considered non-controversial, and the bill is seen as a vehicle for TAA once it gets to the Senate.

During the recess, leaders in both parties urged quick passage of the agreements to help stimulate economic activity and create jobs, and there were some positive political rumblings toward that end.

It is likely President Barack Obama will again call for the agreements’’ passage in his address Thursday evening to a joint session of Congress, though likely without mentioning that the next formal step is for his Administration to submit agreement language to the legislative branch.

Wheat growers and other agricultural producers continue to press for immediate enactment of the agreements, particularly as other countries implement their own free trade measures.

As of mid-August, Canada’s FTA with Colombia is in place, which U.S. Wheat Associates has estimated will cost U.S. wheat producers upwards of $100 million in lost sales each year – losses that only hurt a national economy with few bright spots and agricultural producers facing a variety of weather-related disasters.

For more about the impact of the FTAs on the wheat industry, visit www.wheatworld.org/trade.

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Congress Headed Back to D.C.

Legislative work will speed up dramatically next week as Members of Congress return to Washington following a four-week August recess. Policy makers face an exhaustive – and exhausting – list of priorities to tackle: efforts by the debt super committee to cut at least $1.5 trillion from federal spending; long-pending free trade agreements that are said to be gaining steam; a needed fix to a looming pesticide permitting boondoggle; the FY2012 appropriations process, which must be resolved in some manner by the end of the month; potential surface transportation legislation; and more. NAWG staff will be following all of these issues and will provide updates on their progress in future newsletters.

Obama to Address Joint Session of Congress

President Barack Obama is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress Sept. 8 to lay out his plan to create jobs. Few details are known about the likely content of his talk, but the logistics of the matter caused a brief and very inside-the-Beltway skirmish Wednesday when Obama announced he would speak Sept. 7, and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) asked him to reschedule. The matter was resolved within a few hours, though it raised concern about the ongoing lack of comity in Washington.

Republicans Plan to Focus on Regulations

More information is becoming available about a planned Republican push against regulations they say are burdensome to Americans and the economy. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) penned an op-ed in the Washington Post on Aug. 21 outlining plans to take up a legislative agenda on taxes and regulations, particularly having to do with transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency. This week, President Barack Obama responded to a House request for a list of regulations that could cost $1 billion or more to implement, listing seven such instances his Administration is considering. NAWG continues to work to resolve a number of regulatory proposals that could affect farmers and will closely follow the coming debate.

Revived Biotechnology Advisory Group Meets

USDA’s newly reconstituted Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture, known as AC21, held its first meeting this week to begin to address coexistence issues between biotech, conventional and organic cropping systems. According to USDA, the group was first formed in 2003 to look at “the long-term impacts of biotechnology on the U.S. food and agriculture system and USDA” and to provide guidance to the Secretary of Agriculture. The current Secretary, Tom Vilsack, revived the group earlier this year as USDA addressed legal actions regarding its reviews of biotech sugar beets and biotech alfalfa products.

Oklahoma wheat farmer Keith Kisling was selected as a member of AC21 and attended this week’s meeting. Kisling has served the wheat industry previously though the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, U.S. Wheat Associates and the NAWG and U.S. Wheat Joint Biotechnology Committee. Staff from NAWG and U.S. Wheat also attended this week’s sessions.

Reports Show Farm Income, Exports Up Despite Disasters, Costs

USDA issued reports this week showing strong net farm income and ag exports despite disasters around the country and dramatically increasing farm expenses. Based on a new farm income report, net cash income and net farm income are record in nominal terms and, adjusting for inflation, are at their highest levels since the early 1970s. Total farm debt declined nearly 2 percent. A new U.S. ag exports forecast for the 2011 fiscal year is $137 billion, $22 billion higher than the previous record set in 2008 and $28 billion above 2010. Agriculture remains one of just a few sectors of the U.S. economy achieving a trade surplus, projected at a record $42.5 billion in FY2011 and $32 billion in FY2012. Still, feed costs are up 20 percent and fuel and fertilizer expenses are up 24 percent since 2010. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in a statement that this week’s numbers “[demonstrate] again that the men and women who own and operate America’s farms and ranches are some of the most resilient in the world.”

Wheat CAP to Receive Prestigious USDA Award

The Wheat Coordinated Agricultural Project, known as the Wheat CAP, will be honored as a recipient of USDA’s Secretary’s Honor Award at a ceremony later this month. The award is the most prestigious given by the Department for contributions to its mission and is being given to the wheat project, along with similar efforts in barley, potatoes and tomatoes, for “helping America promote sustainable agricultural production and biotechnology exports as America works to increase food security”. Wheat CAP is a multi-state, multi-institutional project funded by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), led by University of California-Davis scientist Dr. Jorge Dubcovsky and incorporating work at 25 public wheat-breeding programs.

New Season of America’s Heartland Begins on PBS

Public television stations around the country will begin airing the seventh season of America’s Heartland after Labor Day. Heartland is the only national program dedicated to educating consumers about the origins of their food, fuel and fiber. The show is aired on approximately 230 PBS stations and RFD-TV, reaching about one million viewers per episode. NAWG provides in-kind production support for the show and holds a seat on the program’s advisory committee. To find when Heartland is airing locally on PBS, visit www.americasheartland.org/watch_heartland/index.htm.

NAWG Newsletter Moving to Thursday

Beginning next week, NAWG’s newsletter, the Report from Washington, will be published on Thursdays, versus Fridays. The newsletter aims to provide NAWG grower-leaders and state staff information about key D.C. events and their effects on the wheat industry, while also serving as a resource for members of the media, industry partners and stakeholders on Capitol Hill. The publication schedule change is part of an ongoing effort by NAWG staff to evaluate and update the Association’s outreach efforts.

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Senate Ag Holds Farm Bill Field Hearing in Kansas

Representatives from major farm associations in Kansas described the importance of the farm bill safety net to their operations at a farm bill field hearing held by the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee on Thursday in Wichita.

David Schemm, president of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and a member of the NAWG Board of Directors, testified on behalf of his state association, telling Members that wheat growers are aware of the budgetary challenges facing farm policy but are still hopeful careful consideration can produce a workable safety net. Schemm told Members he could think of “no better year in my 18 years as a producer” that shows the need for federal farm programs, with growers facing historic weather events around the country.

Written testimony from the hearing is available by clicking on the Aug. 25 box at http://ag.senate.gov/site/calendar.html. Audio from the field hearing is at http://farmpolicy.com/2011/08/26/farm-bill-issues-ag-economy-cftc-issue-and-trade/.

Super Committee Work Starts, Unofficially

Budget “super committee” chairs Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said this week they are working together to “ensure that the committee we help build is given every opportunity to succeed”. In a joint statement, the two leaders said they are working on logistical items for the committee’s operation, including rules, meeting schedules and committee staff. They also said they are looking at the myriad deficit reviews already done by Congressional, administrative and outside groups.

The group, formally known as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, was formed following the early-August debt ceiling compromise and is charged with identifying about $1.5 trillion in cuts to the federal budget. Both the House and Senate must vote on its final product by Dec. 23 or automatic reductions will be taken across federal spending.

Rumors Surface of Highway Bill Movement

Hill-publication CQ reported this week that Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has readied two surface transportation measures for consideration when Congress returns from August recess. Boxer is said to have plans for both a new short-term extension of the sweeping law as well as for a longer-term solution. The last comprehensive law authorizing federal highway projects, federal motor carrier safety programs and other similar programs expired in 2009, after which federal work in this area has been governed by short-term measures. The current short-term extension expires at the end of September.

Policy Leaders Talk Farm Bill with Media

Farm policy leaders outside the Beltway during the August break have given a number of interesting interviews this week with regards to the upcoming farm bill. Here are a few:

A conversation between House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and Oklahoma farm broadcaster Ron Hays is at http://www.oklahomafarmreport.com/wire/news/2011/08/media/00535_FrankLucasPodacast08232011.mp3.

A response from Secretary Tom Vilsack to a question about the upcoming farm bill is at http://farmpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/SecVilsackFarmBill11AugustIowaStateFair.mp3.

A quick interview with Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow following this week’s field hearing is available from Agri-Pulse at http://www.agri-pulse.com/uploaded/Stabenow082511.mp3.

Registration Open for Fall Wheat Conference

Registration is now open for the Fall Wheat Conference, the joint fall Board meetings of NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates. The conference is scheduled for Oct. 31 – Nov. 2 at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale outside of Phoenix, Ariz. Growers, staff and other attendees can get more information about the agenda, registration and meal tickets at http://www.wheatworld.org/meetings-events/fallconference/.

Applications for WILOT Training Due Sept. 30

Applications for the 2011 Wheat Industry Leaders of Tomorrow (WILOT) program are due Sept. 30. The program is sponsored annually by Monsanto for farmers who want to become more involved – or involved for the first time – in wheat grower associations. WILOT 2011 is scheduled for Nov. 12 to 17 in St. Louis. More information about the program and the application process is available at www.wheatworld.org/meetings-events/leadership-training.

Shake, Rattle and Roll

An abnormally pleasant and serene August recess day was disrupted Tuesday by the largest earthquake recorded in the region since the 1800s. The 5.8 temblor caught NAWG’s staff – and everyone else – by surprise, causing more fear than damage in a region primed to be anticipating terrorist attack. All NAWG and U.S. Wheat staff members in the area were quickly accounted for and confirmed safe, barring some rattled nerves. The NAWG Foundation’s building on Capitol Hill, the Wheat Growers Building, also fared well. Efforts have now turned to the next anticipated natural disaster – Hurricane Irene, set to swipe D.C. over the weekend. We offer our thanks to those in the wheat family who have checked in on us and shared their earthquake management experience in recent days!

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Canada’s FTA with Colombia Goes Into Effect

Canada’s free trade agreement with Colombia went into effect this week even as a similar agreement between the United States and Colombia, which was signed in 2006, continues to await action by the Obama Administration and Congress. U.S. Wheat Associates has estimated U.S. wheat producers stand to lose up to $100 million in sales per year without quick passage of the U.S.-Colombia FTA, in large part because of competition from countries with more preferential access, including Argentina and, now, Canada. For more from U.S. Wheat on this week’s development, please visit http://bit.ly/mTUytU.

Obama Heads to Farm Country

President Barack Obama undertook a multi-state bus tour this week that had him meeting multiple times with farmers and rural small business owners. While on the tour, he answered questions related to biofuels, agricultural research and on-farm regulation.

Regarding research and the need to prioritize spending, he said, “We know that we’ve got to invest in basic research; that’s part of what made us the most productive agricultural powerhouse in the world. So we don’t want to cut back agricultural research in order to pay for it; we got to get rid of some things.”

In response to a farmer comment about on-farm regulation, Obama said, “Here’s what I’d suggest is…if you hear something is happening, but it hasn’t happened, don’t always believe what you hear,” later advising the farmer to contact USDA directly.

More on Obama’s key comments, including audio, is available at http://farmpolicy.com/2011/08/18/president%E2%80%99s-rural-tour-biofuels-regulations-farm-bill-and-the-ag-economy/#more-5373.

Farm Bill Hearing Next Week in Kansas

The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee is scheduled to hold a field hearing Thursday, Aug. 25, in Wichita, Kan. The hearing is set to begin at 9 a.m. local time, and it should be webcast live at http://ag.senate.gov. NAWG Director David Schemm will testify at the hearing on behalf of his state association, the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers. The general public is also encouraged to attend and/or submit written comments via e-mail to aghearing@ag.senate.gov. The deadline for written testimony from the public is Sept. 1.

Ag Groups Support Nunes’ SPS Bill

NAWG and 45 other agricultural groups wrote Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) this week to express support for H.R. 2707, the Agricultural Trade Facilitation Act. Nunes has introduced the legislation to help establish science-based guidelines for sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) regulations in future trade agreements. The full letter is available at www.wheatworld.org/trade.

SURE Available for Disasters Prior to Oct. 1

A senior USDA official told a farm group this week that losses that occur before Oct. 1 of this year will qualify for coverage under the SURE disaster assistance program, the Hagstrom Report said Thursday. The SURE program was included in the 2008 Farm Bill as a type of permanent disaster assistance, but the 2008 law sunsets the program at the end of the 2011 fiscal year, on Sept. 30 of this year, to save money in the overall legislation. Farmers should contact their local FSA offices for more information about local impact.

USDA Changes CRP Rule for Drought

USDA announced last week it is modifying rules related to the use of land in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to help farmers facing severe drought. The rule changes will affect the time period during which approved emergency grazing can take place and allowable uses of hay harvested from expiring CRP acres. More about the changes is at http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/printapp?fileName=nr_20110808_rel_0340.html&newsType=newsrel.

MGEX to Accept Non-U.S. Wheat

MGEX said this week its Board of Directors has unanimously approved removing a requirement that hard red spring (HRS) wheat delivered on its contracts be of U.S. origin. The exchange said the change will allow HRS from outside the U.S. to be delivered to fulfill its contracts, provided the wheat also meets other MGEX specifications. MGEX is the principle HRS exchange in the U.S. More on the announcement is at http://www.mgex.com/documents/MGEXRemovesUSOriginConditionfromHRSWContract_000.pdf.

Gaede Talks Budget with Farm Broadcaster

NAWG Director of Government Affairs for Environmental Policy Mark Gaede talked with Kansas farm broadcaster John Jenkinson Monday about the recent debt deal and the pending “super committee” work to cut more than $1.5 trillion from the federal budget. Hear that interview in full at http://www.wheatworld.org/podcasts/2011/08/gaede-talks-budget-with-john-jenkinson/.

USFRA Announces First Food Dialogues

The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) announced this week it will hold its first public event – “The Food Dialogues” – on Sept. 22, online via webcast and live in Washington, D.C., New York City, Fair Oaks, Ind., and at the University of California-Davis. The town hall discussion will be designed to address the biggest questions consumers have about farming and ranching and the future of food. The coalition said more details will be posted soon at www.USFRAOnline.org.

At last, sadly, the day has come and gone when the United States government has ignored the rational pleas of its citizens and businesses and handed an unnecessary advantage to countries that compete with us in world trade.

On Monday, the Colombia-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) entered into force. It is an agreement first signed on Nov. 21, 2008, nearly two years to the day after a U.S.-Colombia FTA was signed. Now most Canadian industries enjoy duty-free access to the growing Colombian market. In contrast, because our government has allowed our FTA to languish, Colombian importers must still pay tariffs on most U.S. goods. For wheat, that tariff overcomes the natural advantage U.S. exporters otherwise have in providing quality wheat on a timely basis to our valued Colombian customers.

The stakes are particularly high for U.S. farmers as roughly 50 percent of U.S. wheat and 25 percent of all U.S. agricultural production is exported. In 2010/2011, the United States exported more than 35 million metric tons (MT) of wheat — roughly 60 percent of last year’s production — to about 70 countries. The United States is the largest supplier of wheat to the world and these exports provide worldwide customers with a competitive wheat source while returning an economic boost to the U.S. economy.

The U.S. wheat industry has worked hard to build a reputation as a reliable supplier. While American farms are largely family-run operations, they are businesses that understand the importance of trade to their customers. The U.S. wheat industry has a long history of promoting fair and open trade and looks forward to implementing pending and future trade agreements such as the nine-country TransPacific Partnership agreement to maintain its competitiveness in world markets. We can only hope that our customers in Colombia, as well as in South Korea and Panama*, understand this situation for what it is: a domestic political struggle that accomplishes only confusion, frustration and diminished trust.

U.S. wheat farmers will not give up on trade and once more call for the immediate ratification and implementation of the U.S.-Colombia FTA so U.S. producers and our Colombian customers can benefit from bilateral trade conducted on a level playing field.

*U.S. FTAs with South Korea and Panama are also pending.

For more on the Colombia agreement, visit www.wheatworld.org/trade.

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Super Committee Selected

This week House and Senate leadership named the 12 members of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction as called for by the Budget Control Act of 2011 that was signed into law on August 2, 2011.The bi-partisan, bi-cameral “Super Congressional Committee” charged with the task of identifying an additional $1.2 trillion in budget reductions through spending cuts or revenue measures over the next 10 years. If agreement is reached, these measures must be voted straight up or down in the house and senate by December 23, 2011, a very fast tract.

Senators named to the committee include: Max Baucus (D-MT), chair of the Senate Finance Committee; Patty Murray (D-WA), incoming chair of the Senate Budget Committee; John Kerry (D-MA), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Jon Kyl R-AZ), Senate Republican Whip, and freshmen Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Rob Portman (R-OH).

Congressmen named to the committee include: Fred Upton (R-MI) chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Dave Camp (R-MI) chair of the House Ways and Means Committee; Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), chair of the House Republican Conference; Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, Jim Clyburn (D-SC), member of the House Democratic Leadership;  and Xavier Becerra (D-CA), vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, senior most Hispanic Member of the House.

Downgrade Implications for Farmers

On August 5, Standard and Poor’s announced its decision to downgrade the rating of U.S. sovereign debt from the highest quality rating of “AAA” to “AA+ with a negative outlook”.  The other two large certified credit rating agencies, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings, have retained their “AAA” rating, although Moody’s reserved the right to further downgrade their “AAA” rating given the June issuance of its “negative outlook” of the U.S. debt.

According to USDA Secretary Vilsack, “it’s premature to speculate on the effects of recent credit rating downgrades on farm loans and farm programs or in the upcoming farm bill debates.”

However, if these matters are not resolved the downgraded credit rating will eventually mean higher interest rates for anyone borrowing money, including farmers who typically leverage a sizeable portion of the capital needed on today’s farming operation.  As potential spending reductions or revenue measures are being considered, NAWG will continue to work with key members of Congress to make sure essential agricultural programs are maintained and look for ways to streamline or make these programs more effective.

Common Sense Prevails in Farmer Trucking Regulations

In perhaps the quickest turnaround that has been seen out of Washington, DC for a while, an agency determination on farmer transportation guidelines was announced this week. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration took just nine days to review 1700 comments and determine that in two of the three areas under review there was no need for additional guidance. The agency issued clarifying guidance to state enforcement officials that farmers operating under crop share arrangements are not common or contract carriers and should be eligible for the farmer exemption, if that state allows the exemption.

NAWG Attends White House Rural Council Briefing

NAWG staff and representatives from 15 other rural and agricultural groups participated in a roundtable discussion at the White House this week hosted by the newly-created White House Rural Council. Established to streamline and improve federal program delivery to rural stakeholders, the council, chaired by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and comprised of two dozen Cabinet leaders, is focused on economic development, job growth and quality of life issues in rural America.  A brief overview of the council’s work was shared and discussion was held about the President’s upcoming trips to rural America, specifically Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.

Crop Report

This week’s USDA crop production report forecast total U.S. wheat production at 2.077 billion bushels, down 1 percent from the July forecast and 6 percent from 2010. As farmers in the northern wheat growing states harvest, the report forecasts this crop as the smallest since 2007. Also released this week by USDA were world estimates that project world wheat production for the 2011/12 marketing year at 672 million metric tons which is an increase of 9.7 million metric tons since last month.

U.S. spring wheat had the largest drop since the July report, with USDA predicting 522 million bushels of production, a drop of 5 percent from July and 15 percent from 2010 production levels. USDA resurveyed growers in Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota prior to this report to account for reduced plantings from the wet spring.  Winter wheat production for 2011 is forecast at 1.50 billion bushels, up 1 percent from 2010, with hard red winter at 794 million bushels and soft red winter at 452 million bushels. The number of harvested acres for 2011 in all six classes of U.S. wheat is forecast at 45.9 million acres with a forecasted yield of 45.2 bushels per acre.

Fall NAWG Intern Position Open

The National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) is seeking an intern for the fall who is interested in gaining real-world experience in policy development. Candidates can be current students or recent graduates. Our interns are an integral part of our team assisting the government affairs and communications departments through the semester. Responsibilities include scheduling and attending meetings in a diverse range of policy areas, conducting research and writing briefings, assisting with NAWG’s weekly newsletter and other tasks as needed. For more information about our internship please go to our website http://www.wheatworld.org/about-us/internship-program/.

The $2.4 trillion deal was passed by the House of Representatives on Monday and the Senate on Tuesday, the deadline by which the Treasury Department said the U.S. debt ceiling had to be raised so the country could continue to pay its bills. President Barack Obama immediately signed it.

The plan will initially cut approximately $900 billion, only from federal discretionary spending, which is appropriated on a year-by-year basis. In the area of agriculture spending, this includes most notably agriculture research programs, though what will be included in the $900 billion is not yet clear.

Then, the balance of the cuts needed to complete the deal – an additional $1.5 trillion – will be identified by a bipartisan and bicameral “super committee”, set to be named by mid-August.

That group will look at both discretionary and mandatory spending, which means all farm safety net, conservation, market development and research programs could be up for funding reductions, including through a process known as CHIMPs, which stands for changes in mandatory programs.

Importantly, the deal finalized this week includes the opportunity for authorizing committees, including the Congressional agriculture committees, to weigh in on cuts within their areas of jurisdiction. This has been a key priority for agricultural groups, including NAWG.

The deal calls for committee reports on possible cuts to be due Oct. 14, with the super committee to report by Nov. 23 and an up-or-down vote in Congress on the package by Dec. 23, immediately before recessing for the holidays.

Should the process break down at any point, the deal includes a fail-safe measure that would call for across-the-board cuts through a budgetary process called sequestration.

House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) said this week that the sequestration process would not include the food stamp program, SNAP, or the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), though it is yet unclear what other programs may or may not be included. Peterson told news outlets his staff has calculated possible cuts from sequestration as low as 5 percent of spending for programs affected, but cautioned that was a rough estimate.

It is clear that the super committee process, should it be successful, will require agriculture cuts, though it is unclear at what level and in which fiscal years.

Potential cuts to farm programs identified by other bipartisan panels and leaders in Congress have been estimated to be between $11 billon and upwards of $40 billion – which would decimate any sense of a farm safety net.

The implications of this process to the timing of the next farm bill are also unclear; the 2008 Farm Bill expires Sept. 30 of next year, but cuts called for by the super committee could accelerate the timeline on which the authorizing committees could act to rewrite programs. Multiple Members are said to be working on farm policy proposals already.

NAWG is working to gain as much information as possible about the coming super committee process and will continue to strongly discourage disproportionate cuts to the farm safety net and other vital agricultural investments, including market development programs and research spending.

NAWG also urges all farmers to meet with their Members of Congress during the August recess to emphasize the importance of key federal programs to their operations.

First and foremost is the appropriations process. The federal government’s fiscal year ends Sept. 30, after which new appropriations bills or a continuing resolution will be needed to fund federal programs.

At this point, the House has passed a budget resolution – albeit one that is unacceptable to the Senate – and six of 12 appropriations bills, including the agriculture measure. The Senate has yet to pass a budget resolution to initiate the appropriations process.

The process going forward and the final product could heavily depend on this week’s debt ceiling deal, which outlines cuts to FY2012 discretionary programs. The specifics of those cuts are as-of-yet unclear, as are the implications of the soon-to-come super committee negotiations.

Of equal importance to the wheat industry and other agricultural groups, Congress also did not act on three pending free trade agreements, with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, before leaving town.

Though there is widespread support for finalizing the deals – which were inked up to four years ago – the Administration and some in Congress itself have tussled over whether or not trade adjustment assistance (TAA), which provides aid for workers affected by new trade deals, should be passed along with the agreements.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said this week he and his Republican counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have agreed on a path forward for both TAA and the agreements after the August recess.

While such a compromise would be very positive, the continued delay in passing these agreements is rapidly eroding market share for U.S. wheat growers and others who sell to the countries with which agreements are pending.

In mid-August, an FTA between Colombia and Canada will go into effect, at which time the U.S. will be Colombia’s only major source of wheat without duty-free access to the market. U.S. Wheat Associates, the industry’s market development organization, estimates this will cause U.S. market share there to plummet an additional 50 percent and will ultimately cost U.S. wheat growers $100 million in sales per year.

Another key priority that remains pending is H.R. 872, a bill that would eliminate a coming bureaucratic boondoggle when a court ruling goes into effect requiring additional permitting for each pesticide application, even if done in compliance with existing law.

That problem was created by a January 2009 Sixth Circuit Court decision saying pesticide discharge is a point source of pollution subject to additional regulation under the Clean Water Act, necessitating National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for pesticide applications.

The decision has been stayed twice to allow time for government agencies to implement it. When the latest stay expires at the end of October, farmers will begin to face potentially catastrophic financial liability from otherwise lawful and routine applications of crop protection products.

H.R. 872, will amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Clean Water Act to clarify Congressional intent and eliminate the requirement for the additional permits for pesticide applications approved for use under FIFRA. The legislation has been passed by the full House and the Senate Agriculture Committee with bipartisan support but is now facing a hold in the Senate.

NAWG will continue to work on these three priorities, and others, as the recess proceeds, and encourages wheat growers throughout the country to discuss each of them with their Members of Congress during in-district meetings scheduled this month.

Heartland is an award-winning national television series celebrating American agriculture, and the only national program educating consumers about the origins of their food, fuel and fiber.

The seventh season will include 22 half-hour episodes airing on more than 230 public television stations. While each PBS station sets its own airdate and time, the show will begin airing on RFD-TV on Wednesday, Sept. 7 at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

In addition to long-form stories on farm families and production agriculture, America’s Heartland serves up special consumer segments like Farm to Fork, Fast Facts about Food, Off the Shelf and Harvesting Knowledge.

Farm to Fork takes nationally-known chef Dave Lieberman into the heartland for cooking ideas that viewers can use at home. Fast Facts about Food delivers detailed information about nutrition. And new in season seven, Ask a Farmer gives viewers a chance to ask questions that touch on many aspects of agriculture today.

Heartland’s TV content is supplemented by a robust online presence, anchored at www.americasheartland.org. To give viewers immediate access to stories and special segments, America’s Heartland has also expanded its social networking outreach with updated features and information on Facebook and Twitter.

Online video plays an increasingly important role in the show’s outreach; America’s Heartland’s YouTube channel currently welcomes more than 90,000 visitors each month.

Traditional airings on PBS and RFD-TV reach close to one million viewers per episode, or 44 million viewers per season. The series is available on public television in 20 of the top 25 U.S. television markets.

Despite the show’s success, it has faced funding concerns in the last year and continues to seek additional sponsors for its seventh season and beyond.

Farm Credit and the United Soybean Board have already joined on to support the new season, in addition to the American Farm Bureau Federation, which has funded the show in part since its launch in 2005.

Heartland also receives in-kind production support from many agriculture organizations, including NAWG, National Corn Growers Association, U.S. Grains Council, American Soybean Association, FFA and the National Cotton Council of America.

To find when Heartland is airing locally, visit www.americasheartland.org/watch_heartland/index.htm or schedule.rfdtv.com/.

At press time, the impasse continued on Capitol Hill, with little hope for either a plan proposed by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Republicans’ most senior Congressional leader, or that proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Democrats’ most senior Congressional leader.

Late Thursday evening, it became clear Boehner would not have the votes in his own caucus to pass his proposal, which is considered not dramatic enough by hard-line conservative Republicans and all-too-dramatic by Democrats, including those in control of the Senate.

Reid’s plan faces the opposite reviews – too liberal for Republicans, meaning it would almost certainly not pass the House of Representatives.

Another disturbing development for agriculturalists surfaced this week with regard to the Reid proposal – it’s inclusion of severe cuts to direct payments as a cost-saving measure.

The proposal as outlined would reduce the percentage of base acres on which direct payments are made. Under the 2008 Farm Bill, direct payments will go to landowners with historic base acreage at a rate of 85 percent of that acreage for most of the bill’s life. The Reid proposal would cut that rate to 59 percent in years 2012-2021, which produces a savings of $11 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

While that price tag is on the low end of rumored cuts to ag programs, there is no guarantee they would be the only money taken from the safety net. The $11 billion in cuts now, while not felt until the conclusion of the 2008 Farm Bill, would erode 2012 Farm Bill budget baseline, which is already facing extreme reductions. And, NAWG and other agricultural groups strongly oppose cuts being made by Congressional leadership rather than the agriculture committees with program jurisdiction.

Since the Reid proposal emerged, NAWG policy staff and president Wayne Hurst, a wheat producer from Idaho in town for other meetings, have been on Capitol Hill daily to press opposition to any proposal to cut the 2008 Farm Bill – which is a contract between the government and agricultural producers who have planned around it – before it expires next year, particularly without program prioritization by the House and Senate Agriculture Committees.

At a hearing this week held by the House Agriculture Committee to examine Title I programs in advance of the 2012 Farm Bill, Members also expressed near unanimous opposition to cuts directly to farm programs in the safety net.

While NAWG’s Board of Directors has not yet endorsed 2012 Farm Bill priorities, the Association has historically supported direct payments because they are predictable, reliable and the most trade-friendly of current farm programs. They are also helpful to producers seeking operating credit in a time of multiple weather problems and an uncertain national economy.

To read more about NAWG’s budget priorities, including a recent commodity coalition letter on the issue, please visit www.wheatworld.org/budget.

That was main message from NAWG President Wayne Hurst at a press roundtable held Friday by the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), which promotes the expansion of trade.

Hurst participated in the event, which also included comments from Ed Gresser, the director of ProgressiveEconomy; Nick Giordano, vice president and counsel for international affairs at the National Pork Producers Council; and Bill Lane, Washington director for governmental affairs at Caterpillar.

In his prepared statement, Hurst reiterated the wheat industry’s strong support for immediate passage of all three free trade agreements that are currently waiting to go before Congress – with Panama, South Korea and Colombia.

He told the 11 national and D.C.-focused reporters in attendance that the most important of these to wheat exports is the agreement with Colombia, which imports 97 percent of its wheat needs. Colombia has also routinely been the largest wheat export market in South American for U.S. wheat producers in recent years.

However, U.S. wheat market share in Colombia has declined from a high of around 70 percent to about 45 percent in less than three years, particularly since Argentina gained preferential duties in 2006 and eliminated all duties in 2009 under the Mercosur agreement.

Canada is poised to gain duty-free access later this summer when it implements its own FTA with Colombia, which will drop U.S. market share by an additional 50 percent or more.

“Delaying these free trade agreements isn’t just a political game – it’s messing with real lives, here and abroad,” Hurst told reporters. “And, it’s doing harm that can’t be easily undone once Colombian millers switch preferences from our wheat to someone else’s.”

The export market development organization that works for U.S. wheat producers, U.S. Wheat Associates, estimates that U.S. growers stand to lose up to $100 million in sales per year based on the delay in implementation of the Colombian FTA.

Both NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates strongly support the pending free trade agreements and continue to push for their quick consideration.

This week, both groups joined more than 100 other organizations in writing President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders to again urge quick passage of the measures.

That letter and a newly-updated briefing paper about the effects of continued FTA delays to the wheat industry are online at www.wheatworld.org/trade.

The comments were made in response to a request from the agencies on new guidance regarding how the government will identify waters protected under CWA, which covers the legally vague “waters of the United States”.

The new definitions in the guidance will impact action under many Clean Water Act regulatory regimes, including what waters will be covered under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program, which is poised to expand dramatically this fall if a legislative fix is not achieved for new and duplicative pesticide permitting requirements established by the Sixth Circuit Court.

NAWG’s comments attacked the guidance on both policy and procedural fronts.

First and foremost, NAWG told the agencies that the guidance document represents a significant rewrite and expansion of existing regulatory guidelines.

Among other things, the guidance expands the agencies’ jurisdiction under CWA beyond the limits set by Congress and the Supreme Court by applying a broadened view of the Court’s significant nexus standard not only to wetlands but also to tributaries and isolated water.

The guidance allows regulatory decisions to be made based on abstract scientific literature rather than actual analysis of the waters in question.

The guidance expands the universe of waters that will be considered “traditional navigable waters” by including for the first time ever waters that support one-time recreational use.

It also expands regulation on “intrastate waters,” equating them with traditional navigable waters, and making it easier to find jurisdiction for adjacent wetlands, tributaries and other waters.

And, the guidance creates a completely new concept of allowing for “aggregation” of the contributions of all similar waters within an entire watershed – creating a blanket jurisdictional determination for an entire class of waters within an entire watershed.

In addition to these severe substantive concerns about the guidance’s regulatory expansion, NAWG also commented vigorously on the agencies’ highly irregular decision to issue guidance saying what the government will do, versus undertaking a full rulemaking process that involves getting public comment on the details and impact of a proposal.

This decision runs contrary to the expressed views of the Supreme Court and the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and ignores requests by agricultural and other stakeholders.

It also does an end-run around procedures meant to ensure that new regulations are reasonable and rejects all consideration of the cost of the new and expanded CWA regulation the guidance will cause, estimated by EPA to be between $87 million and $171 million without permitting costs or delays taken into consideration.

NAWG works with state associations across the country and agricultural industry colleagues in Washington on a number of environmental regulatory issues, seeking first and foremost to help agencies including the EPA understand the unique nature of agricultural production.

More on this work and the full comments submitted this week are available online at www.wheatworld.org/environmentalregulation, under “Statements and Testimony”.

Discussions continue between top leaders in Congress and President Barack Obama while most of the rest of Washington waits and wonders.

The Gang of Six, a bipartisan group of Senators that was seeking to negotiate a long-term compromise on debt and deficit issues until it faltered in May, seemed to reconstitute this week, even issuing a proposal that gained relatively warm reception.

On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled House passed in a 234-190 vote a so-called “cut, cap and balance” bill, which would cap overall federal spending and require Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution before the debt ceiling could be raised. The legislation was denounced by Democrats and failed a procedural vote on Friday in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Meanwhile, the agriculture community continues to work to express the importance of a strong farm safety net and other investments in ag-related programs.

There is no solid figure of what could be cut from agriculture-area programs in an eventual deal, but numbers have been floated ranging from $10-11 billion, in the President’s debt commission report and the Gang of Six proposal, to $30 billion or more in debt talks led by Vice President Joe Biden and the House-passed budget resolution.

The timing of cuts is also causing serious uncertainly in agriculture policy making; House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) said this week that if dramatic cuts are ordered for agriculture programs, the timeline for completion of the 2012 Farm Bill could be moved up from next year.

NAWG joined more than 30 other agriculture groups in writing the President and leaders in Congress this week calling for a long-term, comprehensive solution to the federal deficit that will establish budget certainty for federal efforts, like the farm bill

“Agriculture continues to lead our national economic recovery and contributes to domestic and global food security,” the groups told U.S. leaders.

“To ensure this role going forward, we need a rational long-term agreement on raising the debt ceiling that asks agriculture to only contribute reductions proportionate to its share of the federal budget. Doing so will provide the certainty needed to write a strong and effective farm bill.”

Saying that “[a]griculture is prepared to take a proportionate share of budget cuts provided everything is on the table” – and citing recent cuts of $6 billion in crop insurance funding as evidence – the groups called again for agriculture committees in the House and Senate to have control over what cuts are made to farm programs.

The letter sent this week is available directly at http://www.wheatworld.org/wp-content/uploads/budget-ag-groups-on-debt-ceiling-discussions-201107191.pdf.

While the budget discussions continue, practically all other priorities have temporarily fallen to the wayside.

It was all but confirmed this week that three long-pending free trade agreements, with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, will not be considered until after the August recess ends.

While not surprising considering the long delay in processing the agreements – they were signed up to four years ago – this is crushing to export-dependent industries, including the wheat industry.

For wheat, the Colombia agreement is particularly vital. A free trade agreement between Colombia and Canada is set to go into effect in mid-August, which would allow Canadian wheat to enter the South American country duty free – a benefit Argentinean wheat already enjoys.

U.S. Wheat Associates has estimated that passing the U.S.-Colombia FTA will help prevent lost sales of $100 million each year in that important and growing market.

The appropriations process also appears to be somewhat on hold. The federal government’s fiscal year ends Sept. 30, but the Senate has yet to pass a budget resolution, which provides guidance for appropriators.

For its part, the House has passed a budget resolution that is a non-starter in the Senate, and processed five of 12 appropriations bills, including an agriculture measure.

Monies collected will be used to advance wheat research, education, information delivery and market development and to foster industry collaboration.

The referendum was conducted from June 20 to July 1 of this year. MDARD said that of 1,374 valid ballots received, 747 producers, or 54 percent, voted yes. The “yes” votes represented approximately 6.1 million bushels of production, also approximately 54 percent.

For the program to be adopted, more than 50 percent of the producer votes cast and more than 50 percent of the total production amount represented on the cast ballots, had to approve the proposal.

The Michigan Wheat Program will be administered by a committee of nine members appointed by the state’s governor, including eight wheat producers and one industry representative.

The program will be fully funded by assessments on wheat sales, with the assessment rate to be set annually by the Committee, never to exceed 0.5 percent of the value of the wheat sold.

Twenty states have similar self-tax programs for the wheat industry, often called checkoffs. Most other commodities also have checkoffs at the state level or, in some cases, the national level.

More information, including the formal director’s order establishing the program, is available online at www.michigan.gov/mda.

The group was formed late last year by a wide range of prominent farmer- and rancher-led organizations and agricultural partners, including NAWG’s affiliated Foundation.

It is the first effort encompassing ag groups at the national, regional and state levels aiming to lead a dialogue and answer Americans’ questions about how food gets to their tables.

The group’s goal is to pool resources to form a significant budget that will allow unprecedented outreach – and hopefully widespread impact around the country.

The first message to growers from the coalition was issued to agricultural organizations this week, followed by information about how farmers can share their opinions in a forthcoming phone survey.

To participate in that survey, which will take between five and 10 minutes total, farmers should fill out a form on the USFRA website by next Friday, July 29.

The sign-up form is at: http://usfraonline.org/raise-your-voices/raise-your-voices-survey/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email.

The full first message is as follows:

As Farmers and Ranchers, We’ve Raised Pretty Much Everything. Except Our Voices.

Have you seen the new U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance ad campaign? Wondering how you can join the conversation?

This week, the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance unveiled a trade media advertising campaign inviting farmers and ranchers to raise their voices and join the conversation about the industry’s commitment to continuous improvement and our dedication to producing healthy food for people everywhere.

These advertisements are featured in Meat & Poultry and The Packer, among other outlets and this week the message is going virtual with banner ads on sites such as AgWeb.com and Agriculture.com, to name a few. Stay tuned for other elements to the campaign beyond TV and radio ads! Our campaign will be amplified through additional channels including:

• Digital media and banner ads
• Town hall style meetings
• Social media and peer-to-peer networks

We want to hear from you and invite you to raise your voices!

Please visit our newly redesigned website at http://www.usfraonline.org where you can share your ideas and opinions. In fact, we invite you to go to the site and tell us what you wish Americans knew about their food.

Join us in leading the dialogue with Americans about where their food comes from and how it is produced. After all, as America’s farmers and ranchers, you’ve raised pretty much everything. Except your voices. So, make your voice heard and visit http://www.usfraonline.org today!

Thank you,

Your friends at the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance

Farmers can provide their input directly and learn more about USFRA in general at http://usfraonline.org/raise-your-voices/tell-us-what-you-want-americans-to-know/.

Materials to help state associations and other organizations promote the coalition are at http://usfraonline.org/materials-to-share/.

As of Friday morning, reports indicated the important talks had made no progress, with neither side yielding from long-declared stances on taxes and cutting spending

Still, leaders in both parties are getting nervous as a deadline to raise the debt ceiling or risk default – Aug. 2 – nears, with just a few legislative days remaining to come to a deal, write legislation and get it passed through a very divided Congress.

Mid-week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) floated a plan that would give the President authority to raise the debt ceiling without going back to Congress again for approval but only if the Administration made equivalent spending cuts.

That back-up plan got mixed reviews in Congress, and the President indicated he would continue to seek a larger deal.

Wednesday night, the President and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) reportedly got into a testy exchange at a meeting, showing the level of frustration and emotion that has emerged as the deadline comes closer.

As of Thursday evening, the next meeting of negotiators was scheduled for Saturday, with all leaders expected to be in Washington for talks well into next week.

NAWG will continue to follow the negotiations’ progress as implications to federal agriculture spending and the wider economy emerge.

Von Bergen met with the officer teams of the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association, who were in town for other meetings. The chief executives and senior policy staff for the three groups were also in attendance.

The leaders reiterated their support for a comprehensive approach to reducing federal deficits and the growth of the national debt that includes all spending and that does make disproportionate reductions in agriculture programs. This message echoed a letter recently sent to Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama signed by more than 130 groups.

The leaders also agreed to the principle that the Congressional agriculture committees should be allowed to carefully examine programs and determine cuts, rather than leaving such decisions to appropriations committees or the whims of a larger debt deal.

Though the groups did not agree to support or oppose changes to specific programs, they did agree that crop insurance programs are a critical component of the farm safety net.

Finally, those in attendance pledged to continue their joint educational efforts and discussions as major decisions about the federal government’s budget situation are made and as the timeline for writing the 2012 Farm Bill firms up.

NAWG leaders have met multiple times with leaders of other commodity groups, including those representing corn, soybeans, cotton, rice and peanuts. While the NAWG Board of Directors has not yet endorsed priorities for the coming farm bill discussions, the organization’s policy calls for the 2008 Farm Bill to remain intact through the end of the authorized period.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) formulated the bill, which eight other Members have already agreed to cosponsor – including House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.); Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.); Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.); Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.); Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.); Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.); Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.); and Rep. Tim Johnson (R-Ill.).

The bill as drafted would amend federal tax code to allow the establishment of public charities focused specifically on agricultural research.

Organizations established under the new law would be called agriculture research organizations, or AROs. They would be required to be engaged in research with a land-grant university or other college of agriculture and commit more than half their annual assets, or 3.5 percent of the value of their endowment, to continual agricultural research.

There would be no tax differences between AROs and regular charitable organizations, including similarly structured medical research organizations (sometimes known as MROs).

This important change would allow donors –individuals or families – to commit funds to agricultural research with tax advantages, which could draw significant new funds to important work that is receiving fewer and fewer public dollars.

Private analysis of the bill text shows that it would likely cost very little in federal budget terms – $12 million over 10 years.

NAWG strongly supports many efforts to increase funds dedicated to agricultural research and appreciates the creative approach the ARO concept offers for bringing new money to ag research. NAWG’s Board of Directors passed a resolution in March supporting the ARO concept, and NAWG sent a letter to Nunes’ offices in May for the same purpose, available at www.wheatworld.org/research.

In his new role, Bell will lead the organization’s efforts on farm policy, crop insurance, transportation and trade issues. Among other things, he will be the primary NAWG staff member working on Title I programs, crop insurance and trade issues for the 2012 Farm Bill.

“The next few months and years will be very important to the future of U.S. farm and trade policy, and we are excited to have Ben coming on board,” said NAWG Chief Executive Officer Dana Peterson.

“Ben brings a depth of experience gained by working for Members of Congress, in associations and on the farm that will be important as we enter a time of change for federal farm programs. We are thrilled to have someone joining our team who can bring all of these experiences to bear in our work for wheat farmers.”

Bell has most recently been a director of government affairs at the American Forest and Paper Association. Prior to that, he was a senior legislative assistant focusing on agriculture in the office of former Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) for five years, including during the 2008 Farm Bill negotiations.

Since coming to Washington more than 10 years ago, Bell has also worked for the Southern Governors’ Association, Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the National Rural Development Association.

“I am excited to again be working to represent America’s farmers,” Bell said. “It is especially important as we approach the next farm bill to help to protect the farm safety net for both our nation’s farmers and the consumers who rely on a stable and affordable food supply.”

Bell is originally from Morgan City, La. His family owns farmland that is used to produce sugarcane, soybeans, and wheat. He remains engaged in farming in both Louisiana and Maryland.

When Bell is not working with farmers and Members of Congress on policy matters, he enjoys hunting, fishing, and spending time with his wife and two children, including taking them out to the farm.

###

Contact:

Melissa George Kessler, NAWG, mkessler (at) wheatworld.org

The House Committee passed by a 22 to 15 vote language for implementation of the South Korea agreement; by a 22 to 15 vote language for implementation of the Panama agreement; and by a 22 to 14 vote language for implementation of the Colombia agreement. The Committee did not consider any language addressing renewal of trade adjustment assistance (TAA), the key sticking point in recent weeks.

The Senate Committee passed by a 13 to 11 vote language for implementation of the South Korea agreement and renewal of TAA; by a 22 to 2 vote language to implement the Panama agreement; and by an 18 to 6 vote language to implement the Colombia agreement.

Neither Committee adopted amendments to the proposed legislative text and, as the vote tallies attest, much of the voting was done along party lines despite bipartisan support for the trade measures.

Language approved in the mock mark-up process does not move forward as a formal bill. Still, the sessions are opportunities for Members of Congress to signal to Administration officials what Congress does or does not want included in draft implementation language sent to the Hill for final consideration. They are also signs of progress in a process that, for the currently-pending agreements, has taken upwards of four years.

Farmer leaders of NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates applauded the forward movement in a statement released Thursday.

“We were pleased to see leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate take a step forward today with the three free trade agreements our country has negotiated with Colombia, Panama and South Korea,” said NAWG President Wayne Hurst and U.S. Wheat Associates Chairman Don Schieber.

“We understand the political aspects of how these agreements move toward ratification are complicated. But, for wheat growers, these agreements aren’t complicated at all: they mean reduced barriers to our products, help maintaining markets we’ve built over time and higher wheat prices.

“Immediate passage of the three pending free trade agreements remains of utmost importance for wheat growers across the country, the agriculture industry and the U.S. economy. We urge all officials to work toward their resolutions as soon as possible.”

NAWG, U.S. Wheat Associates and most mainstream agriculture organizations are strongly supportive of immediate passage of the pending agreements, which will help maintain and grow agricultural exports.

For wheat, the Colombia agreement is particularly vital. A free trade agreement between Colombia and Canada is set to go into effect in mid-August, which would allow Canadian wheat to enter the South American country duty free – a benefit Argentinean wheat already enjoys. U.S. Wheat Associates has estimated that passing the U.S.-Colombia FTA will help prevent lost sales of $100 million each year in that important and growing market.

Much more about the importance of trade to the wheat industry is at www.wheatworld.org/trade.

On Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and his Mexican counterpart signed agreements to resolve the problem, which arose when Congress cut off funding in the 2009 omnibus spending bill for a trucking pilot program. That program had permitted a limited number of Mexican carriers into the U.S., which is required under NAFTA.

In response, Mexico implemented tariffs on nearly 100 products. Though wheat has not been a targeted product, NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates have been actively engaged in efforts to push DOT and Congress to resolve the issue with one of our largest wheat customers.

The agreements signed this week outline that Mexico will suspend 50 percent of retaliatory tariffs within 10 days and the remainder within five days of the first Mexican trucking company receiving authority to operate in the U.S.

Mexican trucks operating in the U.S. will be required to comply with all federal motor vehicle safety standards and be monitored electronically to ensure compliance with hours-of-service laws.

The DOT will review records of Mexican drivers and require them to undergo drug tests, processed in the U.S., and language assessment tests.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in a statement that the resolution is a “major win for U.S. agriculture”, noting that exports of affected commodities were down 27 percent with the tariffs.

USDA said Mexico is U.S. agriculture’s third-ranked trading partner, buying $14.5 billion of U.S. farm goods last year Overall, U.S. agricultural exports will support more than 1.1 million jobs in America this year.

The wheat industry will continue to monitor this issue as the new agreements go into effect.

More from the DOT on the agreement is at http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2011/dot7911a.html.

NWIC has primarily been an organization of public wheat breeders, though it is in the process of restructuring to allow for more stakeholder involvement, including more participation from wheat farmers.

NAWG has taken over the secretariat role for NWIC to assist the group’s volunteer leaders in day-to-day activities of the organization. This new role for the Association builds on a longstanding relationship between the two groups; among other things, NAWG and NWIC sponsor a research fly-in each winter to educate Members of Congress about the importance of a strong public research system.

To help the wheat community get to know him better, NAWG asked Dr. Carver – whose title is officially the OSU Regents Professor and Wheat Genetics Chair in Agriculture – a few questions about his work and the organization he will now lead:

How did you get involved in wheat breeding? Is this what you wanted to do when you were growing up?

My career path to wheat breeding was anything but straight, actually starting out in soybean lipid biochemistry, working with the ARS soybean unit at N.C.-State as a master’s student in the early 1980s. One project led to another, and genetics gradually came into the picture, culminating in a wheat genetics faculty position at Oklahoma State in 1985. As a researcher and germplasm developer, I had an unusual opportunity to “apprentice” with wheat breeder Dr. Ed Smith for 14 years, before taking over the wheat breeding program at OSU upon Ed’s retirement in 1998.

Not surprisingly, wheat breeding was not a childhood aspiration, but science always had my attention. Though I did not grow up on a farm, I was truly enamored by the farming way of life as a youngster. I was the only kid on the block in Decatur, Ga., with a John Deere tractor tricycle. And so today, yes, it’s odd, but there are days I have to yank myself out of the field and come indoors.

What do you actually do on a daily basis?

Of course, I like to do the scholastic things that keep a university employee engaged with the knowledge base (writing) and with the profession (society activities). But mostly, I direct a research and wheat variety development program that employs four full-time assistants and as many as 14 part-time student employees throughout the year.

I get to work with a dynamic team of scientists, called the OSU Wheat Improvement Team. While they each have their own agenda in research, extension or teaching, their talents are brought together in various capacities to benefit the Oklahoma wheat industry. It’s a challenging but highly gratifying part of my daily job.

Finally, I do on a local scale what will be required on a national scale with NWIC, and that is to serve as the voice of wheat improvement research for Oklahoma. Interacting with stakeholder groups is a daily, and rewarding, part of the job. The research is not complete until it is delivered, in some form, to those who have a stake in it.

Why do you think NWIC is important?

NWIC should represent a unified spirit and collective voice of the scientific community dedicated to the improvement of wheat and its many products. Without that voice, the scientific process may not be fulfilled, or fully and accurately communicated to various publics.

NWIC also represents a key component of the wheat continuum from drill to mill, and thus we must maintain synchrony with other segments along the continuum if the industry as a whole is to stay healthy. Working with NAWG, U.S. Wheat Associates and other key industry organizations is paramount to that synchrony, and something I will personally and professionally value.

Any final thoughts?

Though it is easy to get caught up in the things we as wheat researchers lack, we do have to stop long enough to recognize that the U.S. wheat research community is a shining example of innovation and success.

I am convinced that our scientists, whether public or private, or state or federal, are as talented as a Kansas wheat field is long. To put it in sports jargon, we may not have the deepest bench among the major field crops, but the ones on the field can score!

The new NWIC will look forward to working with our national leadership to beef up that roster, and not simply move players around to fill holes. And as we find ways to be more competitive in a crop productivity sense, we must continue to embrace all technologies, not just those that come blueprinted in the seed.

“We were pleased to see leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate take a step forward today with the three free trade agreements our country has negotiated with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

“We understand the political aspects of how these agreements move toward ratification are complicated. But, for wheat growers, these agreements aren’t complicated at all: they mean reduced barriers to our products, help maintaining markets we’ve built over time and higher wheat prices.

“Immediate passage of the three pending free trade agreements remains of utmost importance for wheat growers across the country, the agriculture industry and the U.S. economy. We urge all officials to work toward their resolutions as soon as possible.”

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On Tuesday, word came that a deal had been reached to move the agreements with trade adjustment assistance (TAA), which provides support to U.S. workers who suffer economically because of trade pacts. The Obama Administration and key Democrats have insisted that TAA be attached to the FTAs for them to move forward in the approval process.

Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus (D-Mont.) quickly announced his panel would hold a mock mark-up to consider the measures – between the U.S. and Colombia, Panama and South Korea – on Thursday.

By Wednesday, however, cracks had started to show in the plan, with Republicans expressing concerns about adding TAA provisions to the implementing language for the U.S.-Korea agreement, as well as about the meeting’s timing.

By Thursday, hours before the mock mark-up was scheduled, Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) had spoken out in opposition and led a letter signed by Committee Republicans to President Barack Obama, calling for the measures and TAA to be considered separately.

At 3 p.m., Baucus announced from the Committee’s hearing room that the meeting would be cancelled due to lack of quorum because no Republican would be present, while Republicans held a press conference at another location.

The wheat industry and most mainstream agriculture organizations are strongly supportive of the three pending agreements and deeply concerned about the consequences to U.S. market share if their passage continues to be delayed.

NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates released a statement Wednesday from NAWG President Wayne Hurst and U.S. Wheat Chairman Don Schieber, saying, “We strongly believe these agreements have languished long enough and call once again for their quick consideration and approval.”

NAWG also asked leaders of all of its state affiliates to call Members of the Finance Committee and urge support for the agreements despite political differences.

For wheat, the Colombia agreement is particularly vital. A free trade agreement between Colombia and Canada is set to go into effect in mid-August, which would allow Canadian wheat to enter the South American country duty free – a benefit Argentinean wheat already enjoys.

U.S. Wheat Associates has estimated that passing the U.S.-Colombia FTA will help prevent lost sales of $100 million each year in that important and growing market.

The industry now hopes that officials can find a path forward for the important agreements, which would help support market share for wheat growers, who export half their national crop in a typical year.

Much more about the importance of trade to the wheat industry is at www.wheatworld.org/trade.

Reid and his Republican counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) both met with President Barack Obama this week on the debt issue, a week after talks being led by Vice President Joe Biden faltered.

Press reports peg the biggest disagreements on if and how to raise revenue in addition to cutting spending. Obama pressed the issue of raising taxes, likely by cutting certain tax advantages or eliminating loopholes, at a rare press conference held Wednesday.

The ongoing negotiations are working to achieve a sweeping debt reduction package that could facilitate a vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, which has technically already been breached by borrowing.

Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner has said that if the debt ceiling isn’t raised by Aug. 2, the country would have to drastically reduce outlays, default on its significant debt or both, which would cause economic consequences throughout the world economy.

Despite this looming issue, the budgeting and appropriating processes in the Senate progressed this week.

There were reports, but no announcement, of a budget resolution agreement among Senate Democrats. Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) has been holding off on the resolution pending the ongoing debt talks.

The Senate Appropriations Committee also approved its first of 12 appropriations bills, the military construction-Veterans Affairs measure.

The House approved a budget resolution on April 15 and has processed three of 12 appropriations bills, including an agriculture measure that dramatically reduced outlays for agricultural research, food aid and some other spending. The House had previously planned to be in session next week.

NAWG will continue to follow the budget process as it progresses and report on it and its implications for existing and future policy priorities as needed.