California Ag Network

Category: Ag Economics

  • Regenerative Farming School Focuses on ‘Keeping Dollars at Home, in Local Communities’

    Dan DeSutter is a farmer and a numbers guy. With an advanced degree in finance and decades of agricultural production experience, he understands the value of soil health-focused regenerative agriculture and what impact it has on his Attica, Indiana farm’s bottom line.

    He knows a lot because he’s seen a lot, including what he describes as “The good, the bad and the ugly of regenerative organic farming.”

    “Dan’s leadership, experience and success in the soil health movement, coupled with his organic regen-erative and grass-fed production operation, combine to make his farm the perfect outdoor classroom for the Soil Health Academy’s (SHA) upcoming school,” said SHA instructor David Kleinschmidt.

    In addition to Kleinschmidt, the three-day SHA school, Aug. 3-5, will feature instruction by Ray Archuleta, Doug Peterson and other technical consultants, all of whom are widely considered to be among the most preeminent pioneers, innovators and advocates in today’s soil health and regenerative agricultural movement.

    For his part, DeSutter will share how he has been able to practically apply soil health-improving regenerative principles in his farming operation—techniques that have generated numerous benefits.

    “If we invest in regenerating our soil, we can keep a lot of input dollars at home and in our local community,” DeSutter said. “The ultimate objective of regenerative farming is to have soils that can work for us instead of relying on us to provide for plant needs. Reducing those inputs translates into improved net profitability and positions regenerative growers to better connect with consumers seeking healthy, nutrient-dense food.”

    According to Kleinschmidt, the Attica SHA school will offer a mix of demonstrations, expert presentations and hands-on experience—all of which are geared to help producers quickly and practically improve soil function and increase net per-acre profits.

    “Students will learn regenerative farming techniques for weed and pest control, nutrient management, organic, no-till and how to design cover crop mixes to address resource concerns,” Kleinschmidt said. “From small-scale to large-scale producers, everyone who attends this school will see how to put regenerative agriculture principles to work for healthier soil, food and profits.”

    For more information about the school, visit www.soilhealthacademy.org.

  • UPL North America Employees Raise $20,000 in Relief for Pandemic-Stricken India

    Across the globe, COVID-19 has devastated countries, presenting unthinkable challenges to friends, family and communities. In particular, recent waves of infection in India have created a dire situation within the country, affecting many fellow UPL employees and their families. Because of this, UPL is proud to announce a recent donation of $20,000 in funds raised by North America employees to provide direct relief to local communities in India.

    UPL’s story began in India, which continues to be a hub of innovation for agriculture advancements. Seeing a need, UPL employees set out to provide relief by collecting funds and donating them to an organization that provides ambulances to local communities in India, with UPL North America matching the amount raised.

    “OpenHearts is an integral part of UPL’s OpenAg purpose. As part of that mission, we’re committed to providing support for local communities to help overcome human challenges and improve the human condition,” said Craig Brekkas, Head of North America for UPL. “When our employees in the United States and Canada saw an opportunity to provide assistance to do their part to help provide some support for citizens in India, they took action. The funds along with the best wishes for overcoming the challenges of the pandemic were recently sent from our North America team to India.”

    The donated funds went to Ashirwad Sewa Samiti Trust, an organization that provides directly to local communities. The trust will support the monthly expenses of running the ambulance (driver salary and maintenance). The trust has also done significant social work in the community, such as providing meals to people in need.

    “As part of our mission to power new levels of sustainable growth, we are also committed to generating a deeper impact on society,” Brekkas says. “Through UPL’s OpenHearts platform, we are committed to helping our friends and neighbours through sustainable solutions when none previously existed. This is one opportunity where we can do exactly that.”

    UPL is headquartered in India, with manufacturing facilities in 48 locations worldwide and a global workforce which includes 75 different nationalities. To learn more about UPL or these relief efforts, visit the UPL U.S. or Canada sites.

    ABOUT UPL

    UPL Ltd. (NSE: UPL & BSE: 512070) is a global provider of sustainable agriculture products and solutions, with annual revenue exceeding $5 billion. As one of the top 5 agriculture solutions companies worldwide, our robust portfolio consists of biologicals and traditional crop protection solutions with more than 13,600 registrations. With a presence in more than 130 countries and more than 10,000 colleagues globally, we reach more than 90% of the world’s food basket. For more information about our integrated portfolio of solutions across the food value chain including seeds, post-harvest products, as well as physical and digital services, please visit upl-ltd.com.

  • National Weather Service Issues Excessive Heat and Elevated Wildfire Danger Warnings

    California Avocado Commission — The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat and elevated wildfire risk warnings in California this week beginning Tuesday, July 6 through Sunday, July 11. The conditions will pose a high risk for heat-related illnesses with possible record temperatures for the Antelope Valley area of Southern CA and brief critical fire weather conditions for the interior region. There also is a slight change of monsoonal thunderstorms and dry lightning from Wednesday through Sunday in the interior regions of Southern CA, most notably the mountain and desert areas.

    From Tuesday, July 6 through Thursday, July 8, the NWS notes there will be widespread highs of 95˚F – 105˚F in the inland valleys, mountains and deserts with warm overnight lows (about 70˚F) in the foothills and deserts. These conditions will pose a high risk of heat-related illnesses for those who work outdoors. During this same timeframe, humidities will lower to 5% – 15% and winds may gust from 25 – 45 mph during the afternoon and evening. The strongest gusts are predicted for the Antelope Valley and Santa Ynez Range. These high winds, low humidities and abnormally dry fuels will lead to elevated critical fire weather conditions over the mountains and interior valleys.

    From Friday, July 9 through Sunday, July 11, NSW predicts very hot conditions with temperatures ranging between 105˚F – 112˚F in the interior areas and Antelope Valley. Overnight lows will be in the mid to upper 70s in the deserts. Low humidities (5% – 15%) and gusty winds will continue the brief critical fire conditions in the mountains, deserts and inland valleys of this region.

    Employers should take special precautions to prevent heat-related illnesses from occurring. It’s important to provide ample water, provide shade and frequent rest breaks, and ensure supervisors and employees are aware of heat illness symptoms and those that require immediate medical attention. For more information, read “Reduce heat illness risk for employees” on the California avocado growers website.

    To ensure California avocados maintain their superior quality it is imperative growers manage their trees and harvest their fruit according to best management practices as outlined below.

    IRRIGATION
    Growers should be irrigating their trees now, in advance of the heat, to ensure their trees are fully hydrated. It is recommended that an additional 50% of the budgeted amount of water be applied the day before a heat wave. For extended heat waves, daily pulses of irrigation are recommended to maintain the trees’ water status. A well-watered tree will tolerate the stress of a heat wave much better than a tree that is suffering from water stress. Signs of heat damage to trees include fruit drop, shoot damage, leaf burn and in severe cases leaf drop.

    HARVESTING

    Every attempt should be made to harvest fruit when temperatures are below 90 °F, and no harvesting should take place when temperatures exceed 95 °F. Temperature in the shade should be monitored during harvesting and, when possible, harvesting crews should be moved to the coolest, least exposed areas of the grove.

    Field bins should be placed under the trees while being filled to protect the harvested fruit from sunburn. Once filled, bins should be moved to a shade structure (open-sided roofed building), or covered with bin covers or light-colored tarps if they cannot be immediately transported to the packinghouse. Never leave filled bins exposed to the direct sun. The surface layer of fruit can easily heat up to more than 15 °F above ambient temperature when exposed to direct sun. Acute sunburn will only show on fruit after it is packed and is a major quality detractor.

    To avoid water loss and decreased fruit quality do not hold fruit too long after harvest. Transport fruit to the packinghouse at least once per day, if not twice daily. Bins should not be left in the grove for more than 8 hours after harvest. Cover bins during transport to avoid sunburn and to reduce water loss.

    For more information about managing heat in avocado groves, growers can view the following articles on the California avocado growers’ website:

  • Citrus Research Board Awarded $3.4 Million to Fund HLB Research

    The Citrus Research Board (CRB) has been awarded $3,438,059 in funding from the Huanglongbing Multi-Agency Coordination Group (HLB MAC) to support its California Focused Citrus Research and Field Trials (CRaFT).

    The overarching goal of the CRaFT project is to demonstrate additional mitigations to improve psyllid control within commercial citrus groves across the various citrus growing regions in California. This information will inform areawide control efforts and demonstrate the benefits of control mitigation measures currently available to growers for regional, state, and national benefit. This project aims to demonstrate reduced psyllid levels (through trap, tap, and visual monitoring) within treated groves as a year-by-year measurement and relative to the regional psyllid levels.

    “We are excited to develop the first CRaFT project for citrus in California, as this project will bring new energy to the fight against HLB and benefit growers across the state while investing in vital research,” said CRB President Marcy L. Martin.

    A group of 10 industry members will steer the project through the CRaFT Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) in conjunction with the CRB. This combined group will work with industry personnel to recruit growers in various regions to implement innovative psyllid management strategies. Growers who apply and are selected will receive reimbursement for costs associated with participation in the program.

    The project will be administered over two years by the CRB, with the intent to renew. Efforts in year one will include creating a foundation for the program while conducting trap-based monitoring. Data from these measures will be collected and summarized to demonstrate changes in psyllid populations from resulting mitigation measures. Semiannual grower meetings and quarterly CRaFT TAC meetings will be initiated to review project progress and identify any potential project issues.

    Year two will expand on previous efforts to provide data demonstrating changes in psyllid populations from applied mitigation measures. Findings will be summarized and shared with industry members to promote effective treatments.

    The HLB MAC group was established as an emergency response framework to better position the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to coordinate the citrus industry’s immediate and long-term needs in dealing with HLB. HLB MAC funds projects to drive innovative solution-oriented research while delivering effective and practical tools to growers.

    In addition to funding for the California Focused CRaFT project, other programs awarded funding for FY2021 include:

    • $4,061,941 to Texas (CRaFT project)
    • $676,665 to USDA Agricultural Research Service (expand data management tools to support these projects)

    For more information about the California Focused CRaFT Project and HLB MAC, visit www.citrusresearch.org.

    The CRB administers the California Citrus Research Program, the grower-funded and grower directed program established in 1968 under the California Marketing Act as the mechanism enabling the State’s citrus producers to sponsor and support needed research. More information about the Citrus Research Board may be found at www.citrusresearch.org.

  • Balancing Plant Growth and Resilience

    In an international research project, a research group at the Gregor Mendel Institute in Vienna has investigated how plants react to rising temperatures in terms of the two strategies essential for their survival: “growth” and “warding off disease”. Their studies show that heat triggers a broad immune response and stops growth. Awareness of these regulatory mechanisms is becoming increasingly important in the face of climate change.

    All the 300,000 plant species on our planet are confronted with a dilemma: is it preferable to grow or to step up their defences? In order to survive, sessile organisms must coordinate the two strategies skilfully, given that their resources are limited. Both growth and the defence against pathogens cost a great deal of energy, which is why plants can only increase their investment in one if they lower it for the other. In addition, climate change will increase the average global temperature by up to four degrees by 2100. For a hungry humanity this hotter environment becomes a resource issue involving a range of aspects from suitable seeds to declining yields.

    Youssef Belkhadir and his group at the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (GMI) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with Grégory Vert from the Plant Science Research Laboratory at the University of Toulouse (LRSV), have discovered how higher temperatures affect the ability of plants to grow and defend themselves. The project received funding from the Austrian Science Fund FWF and the French National Research Agency ANR.

    If it gets too hot for the thale cress, it reduces its growth and, in turn, ramps up its defenses against pathogens. Source: Kristian Peters/Wikimedia

    Growth weakens with rising temperatures 

    For plants, rising temperatures translate into stress. Not only is there less water available to them, greater heat also engenders demonstrable changes in the composition, density and diversity of the microbes that threaten them. It is a known fact that plants do not grow as well when they have to defend themselves against microorganisms. Brassinosteroids (BRs) have been the subject of research for three decades. BRs are plant hormones that promote growth, but also act as a hub for other signalling pathways that affect stress factors and nutrients. In cooperation with Grégory Vert’s group in Toulouse, the researchers in Vienna have expanded the active research field of “grow-or-defend” to include temperature as a variable. As their model organism the researchers chose the well-researched thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana).

    The research groups exposed seedlings grown in a sterile setting to different situations and stresses under controlled conditions, and then studied the plant material with regard to biochemical, molecular, genome-related and cell biology-related aspects: “Brassinosteroids allow the cell to elongate. When BR is sprayed on, plants grow quickly. We were interested in other molecular agents that help plants decide where to direct their energy,” says principal investigator Belkhadir. This is what the international research teams discovered: if seedlings are kept at 24 to 26 degrees instead of at 21, their root system does not grow as well. “When you increase the temperature, the BR receptor is degraded. Even if there is a lot of steroid present, the plant can no longer ‘see’ the growth hormone,” Belkhadir explains.

    Heat triggers broad immune response

    The researchers have found further receptors that enable the plant to stop growing and, in return, to step up its defence system in a modulated way. In order to render microorganisms harmless, plants generally have two defence strategies. Pathogens on the cell surface are either recognised with an abundance of receptors and trigger a mild but broad immune reaction. In this case, defence substances from the plant’s metabolism reach the cell surface and act against various organisms. The second reaction involves triggering a strong immune response that causes the affected tissue to die. This is the case when receptors find foreign material inside the cell.

    At higher temperatures, the team was able to demonstrate a strong activation of genes of the first defence strategy – even if the environment was still sterile. This is a sensible adaptation mechanism on the part of the plants, since they can expect an increased onslaught and a wide range of pathogens to be waiting outside the laboratory. The fact that root growth is halted at higher temperatures also fits into the scheme of a ramped-up defence against pathogens. Growth means that cell walls are initially thinner, and until they solidify again, pathogens find it easier to breach them. The research results show how, at high temperatures, plants make a choice between growth and defence and thus provide important foundations for biotechnological tools to develop seeds that are better equipped for global warming.

    Personal details

    Youssef Belkhadir studied biochemistry and genomics in Paris and completed his PhD in molecular genetics at the Universities of Paris-Sud (Orsay, France) and North Carolina (Chapel Hill, USA). From 2006 to 2010, he conducted research at the SALK Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla (USA). Since 2014, he has been group leader at the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He was previously the director of the Department of Plant Biotechnology of the Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science and co-founder of Atlas Genomics in Casablanca. The international research project “Temperature-dependent growth and defence regulation” (2018-2022) is funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF.

  • Ben Thomas of Environmental Defense Fund Joins Leading Harvest Board of Directors

    Leading Harvest, a leader in promoting sustainable agriculture through its universalFarmland Management Standard, today announced that Ben Thomas, Senior Policy Director for Agriculture at the Environmental Defense Fund, has joined its Board of Directors. Leading Harvest’s board is composed of three equally represented chambers – economic, environmental, and social; Thomas fills a vacancy in the environmental chamber.

    “Ben Thomas’ background in agriculture, having grown up on a farm in Texas, his work in agricultural policy at both the state and federal levels, along with his passion for conservation and sustainable land management, make him a valuable addition to our Leading Harvest Board of Directors,” said Suzy Friedman, Vice President for Policy for the National Alliance of Forest Owners, a Leading Harvest board member and chair of the Board’s Nominations Committee. “Throughout his career, Ben has brought a collaborative approach to efforts to improve farming practices and achieve measurable, certifiable results. He will be a tremendous asset in advancing Leading Harvest’s mission.”

    At the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Thomas focuses on creating innovative and pragmatic solutions to address environmental risks from agriculture through collaboration with farming stakeholders and policymakers. Prior to joining EDF, Thomas served as the director of the Montana Department of Agriculture. He previously served as deputy undersecretary for Marketing and Regulator Programs at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) during Secretary Tom Vilsack’s first tenure leading the department. As chief of staff for the Farm and Foreign Services mission area at USDA, Thomas focused on implementing changes to farm programs, conservation programs and crop insurance provisions from the 2014 Farm Bill.

    “Growing up on a farm in Texas, I learned early on that it takes more than hard work to get ahead. It also takes innovation, creativity, and teamwork. Leading Harvest’s Farmland Management Standard is bringing all that to farmers around the world, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to help them succeed,” said Thomas. “For too long, farms like the one I grew up on practiced conservation and sustainability, but did not have a common, certifiable standard to measure their operation. Leading Harvest is offering landowners the ability to demonstrate to the marketplace, consumers and the supply chain positive agriculture outcomes we all care about – from clean air and water to healthy soil, to biodiversity and productive relationships with farm workers the communities where we live and operate. This is not just good for the farmer – it is good for the land, environment and food we all share.”

    Leading Harvest provides assurance programs comprised of standards, audit procedures, training and education, and reporting and claim offerings that are optimized for flexibility, scalability, and impact.

    The inaugural Farmland Management Standard is designed by and for stakeholders and their diverse needs, ensuring that it is credible and readily available to everyone across the agricultural landscape and supply chain. The organization also offers ongoing training and education that is rooted in sound sustainability principles, designed to address critical environmental and social issues, and create lasting results in communities.

    In its first year, over 1.2 million acres spanning 29 states and more than 90 crop types were enrolled in Leading Harvest’s Farmland Management Standard.

    About Leading Harvest

    Leading Harvest is a nonprofit organization committed to increasing adoption of sustainability practices in agriculture. It was formally organized in April 2020 by and for all stakeholders across the agricultural value chain—from farmland owners to companies to communities. More information can be found at www.leadingharvest.org.

  • Scientists Serve Up Vaccine Cocktail for Protecting Cattle from Disease

    Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have developed a new experimental vaccine to protect cattle from the bacterium that causes Johne’s disease, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP).

    Johne’s disease, also known as paratuberculosis, is a chronic intestinal disorder that can cause diarrhea, weight loss, poor health and sometimes death in afflicted cattle. In the United States, Johne’s disease is most prevalent in dairy herds, costing the industry more than $220 million annually in losses. The disease also affects other ruminant animals, including sheep, goats and deer.

    Rather than use the cells of live but weakened or dead MAP, as has been done with past commercial vaccine formulations, ARS microbiologists Judy Stabel and John Bannantine set their sights on four proteins from the bacterium, which they discovered from prior research to sequence and characterize its genome (or, genetic makeup).

    In preliminary trials, vaccinating mice with the proteins reduced bacterial colonization of the rodents’ intestinal walls and bacterial shedding in feces, a major route by which other hosts become infected. Cattle, for example, can become infected while grazing pasture where MAP-contaminated manure is located. Calves ingesting colostrum from an infected dam is another route of infection, noted Stabel, who along with Bannantine, is with the ARS National Animal Disease Center’s Infectious Bacterial Diseases Research Unit in Ames, Iowa.

    Encouraged by the results with mice, the researchers scaled-up their efforts, using standard laboratory procedures to produce the four proteins and combine them into a single, recombinant vaccine “cocktail” that could be administered to calves at doses of 200 or 400 micrograms.

    Throughout, the researchers strived to avoid shortcomings of past vaccine formulations that had been developed, including a tendency to trigger blemishes at the site of injection and interference with the accuracy of serological tests used to detect not only MAP, but also another closely related bacterial species that causes bovine tuberculosis.

    Trials with dairy calves, detailed in the April 2021 issue of the journal Vaccine, indicate the vaccine cocktail did not disappoint. In addition to rendering the young animals immune to the disease over the course of a year of monitoring, the formulation showed little to no cross-reactivity with serological tests for both Johne’s disease and bovine tuberculosis. Administering the vaccine cocktail also did not trigger blemishes at the injection site, Stabel reported—a potential benefit for animals raised for their meat and hides.

    The researchers note the need for additional efficacy trials and welcome collaboration with an industry partner to explore the patented vaccine cocktail’s commercial potential further.

    Microbiologist Judy Stabel evaluates the results of the interferon-gamma blood test to diagnose cows infected with M. avium subspecies paratuberculosis (photo by Peggy Greb).

    The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $17 of economic impact.

  • USDA Reminds Producers to File Crop Acreage Reports

    Agricultural producers who have not yet completed their crop acreage reports after planting should make an appointment with their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office before the applicable deadline. July 15 is a major deadline for most crops, but acreage reporting deadlines vary by county and by crop.

    “USDA offers a lot of programs to assist producers, but in order to receive many of these program benefits, you must file an accurate crop acreage report,” said FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux. “Once planting is complete, call your local FSA county office to make an appointment.”

    An acreage report documents a crop grown on a farm or ranch and its intended uses. Filing an accurate and timely acreage report for all crops and land uses, including failed acreage and prevented planted acreage, can prevent the loss of benefits.

    How to File a Report

    Producers can contact their FSA county office for acreage reporting deadlines that are specific to their county.

    Service Center staff continue to work with agricultural producers via phone, email, and other digital tools. Because of the pandemic, some USDA Service Centers are open to limited visitors. Producers should contact their Service Center to set up an in-person or phone appointment.

    To file a crop acreage report, you will need to provide:

    • Crop and crop type or variety.
    • Intended use of the crop.
    • Number of acres of the crop.
    • Map with approximate boundaries for the crop.
    • Planting date(s).
    • Planting pattern, when applicable.
    • Producer shares.
    • Irrigation practice(s).
    • Acreage prevented from planting, when applicable.
    • Other information as required.

    Acreage Reporting Details

    The following exceptions apply to acreage reporting dates:

    • If the crop has not been planted by the acreage reporting date, then the acreage must be reported no later than 15 calendar days after planting is completed.
    • If a producer acquires additional acreage after the acreage reporting date, then the acreage must be reported no later than 30 calendar days after purchase or acquiring the lease. Appropriate documentation must be provided to the county office.

    Producers should also report crop acreage they intended to plant but were unable to because of a natural disaster. Prevented planting acreage must be reported on form CCC-576, Notice of Loss, no later than 15 calendar days after the final planting date as established by FSA and USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA).

    Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) policy holders should note that the acreage reporting date for NAP-covered crops is the earlier of the dates listed above or 15 calendar days before grazing or harvesting of the crop begins.

    More Information

    For questions, producers should call their FSA county office. To find their FSA county office, they should visit farmers.gov/service-center-locator.

  • Study Shows Amygdalin in Almond Nectar can Reduce Viruses & Gut Parasites in Honey Bees

    Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have found that a component in almond nectar and pollen can reduce honey bee viruses and gut parasites, which are some of the leading threats to bee health and colonies.

    The study, published in the journal Insects, showed amygdalin – a naturally-occurring chemical compound found in the nectar and pollen of almond trees – decreased levels of chronic bee paralysis virus, black queen cell virus and deformed wing virus. The bees also showed increased levels of beneficial gut bacteria and lower levels of the gut parasite Lotmaria passim.

    “We have found nectar chemicals can work as an antibiotic in bees, even against important viruses,” said Jay Evans, USDA-ARS research entomologist. “We were interested in amygdalin as a possible inhibitor of bee disease, because it is so important to the diet of honey bees.”

    The bees were fed natural concentrations of amygdalin over a two-month period as part of the study conducted in a bee yard at the Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, MD. In the treatment group, bees received a sugar solution supplemented with dissolved amygdalin from a supplier. The control group just received sugar water.

    The findings showed that amygdalin, which was previously reported to cause malaise in bees when fed sugar syrup, did not cause any negative effects to bee behavior.

    Amygdalin is not only found in the nectar and pollen of almond trees, but in a variety of other crops, such as cherries, nectarines and apples. During almond pollination season, western honey bees inevitably consume the natural compound since almond crops are almost exclusively pollinated by honey bees.

    The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $17 of economic impact.

  • Dairy Industry Urges Renewal of Trade Promotion Authority

    To foster further expansion of U.S. dairy exports, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) called upon the Biden Administration to seek renewal of Presidential Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) following its expiration today.

    TPA lays out congressional expectations for trade agreements negotiated by the Administration and establishes a clear pathway for straightforward congressional input. To remain globally competitive, future trade agreements are vital for U.S. dairy farmers, workers, and manufacturers.

    The call for renewal comes on the one-year anniversary of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), enacted with the help of TPA. For dairy, USMCA provisions established improvements to market access in Canada and set clear standards for trade with Mexico.

    USMCA also established procedures to enforce the agreement. In May, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai initiated a dispute settlement proceeding over Canada’s administration of dairy tariff rate quotas (TRQs) in order to preserve the market access expansion negotiated in the agreement. The U.S. dairy industry continues to monitor implementation of other key USMCA areas as well such as Canada’s Class 7 disciplines on dairy exports and Mexico’s trade-distorting regulatory proposals.

    “As we celebrate the one-year anniversary of USMCA today, it’s heartening that the Biden Administration has already sent a signal to our trading partners that its terms must be upheld by launching a dispute settlement case to defend U.S. dairy market access rights in Canada,” said Jim Mulhern, President and CEO of NMPF.

    “If properly implemented, USMCA is a positive step in the right direction. But it is not enough alone for U.S. dairy farmers and cooperatives to keep pace in global markets. By standing still, we slip further backward as competitors in Europe and New Zealand advance their own trade agreements with key markets. A forward-leaning trade agenda focused on expanding export opportunities for Made-in-America products is critical to dairy farmers. TPA is a vital tool in that process.”

    USDEC President and CEO Krysta Harden also stressed the importance of TPA for exports.

    “Foreign markets are crucial to the health and prosperity of America’s dairy farmers and processors,” said Harden. “One in six gallons of U.S. milk is destined for export, meaning that our ability to retain foreign customers in an increasingly competitive global dairy market is absolutely essential to farmers and dairy manufacturing facilities employing workers here at home.

    “To accomplish that, we need to catch up with trading partners who have been speeding ahead with trade deals that give them a leg up over us in foreign markets. USMCA is an example of how TPA can help the U.S. expand trade opportunities, but that is only one advancement among many that are needed,” Harden continued. “Renewing our commitment to the global community and restoring American leadership starts with renewing TPA, so that U.S. dairy can realize new opportunities in places such as southeast Asia, Africa, South America and the UK.”

    In comments to the U.S. International Trade Commission last year, NMPF and USDEC note that free trade agreements yield significant benefits for dairy farmers and manufacturers alike. Free Trade Agreements have increased U.S. dairy exports by $2.14 billion and the equivalent of 1.4 billion gallons of milk translating to $17 billion in additional dairy farmer revenue.

    The National Milk Producers Federation, based in Arlington, VA, develops and carries out policies that advance dairy producers and the cooperatives they own. NMPF’s member cooperatives produce more than two-thirds of U.S. milk, making NMPF dairy’s voice on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. For more, visit www.nmpf.org.

    The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) is a non-profit, independent membership organization that represents the global trade interests of U.S. dairy producers, proprietary processors and cooperatives, ingredient suppliers and export traders. Its mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and assist the U.S. industry to increase its global dairy ingredient sales and exports of U.S. dairy products.