Agriculture News From the Georgia Farm Radio Network Newsroom
last updated Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 10:56 am
USDA DESIGNATES GEORGIA COUNTIES AS DISASTER AREAS
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 98 counties in Georgia as primary natural disaster areas due to excessive rainfall that occurred from September 2009, and continuing.
The counties are: Atkinson, Decatur, Heard, Monroe, Tattnall, Bacon, Dodge, Henry, Montgomery, Taylor, Baker, Dooly, Houston, Muscogee, Telfair, Baldwin, Dougherty, Irwin, Newton, Thomas, Banks, Early, Jackson, Oglethorpe, Toombs, Ben Hill, Echols, Jeff Davis, Peach, Towns, Bibb, Effingham, Jefferson, Pickens, Treutlen, Bleckley, Elbert, Jenkins, Pierce, Troup, Brantley, Emanuel, Johnson, Pike, Turner, Bryan, Evans, Jones, Polk, Twiggs, Bulloch, Fannin, Lamar, Pulaski, Union, Burke, Floyd, Lanier, Putnam, Upson, Calhoun, Franklin, Laurens, Schley, Ware, Chatham, Fulton, Lee, Screven, Washington, Chattahoochee, Gilmer, Lowndes, Seminole, Wayne, Clinch, Glascock, Macon, Spalding, Webster, Colquitt, Grady, Madison, Stewart, Wheeler, Coweta, Haralson, Marion, Sumter, Wilkinson, Crisp, Harris, Meriwether, Talbot, Worth, Dade, Hart and Mitchell.
"President Obama and I understand these conditions caused severe damage to the area and serious harm to farms in Georgia and we want to help,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This action will provide help to hundreds of farmers who suffered significant production losses to a wide variety of crops.”
Farmers in the 98 Georgia counties suffered losses due to excessive rainfall that has occurred from September 2009 to the present. There were losses to field crops such as corn, cotton, millet, peanuts, sorghum, soybeans, pasture and forage, as well as fruit, vegetable, and nut crops, such as beans, collard and turnip greens, cowpeas, pecans, peppers, pumpkins, squash, strawberries, tomatoes, and nursery crops.
Farmers in the following counties in Georgia also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous: Appling, Clarke, Glynn, McDuffie, Rockdale, Barrow, Clay, Gordon, McIntosh, Stephens, Bartow, Clayton, Greene, Miller, Taliaferro, Berrien, Cobb, Gwinnett, Morgan, Terrell, Brooks, Coffee, Habersham, Murray, Tift, Butts, Cook, Hall, Oconee, Walker, Camden, Crawford, Hancock, Paulding, Walton, Candler, Dawson, Jasper, Quitman, Warren, Carroll, De Kalb, Liberty, Rabun, White, Charlton, Douglas, Lincoln, Randolph, Wilcox, Chattooga, Fayette, Long, Richmond, Wilkes, Cherokee, Forsyth and Lumpkin.
All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas March 2, 2010, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. FSA has a variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.
USDA also has made other programs available to assist farmers and ranchers, including the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE), which was approved as part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008; the Emergency Conservation Program; Federal Crop Insurance; and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. Interested farmers may contact their local USDA Service Centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available online at disaster.fsa.usda.gov.
U.S. BIOFUELS INDUSTRY HURT IF TAX CREDITS EXPIRE
U.S. fuel ethanol and biodiesel production would be cut by 10 percent if Congress allows biofuel tax credits to expire this year, and corn and soybean prices would fall by 15 cents a bushel, predicts the University of Missouri-based Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI).
One-third of the corn crop is used to make fuel ethanol and about 11 percent of U.S. soybean oil is used for biodiesel. Fuel ethanol producers such as Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM.N), POET and Valero Renewable Fuels (VLO.N) -- the three largest distillers -- would be affected too.
The ethanol tax credit of 45 cents a gallon and a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on ethanol imports are scheduled to expire at the end of this year. The $1-a-gallon biodiesel tax credit died at the start of the year but would be revived for 2010 in a bill pending in the Senate. Without the tax breaks, said FAPRI, ethanol and biodiesel production will track the usage levels mandated by a 2007 energy law. It guarantees annual use of 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol beginning in 2015 and 1 billion gallons of biodiesel starting in 2012.
FAPRI said ethanol production would fall by 1.5 billion gallons a year lower, a 10 percent drop, without the tax breaks. Imports also would surge. Biodiesel production would run roughly 10 percent lower without the tax breaks, or about 100 million gallons a year in 2012 to 2014, said FAPRI.
For each fuel, said the think tank, there would be less incentive to produce more than the volume guaranteed for use.
"We will be looking for a long-term extension so that investors can invest in the industry (all feedstocks included) with some confidence," said Matt Hartwig of the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group. Hartwig said smaller U.S. production would mean "a loss of jobs, a loss of tax revenue and increase reliance on imports."
A spokesman for Growth Energy, an ethanol trade group, said the tax credit "provides value to the consumer in the form of lower gas prices" and should be extended. Biofuels are popular in farm country as a home-grown fuel and an additional source of income. Environmental groups say biofuels encourage overuse of farm chemicals and drive up food prices.
LINCOLN - CHAMBLISS RESPONSE TO BRAZIL COTTON RETALIATION EFFORTS
U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), and Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), have expressed disappointment after Brazil announced it is moving forward on retaliation for injuries due to the U.S. cotton program and the export credit guarantee program (GSM-102). The retaliation list totals 102 products including both agricultural and industrial goods. Brazil is expected to follow up this action with an additional announcement of “cross retaliation” action against U.S. intellectual property later this month.
“It is unfortunate Brazil is moving forward with retaliation without first engaging in meaningful discussions towards resolving the dispute,” said Lincoln and Chambliss. “The U.S. government continues to express its willingness to have a substantive dialogue and negotiators from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and U.S. Department of Agriculture are waiting for Brazil to start the process. We cannot negotiate with a partner that is unwilling to voice what it wants. To be clear, we have been assured by the administration that U.S. officials attending the upcoming U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum are not carrying a proposal. We believe that doing so would only encourage a process where we end up negotiating with ourselves. Changes to both the cotton and GSM programs can only be done by Congress with the support of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees.”
The Congress has made changes to both the GSM and cotton programs as a result of the case. In 2005, the Congress eliminated the Step 2 program and lowered the counter cyclical program target price and loan program in the 2008 farm bill. Although Brazil’s original motivation for filing the case was to attack U.S. cotton programs, the arbitration panel’s decision placed the bulk of the retaliatory award on the operation of the GSM program. Retaliation authority granted for the cotton component of the case is only $147 million.
The Senators said, “We believe that resolving the dispute will require earnest discussions and a recognition regarding the relative roles of the GSM and cotton programs and the state of the international cotton market. U.S. cotton programs are not having a significant impact on world cotton prices.”
There has been a 40 percent decline in U.S. cotton acreage since 2005 and a 45 percent decline in cotton production. There has been an 8 percentage-point decrease in world cotton market share attributable to the U.S., the lowest since 1983.
“While Brazil has chosen to exercise its rights, its future actions will determine the degree to which the administration and the Congress are willing to move forward together in resolving the dispute and others in the World Trade Organization,” said Lincoln and Chambliss. “This case is an opportunity for Brazil to demonstrate its newly embraced role in the international arena consistent with its emergence as an advanced developing economy. Additionally, Brazil’s actions in the case will be a unique and helpful indicator whether it is time to reconsider benefits it receives from U.S. trade preference programs.”
CHINA MAY SOON REOPEN DOOR TO U.S. PORK
China may soon reopen to US pork, exporters believe, a concession which would represent a second breakthrough for America's recovering meat sector, according to a report at agrimoney.com.
Beijing officials are poised to meet a US Department of Agriculture delegation to discuss the smallprint of resuming trade, which has been banned since April over fears of the spread of H1N1 virus, or so-called "swine flu".
"There's a delegation of USDA folks that will be in China and we're expecting this [clearance] to come very soon," Phil Seng, chief executive of the US Meat Export Federation, said. "We're looking at the USDA being there in the next week."
The comments follow Russia's agreement to reopen to US pork imports, which were again blocked by H1N1 concerns, although supplies will have to come from plants which meet new criteria on antibiotic residues.
"Reopening the market with Russia is excellent news for American hog producers," Tom Vilsack, US agriculture secretary, said. "Exports are extremely important to the US pork industry."
Russia has historically been the fourth-biggest US pork export market, with China, including Hong Kong, ranked second equal with Mexico, according to the US Meat Export Federation.
Hopes for a deal have helped maintain a revival in pork belly prices, which have more than doubled in Chicago since August, including a rise of more than 15% over the last month. Prices of lean hogs have also staged a revival, adding 9% in the last month amid growing hopes for both domestic and export demand.
For the latest futures prices on hogs, and other livestock and food crops, visit our Market News Website.
AG SECRETARY: BUILDING ARICULTURAL TRADE BUILDS RURAL AMERICA
Agricultural trade is a success story; we have a $22.5 billion surplus, says Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsackaccording to Corn And Soybean Digest website.
“It is a vital tool, not only to restore the American economy, but also to revitalize rural communities,” he says. Speaking at the 2010 Commodity Classic meeting in Anaheim, CA, he adds, “It is extremely important for the entire country to understand why trade agreements are important, why the renewable fuel industry is important and why farm programs are important.
“It’s no longer an issue of just knocking down trade barriers. It depends on which country we’re talking about and where they lie on the market continuum.
“One size doesn’t fit all in developing agricultural trade with various countries,” Vilsack says. He divides potential trade partners into categories reflecting their level of development and infrastructure, rate of economic growth, openness to biotechnology and maturity of market. For example, a mature market requires technical expertise to overcome resistance to issues like biotechnology or sanitary issues “not aligned with science, so that we have a fair and open system,” he explains.
A mature, very competitive market such as Japan “calls for funding our cooperator program to help create confidence in the American brand. Add to that a refocus on biotechnology, using additional resources and advocacy to obtain an overall effort consistent with the president’s export initiative, which we think will break down barriers and build trade,” says Vilsack.
Opening doors to biotech will require “articulating more forcefully for the benefits of biotech,” he says. “Science and biotech are an answer to meeting the food and resource demands of a growing population.
“We need to build relationships with international organizations. For example, a biotech initiative with Canada and Mexico will promote a consistent strategy, along with scientific exchanges, farmer-to-farmer programs that encourage others to give this technology a try and see the benefits for themselves.”
Building exports was just one reference to Vilsack’s broader theme of rebuilding rural America. Other revitalization tools – broad-based support for biofuels across many geographies and many feedstocks and broadband access in smaller communities – “are just a few of the tools that will not only build rural communities, but preserve the values of our country that are rooted in these communities,” Vilsack says.
PROPOSED UGA BUDGET CUTS HIT 4-H, EXTENSION & AG RESEARCH HARD
All Georgia 4-H programs would be eliminated and half of the Cooperative Extension county offices would be closed under a Board of Regents proposal to cut an additional $300 million from the University System of Georgia’s FY 2011 budget as requested by state legislators.
The plan also calls for closing the C.M. Stripling Irrigation Research Park in Camilla, closing the Vidalia Onion and Vegetable Research Center in Reidsville, closing the Attapulgus Research Farm, closing the Georgia Mountain Research Center in Blairsville, closing all 4-H facilities across the state and reducing state support for the UGA Veterinary teaching hospital. The cuts would eliminate116 4-H staff positions and 169 Extension staff positions.
“Georgia Farm Bureau’s policy supports full funding of the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, the Agricultural Research Stations and the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences,” GFB President Zippy Duvall said. “We’re alarmed by the possibility of these cuts and are talking with officials at the College of Agriculture and state legislators to address preventing these cuts.”
During a joint meeting of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Higher Education Feb. 24, legislators asked the Georgia Board of Regents to cut an additional $300 million from the University System of Georgia’s FY 2011 budget beyond the $245 million Gov. Perdue cut in his proposed budget. University System of Georgia Chancellor Erroll Davis asked the 35 presidents in the University System to produce a list of budget cuts to meet the request. UGA’s portion of the cuts totals $58.9 million, including $11.66 million in cuts to Extension programs and $816,00 in cuts to the CAES research budget. Proposed cuts to the CAES budget total $14.4 million. Visit this link to see the entire proposed budget cut document.
“We’ve got to make some cuts, but the proposal by the chancellor and the president of the University of Georgia on some of the cuts they’ve proposed are just outrageous,” Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Bulloch said. “ It may be that the University System has to look at increasing tuition costs because of the cuts we may have to impose on them, but all of those things are still on table. We won’t be eliminating 4-H. We won’t be eliminating the Cooperative Extension Service or the research stations.”
CAES Dean Scott Angle also voiced concern for the proposed cuts saying, “I hope these proposed reductions can either be restricted or eliminated. Agriculture is Georgia’s largest industry and the college has played a vital role in the success of this great industry.”
BRAZIL MOVES CLOSER TO SHOWDOWN OVER U.S. COTTON SUBSIDIES
Brazil says it is prepared to take another step towards a final showdown with the US in its long-running battle over cotton subsidies when it releases a list of about 50 American products it will punish with higher tariffs, the Financial Times is reporting.
Last year, Brazil won an eight-year long battle at the World Trade Organization against the US after arguing that its cotton producers had been unfairly hurt by illegal subsidies to US cotton farmers. Brazil has already published a preliminary list of more than 200 US products on which it may raise tariffs as a result of the WTO victory, from sardines and cherries to shampoo and sunglasses to medical equipment, as well as cotton itself.
Brazil is expected to announce a final, narrower list of 50 products - worth about $560m (€411m, £370bn) in total - that are listed for punishment. Those retaliatory measures will take effect in April. In addition, Brazil is expected this month to lay out its plans to impose a further $270m in penalties on the US through so-called "cross-retaliation", which involves a tightening of non-tariff trade restrictions. Such a move, which is only rarely authorized by the WTO, would allow Brazil to take action over intellectual property rights, breaking patents in key sectors such as technology and pharmaceuticals.
When Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State, visited Brazil last week, much of the attention was focused on the disagreement between the two countries over imposing sanctions against Iran.
But in a sign that a deal over the cotton dispute was becoming urgent, Mrs Clinton said she would dispatch two high-level officials to Brazil to discuss what further concessions the US could make in order to avoid retaliation. "There is time for us to resolve this in a peaceful and productive way without any further action," Mrs Clinton said.
The US measures attacked by Brazil in the WTO case involve direct subsidies to cotton farmers to protect them from price fluctuations in the global market as well as a loan guarantee program designed to bolster credit for international buyers of American cotton.
The programs have already been modified during the course of the trade dispute and it remained unclear what the terms of a new deal would be. Large-scale changes to US cotton subsidies would probably involve modifications to agricultural legislation - a difficult request to Congress in a very tough US political climate.
The US is the world's largest exporter of cotton, with Texas and Georgia being the biggest producers.
U.S., RUSSIA AGREE ON REOPENING RUSSIAN PORK MARKET
U.S. and Russian officials have reached an agreement to reopen the Russian market to U.S. pork and pork products. Russia was the fifth-largest export market for U.S. pork last year. The U.S. exported nearly 20 percent of total pork production in 2009. Russia was the fifth-largest export market for U.S. pork last year, importing $257 million worth (6 percent) of U.S. pork and pork variety meat exports.
The Agriculture Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative have been in negotiations with the Russian Veterinary Service since December 2009 when Russia notified USDA of its intent to restrict pork shipments from 13 U.S. pork plants, which accounted for more than 90 percent of U.S. pork exports to Russia. These negotiations led to the development of a new veterinary certificate to ensure that pork exports from the United States meet specific Russian microbiological and tetracycline-group antibiotic residue requirements.
The next step is for U.S. plants interested in exporting to Russia to apply for approval with the Agricultural Marketing Service. AMS, in collaboration with the Food Safety and Inspection Service, has developed an Export Verification program for pork to Russia to address specific product requirements.
A U.S. delegation led by Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services James Miller and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Agricultural Affairs Jim Murphy has been meeting with Russian officials in Moscow to discuss trade issues related to pork and poultry. They say talks on poultry have been constructive and technical discussions will continue in the coming weeks.
U.S. POULTRY INDUSTRY HIT HARD BY CHINESE TARIFFS
On the heels of a Russian import ban of U.S. chicken that went into effect Jan. 1, China’s tariffs on American poultry imports is having a profound impact on the U.S. poultry industry.
China is the second-largest importer of U.S. chicken behind Russia, which in January banned imports of chlorine-rinsed poultry, which applies to nearly all poultry produced in the United States. China instituted a system of anti-dumping tariffs on U.S. chicken imports effective Feb. 13. Some companies are being charged tariffs as high as 105.4 percent of the product value, and industry analysts say the overall effect is to exclude U.S. chicken from the Chinese market place.
The tariffs vary by company. Tyson Foods is being charged a tariff of 43.1 percent, Keystone Foods 44 percent and Pilgrim’s Pride 80.5 percent. These rates are in addition to normal customs duties and value-added tax. Tyson, Keystone and Pilgrim’s Pride each were named in the initial investigation by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and agreed to provide financial records for that investigation. An additional 32 companies registered with MOFCOM and they were all assigned tariff rates of 64.5 percent. Companies that did not register with MOFCOM will be charged 105.4 percent. Trading companies are required to pay the duty rate assigned to their suppliers.
Sanderson Farms, which falls into the 64.5 percent tariff category, is appealing the duty, and the USA Poultry and Egg Council (USAPEEC) is protesting on behalf of the industry, arguing that U.S. export practices do not constitute dumping.
U.S. poultry producers exported nearly $650 million worth of chicken to China in 2009, more than half in chicken feet, which can sell for between 60 and 80 cents per pound there. In the wake of the tariffs, USAPEEC said some U.S. companies have ceased production of chicken feet, which hold little or no value in U.S. markets.
MOFCOM conducted an investigation into trade practices last fall and concluded that the U.S. poultry was being sold at unfairly low prices. MOFCOM further concluded that these practices caused economic harm to Chinese chicken producers.
GFB LEADERS DISCUSS BIOTECH FEES WITH GOVERNOR PERDUE
GFB President Zippy Duvall and GFB Cotton Advisory Committee Chairman Michael Williams recently met with Gov. Sonny Perdue to discuss farmers’ concerns about seed biotechnology fees. During the Feb. 23 meeting, Duvall and Williams stressed the positive aspects of genetically modified seeds that have been altered to tolerate herbicides and resist insects.
“Our farmers have embraced this technology,” Duvall said, “It’s good for farmers, consumers and the environment.”
Duvall and Williams explained that biotechnology allows farmers to use fewer chemicals in growing their crops and allows farmers to use conservation tillage, which prevents soil erosion and preserves soil moisture. They explained that Farm Bureau’s concern is that Georgia cotton farmers pay more for biotech fees than farmers in other states.
“We don’t think that’s fair,” Duvall said.
Duvall and Williams also talked to the governor about the problems farmers are having with glyphosate resistant pigweed.
“The insect side of the technology still works pretty well, but the glyphosate side is not as valuable as it once was,” said Williams.
Farm Bureau maintains that seed companies should price biotechnology fees uniformly regardless of where the seed is grown and should reimburse growers when the value of the technology is diminished.
Click here to watch video from the Georgia Farm Monitor
