**USDA is putting a hold on regulations in the National School Lunch Program requiring less salt and more whole grains in cafeterias.

At an elementary school in Leesburg, Virginia, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue also said USDA will lift restrictions to allow schools to serve flavored, 1 percent milk instead of the non-fat now required by law.

Perdue stressed he’s not rolling back any provisions of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act enacted in 2010 and required a gradual increase of nutritional standards, including the reduction of sodium and increase of whole grain products in foods served at schools.

**FFA students from across the country used a teleconference to ask the new Ag Secretary about important ag issues Monday.

FFA members from schools in Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Virginia were prepared with serious questions for Perdue about the future of agriculture, transportation infrastructure including the lock and dam system, foreign trade, and conservation programs.

Purdue also challenged FFA members to make reducing food waste a national project, and encouraged them to spread the positive message of agriculture to American consumers.

**Brazil’s Agriculture Minister wants that country’s foreign trade council to impose tariffs on ethanol imports from the U.S. A jump of more than 500 percent in U.S. ethanol exports to Brazil resulted in the call for tariffs ranging from 16 to 20 percent.

Brazil mandates 27 percent ethanol blends in gasoline, so the output decline has ethanol providers short on supplies.

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