Ag News: Oregon Trade Mission to China
**A group of Oregon food and drink producers recently returned from a trade mission in China.
Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Alexis Taylor says the mission had very specific goals like helping to connect Oregon food and beverage businesses interested in exporting products to China.
Thanks to proposed tariffs, concerns are growing over a potential trade war between the two nations. Taylor says the threat of proposed tariffs and potential trade war made the trade mission even more important than when it was planned a year ago.
**The USDA’s Ag Marketing Service is set to terminate rulemaking for the organic checkoff, stopping a process that officially began nearly three years ago.
As reported on Agri-Pulse, the order came by way of a Federal Register notice, and termination becomes effective today.
In the notice, AMS cited “uncertain industry support” and “outstanding substantive issues with the proposed program” as its reasons for termination.
**Changes to the Margin Protection Program for dairy will ease costs of the program for dairy farmers, but the National Milk Producers Federation says a dairy supply management program is not likely in the near future.
Jim Mulhern of NMPF says Washington, D.C. is not supportive of any such program and a 2014 proposal was not supported, either.
Meanwhile, the enrollment period for the new Margin Protection Program, updated by Congress earlier this year, ends June first.