Ag News: Senate Grills USDA-USTR
**Senate Ag members grilled high-ranking leaders of USDA and the U.S. Trade Representative at last week’s hearing over the Trump administration's trade policies and the resulting harm to farmers from retaliatory tariffs.
According to agrimarketine.com, topics included rejoining the 11-member Trans-Pacific Partnership while many stressed trade talks between the U.S. and E.U. must include agriculture.
Another major issue was ending Canada’s Class 7 milk pricing program that U.S. officials say has dried up demand for U.S. milk protein and encouraged Canada to dump its excess on the world market in violation of international trade rules.
**The recent discovery in an Egyptian tomb of a 3,000-year-old cheese contaminated with Brucella Melitensis provided historic evidence of a disease still endemic across much of the developing world.
According to agwired.com, it’s a challenge the $30-million Brucellosis Vaccine Prize competition is seeking to address. The competition is open to new applications from animal health innovators via the competition website www.brucellosisvaccine.org.
**Western Governors are seeking Congressional support for western ag interests like land management, conservation, grazing, and broadband in the Farm Bill.
In an August letter to House and Senate leadership, governors express their “support for provisions addressing the special concerns of western states, which possess unique perspectives,” and commended them for reconciling their versions of the legislation as they work on a final agreement.
The letter included a side-by-side summary of House and Senate provisions and relevant policy of the Western Governors.