NCBA Unhappy with WOTUS and USDA Approves Honeybee Vaccine

**The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association responded to the newly Published Waters of the U.S. Rule, saying farmers and ranchers have dealt with the whiplash of shifting WOTUS definitions for far too long.

NCBA Chief Counsel Mary-Thomas Hart says, “While the new rule retains longstanding exclusions, it still creates new uncertainty.

Hart says the timing couldn’t be worse as the Supreme Court considers a case that should provide much-needed clarity to the WOTUS definition.

**The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization’s Food Price Index dropped in December, but 2022 food prices were 18% higher than in 2021.

The December index averaged 132.4 points, 2.6 points below November, the ninth-straight monthly decline, driven by a steep decline in the international vegetable oil and declining cereal and meat prices.

For 2022, the index averaged 143.7 points, 14.3% higher than the year before.

**The USDA granted a conditional license for a vaccine to protect the country’s honeybees from foulbrood disease.

Earth.com says the bacterial infection weakens and kills honeybee colonies and has no treatment.

The vaccine was developed by Dalan Animal Health and brings hope for a weapon against a disease that regularly ravages colonies highly important to food pollination.

The vaccine incorporates some of the bacteria into the royal jelly fed to the queen by worker bees.