🇺🇲📃 Yep, we're talking to you! The House Committee on Agriculture wants your input on the next farm bill! An online portal is available for public feedback, as Committee leaders believe this tool will allow members to better share the experiences and priorities of agriculture producers and consumers in order to craft a comprehensive and effective farm bill.

     • The questions are about location and occupation, which farm bill title is most interesting and which programs are performing well, a...

♻️🥩 Not of pork, but greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production! The sector generates 10% to 12% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions – if we account for the food system as a whole, that number jumps to around 33%. So the message from the US climate envoy John Kerry, at the AIM for Climate Summit in Washington, was that agriculture is crucial in the global fight against climate change and as such, should be the protagonist.

     • The AIM for Climate Summit in Washington is a...

🇨🇳 China, the world's top soybean buyer, saw its April imports of soybeans fall by 10% from a year ago after stricter customs checks delayed cargoes for up to two weeks and resulted in lower imports than expected.

     • Chinese customs set a requirement for traders to wait for the results of quarantine checks before delivering their soybeans, so they're held at customs warehouses until the permit is granted.

🧑‍🌾 There's more to the issue, though. While costs have risen, soybean demand is fall...

🇺🇲🇷🇴 In you go! That's right: after reviewing the country's documentation of its food safety inspection system and conducting an onsite verification audit, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service reinstated Romania's eligibility to export to the US its ready-to-eat and thermally processed/commercially sterile pork products from certified Romanian establishments. The condition is that the country meets all USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) import requirements.

     • ...

🦠🇮🇩 Indonesia has reported an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) on a farm in the Riau Islands near Singapore, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). While the outbreak killed 35,297 pigs, the source of the Indonesian outbreak remains unknown – but vets suspect that humans, vehicles, feed, flies, and wild boar may have played a role in the introduction on the farm.

     • Click here for more on the Indonesian outbreak.

🦠 The ongoing spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, along with the recognition of Hungary’s progress in eliminating the infection are all highlights of the latest Swine Health Information Center’s (SHIC) global swine disease surveillance report. 

🌐 While another outbreak has been registered in Greece, Hungary is asking the EU to lift some restrictions (not necessarily call the country negative, but to decrease the restrictions). Australia remains on high aler...

🇺🇲💰 A Senate Ag subcommittee heard from agricultural bankers last week. The result? Consensus: everybody agrees that crop insurance programs often make a huge difference when it comes to farmers staying in business and providing stability to the wider rural business landscape.

     • Insurance industry representatives called on increased administrative reimbursements, lenders agreed on the need of boosting the lending limits of USDA-guaranteed loans, and bankers predicted that the increased int...