NIFA Invests Over $5.4M in Biobased Products Research

The Department of Agriculture Wednesday announced $5.4 million in bioprocessing, bioengineering, biofuels and biobased products research investments through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. NIFA recently awarded $4.8 million for 12 Bioprocessing and Bioengineering grants under NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, and more than $600,000 for six Biofuels and Biobased Products grants under NIFA’s Small Business Innovation Research program. NIFA  =director Dr. Carrie Castille states, "NIFA’s Bioprocessing and Bioengineering awards fund projects that will stimulate new trade opportunities for the U.S. bioeconomy.” For example, the University of Idaho received nearly $330,000 for a project to develop an environmentally friendly approach for wood protection. Other projects include exploring the use of pennycress, a non-edible oil, in developing biodegradable plastic, and a bio-based extended-release insect repellent. The next Phase 1 request for Small Business Innovation Research applications is scheduled to open in July 2021, with an October 2021 deadline. Learn more online at www.nifa.usda.gov.

Washington Insider: Still Waiting on More Dairy Aid

The dairy sector and lawmakers representing key dairy states have been pushing for more financial help for dairy producers in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

Dairy producers and others have complained that they did not see as much benefit from the pandemic aid efforts like the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2 (CFAP 2) which paid out more than $1.2 billion to dairy producers and the CFAP 1 effort saw payments of $1.8 billion.

Plus, the dairy sector saw a big rise in prices via the Farmers to Families Food Box Program. That effort surprised markets and sent Class I milk prices shooting higher as the industry grappled with the sudden rise in demand from the government effort that resulted in fresh dairy products being sent out to recipients.

But the Food Box Program has since ended, with USDA pledging to put the “best of” from the Food Box effort into other established food and nutrition efforts. And they have announced help will be available to set up storage for fresh products that could be included in those food and nutrition efforts.

USDA on June 15 acknowledged that not all sectors or producers had shared in pandemic aid equally, as a portion of the aid announced was aimed at “filling gaps in previous rounds of assistance and helping beginning, socially disadvantaged and small and medium sized producers that need support most.” USDA said the efforts it announced that day would be coming over the next 60 days.

And dairy figured into that mix. USDA in April announced it would be moving ahead with a new Dairy Donation Program (DDP), an effort to “address food insecurity and mitigate food waste and loss.” The June 15 announcement from USDA said that $400 million would be earmarked for that effort. But the program is not yet ready to roll. USDA only on June 9 sent the DDP proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for their review. That review could take up to 90 day, but odds are USDA is expecting that will not be the case. So that effort will likely be fully launched days after OMB finishes their review of the program.

USDA also said that there would be $580 million in Supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) payments made to small and medium farms. But there too, additional regulations are expected to be needed in order to make those dollars available. And as of June 30, USDA had not sent those regulations over to OMB for their review.

As the announcement was made that President Joe Biden and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack would go to Wisconsin this week, expectations rose for there to be some kind of dairy announcement. With the DDP regs still at OMB and the apparently needed regs to make additional DMC payments yet to go to OMB, odds rose that some other aid effort was going to be announced.

That set off a flurry of activity in Washington, with indications that a program of direct payments to dairy producers in the range of $750 million to $1 billion was on tap. As last week wore on, the dollar amount appeared to be the major uncertainty, with all eyes focused on June 29, the day of the Biden/Vilsack Wisconsin visit.

The extra payments appeared to be under the scope of what USDA announced June 15 -- “Additional pandemic payments targeted to dairy farmers that have demonstrated losses that have not been covered by previous pandemic assistance.” That was a rather general description which appeared to a description of the direct aid that was being worked on to be announced in Wisconsin.

But all that changed late in the week. The White House was sending signals that the Wisconsin trip focused mostly or entirely on infrastructure. Seems the White House was eyeing that as part of their damage control after the dust up that arose after the announcement last week that saw Biden imply that if Congress only sent him the bipartisan infrastructure package, he would veto it.

That set the White House scurrying to walk back those remarks and make clear at least from their perspective, or officially, there was no linkage.

So when Tuesday rolled around, there was no clear signal of a dairy program that would be announced. And to boot, Vilsack did not even make the trip.

So we will see. Clearly there will be more aid flowing to dairy producers, but it may take time for a chunk of those dollars to move and the process for getting the payment effort readied needs to be closely monitored, Washington Insider believes.

USDA Sends Final Rule to OMB On Non-Cattle Imports And BSE

USDA has sent forward a final rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review that would revise rules for imports of sheep, goats, and other non-cattle ruminants and their products with regard to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

The rule would remove BSE-related import restrictions on sheep, goats and most of their products and add import restrictions relative to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) for certain wild, zoological or other non-cattle species.

The rule would align U.S. import conditions with internationally accepted rules from the World Organization for Animal Health's Terrestrial Animal Health Code. USDA aims to publish the final rule in August.

Three Biofuel-Related Bills Coming

Biofuel-backing senators will introduce three pieces of legislation aimed at bolstering the sector, including efforts to expand higher biofuel blends, provide tax incentives for flex fuel vehicles and establish a tax credit higher blends of ethanol.

The first effort would appropriate $100 million annually in Fiscal Years (FYs) 2021 through 2030 for efforts to update fueling dispensers and storage tanks for higher biofuel blends, with 75% cost share for new pumps to dispense higher ethanol blends, 50% for higher biodiesel blends, and 40% of the cost to update tanks.

Another measure would establish a $200-per-vehicle tax credit for flex-fuel vehicles.

The low-carbon fuel tax credit would provide 5 cents per gallon for E15 and 10 cents per gallon for blends over 15% ethanol.

There already has been a push by some lawmakers to include biofuel efforts in any infrastructure package, and it would seem these pieces of legislation are being offered potentially with that goal in mind. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, are co-authors of the first two pieces of legislation with Klobuchar and John Thune, R-S.D., teaming up on the low-carbon fuel tax credit bill.

Thursday Watch List

Markets

USDA's weekly export sales are due out at 7:30 a.m. CDT, along with weekly U.S. jobless claims and an update of the U.S. Drought Monitor. ISM's index of U.S. manufacturing is out at 9 a.m., followed by natural gas inventories at 9:30 a.m. Traders will likely still be considering Wednesday's USDA reports and keeping a close watch on the latest weather forecasts.

Weather

Moderate to heavy rain is in store Thursday from the Ohio Valley to the Texas Panhandle. Flood threat is high. Other primary crop areas will be dry with very warm to hot conditions. Heat bulletins cover much of the northern Plains, interior Northwest and Canadian Prairies.

July 4th Cookout Cost Stable Compared to Year Ago

U.S. consumers will pay just a few cents less for their favorite Independence Day cookout foods compared to last year, including cheeseburgers, pork chops, chicken breasts, homemade potato salad, strawberries and ice cream. The American Farm Bureau Federation reveals the average cost of a summer cookout for ten people remains affordable at $59.50, or less than $6 per person. The cost for the cookout is down 16 cents, less than one percent, from last year, but eight percent higher compared to 2019. The largest year-to-year price increase was for strawberries. Survey results showed two pints of strawberries at $5.30, up 22 percent from last year, due to strong demand and the effects of several weather events, including severe rain, hail and high winds that caused significant setbacks to the harvest early in 2021. AFBF's summer cookout menu consists of cheeseburgers, pork chops, chicken breasts, homemade potato salad, pork & beans, strawberries, potato chips and fresh-squeezed lemonade with ice cream and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

NPPC Urges Administration to Appeal Line Speed Court Ruling Before Deadline

 A federal district court ruling striking down faster harvest facility inspection speeds takes effect today (Wednesday, June 30). The Biden administration has until the end of August to file an appeal, as requested by the National Pork Producers Council. NPPC says the ruling will quickly lead to increased pork industry concentration and packer market power, and seeks waivers for the impacted plants until a longer-term solution, acceptable to all industry stakeholders, is achieved. Iowa State University Research shows the ruling eliminates 2.5 percent of pork packing plant capacity nationwide and will result in $80 million in reduced income for small U.S. hog farmers this year alone. NPPC President Jen Sorenson states, “NPPC continues to urge the administration to appeal before the ruling inflicts irreversible damage to small hog farmers and seismic changes to our entire sector.” Last week, more than 70 lawmakers sent letters asking Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and Acting Solicitor General Prelogar to appeal the court decision.