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With help from Catherine Boudreau, Jenny Hopkinson, Martine Powers and Helena Bottemiller Evich and Jason Huffman
BIG ORGANIC EGG AT ODDS WITH NEW WELFARE STANDARDS: The Agriculture Department’s proposed new organic animal welfare standards have quite a few supporters, including the Organic Trade Association and about 75 percent of organic egg farmers. Not on that list, however, are some of the country’s largest egg producers. They’re upset, in particular, over the new space requirements for egg-laying chickens, both inside and outside the coop, reports Pro Agriculture’s Jenny Hopkinson this morning.
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The issue is so contentious that Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch, which is one of the organic egg industry’s largest producers — generating 42 million dozen per year — quit OTA over the group’s support of the standards. The problem is that laying houses are built to last for decades, and in efforts to make the most efficient use of the land, there is little nearby space on these farms to let the birds out, explains Stephen Herbruck, president and CEO of the Saranac, Mich.-based company.
“We would have to remove about 85 percent of the birds from our houses because we don’t have the land to allow them to go outside,” Herbruck said. Culling the flock by that much would likely put his company out of the organic egg business, he added. “It’s just almost impossible for us to accomplish that.” Pros can read the rest of the story here.
HAPPY THURSDAY, APRIL 21! Welcome to Morning Ag, where your host is dying to try a Ben & Jerry’s BRRR-ito. Speaking of which, it looks like the two Bern-feeling rabble-rousers are out of the slammer. Send thoughts, news and tips to ikullgren@politico.com or @IanKullgren. Follow the whole team @Morning_Ag.
SENATE ADVANCES FEED THE FUTURE PROGRAM: The Senate — by unanimous consent — passed its own version of the Global Food Security Act Wednesday night, moving President Barack Obama’s Feed the Future program one step closer to being cemented in law. The bill would authorize the $1 billion a year agricultural development initiative that the administration launched in 2010, as well as an emergency food security program that the U.S. Agency for International Development has increasingly relied on to “avoid constraints” by traditional food aid programs like Food for Peace, according to Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn). That provision is not in the measure passed last week by the House and will have to be worked out in conference. Both bills do contain a “rule of construction” clause that members of the House Agriculture Committee insisted on in order to ensure the GFSA wouldn’t be a pathway to reforming food aid programs. Catch up on that issue here.
TRUSS: U.S., U.K. NEARING DEAL ON LAMB, BEEF: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Elizabeth Truss, the United Kingdom’s secretary of state for food, rural affairs and agriculture, had a “positive discussion” Tuesday about sending U.S. inspectors to British beef and lamb producers, a key step in in opening up the U.S. market imports, Truss told MA, though there is not yet a date certain on when that will happen.
“I would like to see it resolved in the next year or so to get those inspections in place, but we don’t yet have that time table,” Truss said. British beef and lamb have been banned from the U.S. since 1989 over concerns about mad cow disease.
Truss said her conversation with Vilsack also involved a discussion about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a deal she said should be finalized. “I think there are huge opportunities for both the U.S. and the U.K. for a deal on TTIP,” Truss said, pointing to the popularity of British products like cheese, produce and whiskey in the United States. “I think both sides can benefit, and that’s why I’m hugely supportive of a deal.”
VILSACK TO TALK SNAP: While we’re here, the U.S. agriculture secretary is expected to highlight the role that SNAP can play in alleviating poverty and hunger when he delivers remarks at The Brookings Institution this morning at 8:30 a.m. The left-leaning think tank today will release a series of reports highlighting the benefits of SNAP. Brookings has also launched a map of children living in food-secure households and issued a report with 12 facts about food insecurity and SNAP. Here’s one: In nine states, one in four children lives in a food-insecure household.
HOUSE RELEASES CHILD NUTRITION BILL: The House Education and the Workforce Committee on Wednesday released its long-awaited child nutrition reauthorization bill, but the path forward remains uncertain. The legislation, a discussion draft of which was obtained by POLITICO two weeks ago, would relax some nutrition standards for school meals, increase the reimbursement rate for school breakfasts and make it tougher for schools to qualify for universal free meals. It would also provide a modest expansion of access to summer meals. A detailed summary of the bill is available from the committee here.
There is so far unanimous opposition to the most controversial part of the bill, which would increase the threshold for high poverty schools that qualify for the program to serve universal free meals. The House bill would modify the Community Eligibility Provision so, in practice, it would likely only apply to schools above about 95 percent eligibility for free and reduced meals. Currently, schools around 65 percent eligibility and above qualify. This week, the School Superintendents Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Food Research Action Center, and other groups publicly stood against the change, along with the School Nutrition Association.
USDA: GIPSA RIDER UNACCEPTABLE: The USDA says the “GIPSA rider,” included in the House fiscal 2017 agriculture spending bill approved Tuesday, is not in the best interest of U.S. farmers, ranchers and rural communities. The rider, which would block the USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration from finalizing regulations designed to protect poultry farmers who contract with large processing companies that typically own the birds, “demonstrates a complete lack of concern for honest, hardworking families who raise our poultry,” spokesperson Catherine Cochran says. “The focus should be on how to ensure a fair marketplace and a level playing field for our farming families — nothing less."
EPA BILLBOARD SAGA CONTINUES: The chorus of lawmakers raising concern about the EPA grant funding behind two billboards in Washington State that blame farmers for water quality issues is growing. By a lot. On Tuesday, 145 bipartisan House members signed on to a letter to Administrator Gina McCarthy calling for the agency to be open and forthcoming with an Office of Inspector General investigation into the grants and oversight efforts to come from the House Agriculture Committee. Among the signatories of the letter are Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas), and members Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash) and Brad Ashford (D-Neb.). The letter is here.
CONAWAY RESPONDS TO TURKEY’s TAX ON U.S. COTTON: Conaway on Wednesday denounced Turkey’s decision to impose anti-dumping duties on U.S. cotton imports, arguing the move is without merit and merely in retaliation to several U.S. trade investigations into Turkish steel imports. The Texas Republican’s comments follow those by the National Cotton Council, which said it will continue to oppose the duties and is looking for ways to reverse them, such as through the World Trade Organization or the Turkish judicial system.
Turkey is the second-largest export market for U.S. cotton with $850 million in sales last year, according to the NCC. Turkey launched the investigation into U.S. cotton imports in 2014 and in February determined dumping injured its domestic fiber market. A 3 percent tariff went into effect this weekend.
REPORT: EU SHELVED BIOTECH OPINION AMID U.S. PRESSURE: A decision by the European Commission to shelve a long-awaited legal opinion on how it would regulate plants genetically modified through new techniques followed heavy lobbying by the U.S. government, papers secured through public document laws reveal, say Greenpeace, GeneWatch UK and Corporate Europe Observatory in a report released this morning. The report comes nearly five months after a missed deadline for the release of the legal opinion, which the groups had hoped would confirm that novel biotech crops fall under the same strict testing and labeling requirements the EU maintains for more conventional GMO plants. The obtained documents reportedly show U.S. officials laying out their support for biotech crops during a series of meetings and letters last fall and expressing concerns over trade disruptions.
“As you are aware, the government of the United States and governments of many other countries around the world are actively examining any potential risks associated with products developed using tools such as [new breeding techniques] and considering appropriate oversight,” according to one letter from the U.S. Mission to Ladislav Mika, the deputy director-general for the European Commission’s Health and Food Safety Directorate-General. “As we know, different regulatory approaches between governments to NBT classification would lead to potentially significant trade disruptions. Finding commonalities in regulatory approaches in this area is of vital importance to promote trade, investment, research and innovation in plant breeding, and I would welcome further discussions in this regard.” The report is here.
CLARIFICATION: Yesterday, we mischaracterized how KFC’s antibiotics pledge lines up with FDA’s policy. Medically important antibiotics are used for prevention as well as treatment. Apologies for any confusion!
INSTANT OATS
— The Ad Council has a new public service announcement on the energy, food, water and time wasted when food goes to waste. Check it out here.
— A drought in South Africa could bring the country’s corn exports to the lowest point in nearly a decade.
— Louisiana’s governor has built a chicken coop for 16 hens on the mansion grounds, The Times-Picayune reports, and it looks pretty swank. Will beehives be next?
THAT'S ALL FOR MA! See you again soon! In the meantime, drop your host and the rest of the team a line: cboudreau@politico.com and @ceboudreau; jhopkinson@politico.com and @jennyhops; hbottemiller@politico.com and @hbottemiller; mkorade@politico.com and @mjkorade; and jhuffman@politico.com and @jsonhuffman; and Ikullgren@politico.com or @IanKullgren. You can also follow @POLITICOPro and @Morning_Ag on Twitter.
