U.S. Congress eyes farm aid cuts
SEATTLE (Reuters) – A Texas Democrat who used to be a leader of fiscal conservatives in the U.S. House of Representatives has said that Congress members keen to cut federal spending will look at farm supports.
“All of us in agriculture recognize the fiscal challenge to come,” Charles Stenholm, a senior adviser at a Washington consulting firm, said at the American Farm Bureau Federation meeting.
Stenholm, who is active in balanced-budget groups, declined to suggest specific areas to be targeted, but said it could be hard to defend biofuel supports and grain subsidies. He said farm supports and crop insurance may need revisions to stretch funding.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Stenholm said economic recovery “is one thing that will save Democrats” from stinging losses in the mid-term elections this fall.
Argentine farmers call for higher prices
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentine farm leaders have called on the government to guarantee higher prices for wheat farmers, warning growers could resume strikes and other protest measures if their demands are not met.
Argentina, a leading global wheat exporter, has restricted shipments in recent years to guarantee domestic supplies and tame rising prices for staples like bread and pasta.
Farmers say the export controls depress the prices they get for wheat as exporters withdraw from the market, making it an unprofitable crop and forcing them to turn their land over to soybeans instead.
Farmers halted sales of grain and livestock repeatedly in 2008 and 2009.
Morocco cuts harvest expectations
CASABLANCA – Morocco, a main grain importer in North Africa, may see its cereals harvest slashed to at least seven million tonnes this year from a record 10.2 million tonnes in the previous crop, said the chief of the state forecasting body.
Morocco’s grain output swings sharply because of cyclical drought. It usually imports between one million and three million tonnes of cereals a year, mostly soft wheat.
U.S. farm group vows to fight regulations
SEATTLE (Reuters) – The largest U.S. farm group will oppose “misguided” climate legislation in the U.S. Congress and fight animal rights extremists, said American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman.
In a speech opening the four-day AFBF convention on Jan. 10, Stallman said American farmers and ranchers “must aggressively respond to extremists” and “misguided, activist-driven regulation…. The days of their elitist power grabs are over.”
Climate legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives aims for a 17 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared to 2005 levels. Senators, the other arm of Congress, are expected to draft a similar bill this year.
Both envision a cap-and-trade system to curb emissions from factories and power plants and to allow the purchase of offsets.
Vast amounts of farmland could become carbon-capturing woodlands under cap-and-trade, “eliminating about 130,000 farms and ranches,” said Stallman.
China’s rapeseed faring well despite cold
BEIJING (Reuters) – Frigid temperatures in most of China’s rapeseed growing areas would not likely damage the crop, analysts said, but they added farmers planted less of the crop late last year than a year earlier.
The Chinese agricultural ministry sent experts to major growing areas in eastern and central provinces to guide farmers in production recovery after last week’s big snowfalls and cold spell, it said on its website at www.agri.gov.cn.
Rapeseed will be harvested in April and May.
The ministry did not say whether the cold caused any damage, but industry analysts said temperatures picked up quickly after sharp drops earlier this month.
Zhao Zhou, an analyst with Changjiang Futures Co. Ltd. in Hubei province, said farmers there grew less rapeseed because some shifted to wheat, which can generate better returns.
U.S. farmers skeptical of global warming: poll
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Most U.S. farmers do not believe global warming is occurring, and an even larger majority are skeptical that climate change legislation would help their bottom lines, growers said in an informal poll released last week.
A random poll of 980 farmers at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting in Seattle found 81 percent said they did not believe global warming was happening, while 10 percent said they were unsure.
The Reuters straw poll did not attempt to weigh responses by state, size of farm or other criteria.
