President Donald Trump is nominating a former Senate Agriculture Committee aide and agriculture industry economist as the chief agricultural negotiator from the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office. The White House confirmed Gregg Doud as the nominee. Doud is currently the president of the Commodity Markets Council, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association. He worked for the Senate Agriculture Committee between 2011 and …
Trump’s Cuba Policy a Lost Opportunity for Agriculture
President Donald Trump’s Friday announcement on reinstating limits on travel to and business with Cuba may result in lost economic opportunities for corporations, small businesses, and farmers. The new policy will keep U.S. companies from doing direct financial transactions with companies controlled by the Cuban military. Politico’s Morning Agriculture Report says the opportunity for American agriculture to export more products …
Trump Waterways Commitment Needs Funding
Farm groups are encouraged by President Donald Trump’s infrastructure commitment for waterways, but Politico questions how the President plans to fund the effort. Trump announced his plan with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke earlier this week. The American Soybean Association says President Trump’s remarks highlighted the importance of the waterways and the need for infrastructure upgrades, …
Agriculture Pleased with Infrastructure Initiative
A number of farmers and industry stakeholders were in Cincinnati this week to hear President Trump discuss the Administration’s infrastructure initiative. The event was designed to highlight the economic importance for infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges and the inland waterways system. According to a story from Rod Bain, President Trump was joined at the event by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. …
Trump to Talk Rural Infrastructure Improvements
The national infrastructure will get some attention from the White House this week as the administration gets set to put out details on a $1 trillion infrastructure plan. Politico’s Morning Agriculture Report says Donald Trump will visit Ohio and Kentucky on Wednesday to speak on waterways and rural America. Trump will give more details on his vision for improving the …
U.S. Withdrawal from Paris Accord Shirks Science, Neglects Devastating Impacts to Food System, Family Farms, and Future Generations
President Donald Trump announced today that the U.S. will withdraw from the historic Paris Agreement, an accord among 192 nations to combat the potentially devastating impacts of climate change. Echoing concerns raised in a recent letter to President Trump, National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson said the President’s decision rejects science and U.S. leadership in an effort that requires …
Agri View: Shaking Up NAFTA
Everett Griner talks about the shaking up of the NAFTA trade deal in today’s Agri View. Farmers in general, agriculture in particular, is looking at anxiety at our president’s involvement in NAFTA. NAFTA, that’s North American Free Trade Agreement. If you don’t know, that is Canada, Mexico and the U.S.A. It may not be the best international trade …
White House Budget Proposal Cuts Ag Spending $46 Billion
A Reuters report says President Trump’s budget proposal contains $46.54 billion in cuts to government funding in the Ag sector, with those cuts spread out over ten years. The biggest proposed cut is $38 billion dollars from farm support programs. Those cuts include new limits on federal subsidies for crop insurance premiums and a cap on potential commodity program payments. …
Trump Plan to Balance Budget Includes Farm Subsidy Cuts
A budget plan President Donald Trump is expected to submit to Congress Tuesday includes steep cuts to farm subsidies, according to Bloomberg News. The 2018 budget proposal, which would begin the process of balancing the budget within ten years, would make cuts to mandatory spending on an array of social programs while sparing the Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs. …
Farmer Opinions on Trump’s First 100-Days
A new Farm Journal poll offers farmer perspective on Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. In fact, Farm Journal has tracked farmer opinions on Trump since 2015. Several polls conducted in 2015 and 2016 showed Trump was the clear favorite candidate within the ag sector. The most recent Farm Journal poll wanted to know if farmers were still happy …