Finally, a Farm Bill – Farmers and ranchers all across the nation breathed a sigh of relief on Feb. 7 when President Obama signed theAgriculture Act of 2014, after more than three years of heated debate in Congress and among agricultural stakeholders. Better known as the 2014 Farm Bill, the measure set agriculture policy for the years 2014-2018, and authorized almost a trillion dollars in spending if measured over a 10-year period. The lion’s share of the funding, almost 80 percent, goes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) and other nutrition programs…

GOP election victories – Republicans won big time in the fall elections, gaining a strong majority in the U.S. Senate and increasing the chances that agricultural interests can block some of the Obama administration’s regulatory agenda, including a proposed rule issued last spring to define the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act. The Republican-controlled House advanced a bill to block the “waters of the United States” rule but the legislation went nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate. A Republican-controlled Senate is almost certain to address the issue next year during the fiscal 2016 appropriations process. Guided by Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell, the GOP-controlled Senate also may attempt to roll back some of the school nutrition standards imposed by USDA after passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act…

President takes executive actions – President Obama responded to the Republican sweep in the midterm elections by announcing executive actions onimmigration and Cuba, angering some GOP lawmakers. In November, he issued orders that would protect the parents of legal U.S. residents from deportation and expand an earlier program that shields from deportation people who were brought to the country illegally as children. At the same time, he called for Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform, which would include provisions to increase the number of foreign workers to help gather the nation’s crops…

COOL saga continues – In October, a World Trade Organization panel ruled that USDA’s latest effort to bring country-of-origin meat labeling (COOL) rules into compliance with global trade regulations only further exacerbated the rule’s “detrimental impact on the competitive opportunities of imported livestock in the U.S. market.” The panel said requiring labels to inform where an animal was born, raised, and slaughtered gave Mexican and Canadian livestock “less favorable treatment” than that accorded to U.S. livestock. The ruling sparked calls for congressional repeal and threats of Canadian retaliation before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative appealed the ruling in late November…

Rail backlogs – At the end of 2013, grain elevator operators in the Midwest noticed it was taking longer than usual to move their crops by rail and farmers were suffering the consequences.  The issue came to a head in early 2014 as the region’s two main carriers, Canadian Pacific and BNSF Railway, began moving fertilizer for spring 2014 planting along with grain from the 2013 harvest, all while trying to maintain transport for oil production in North Dakota and ethanol from points across the Midwest…

Rise of Big Data – The role of “big data” agriculture became more important during 2014, with farmers expressing increasing interest in how they can benefit from the information they provide to technology companies and increasing concerns about how to protect their data. During the year, the American Farm Bureau Federation organized meetings with a variety of companies to allow them to explain their technology and ease concerns about data privacy. Big movers in the industry include Monsanto, which acquired Silicon Valley Big Data startup, the Climate Corporation, for approximately $930 million late last year, and DuPont Pioneer and John Deere, which announced a combination service to link a suite of precision agronomy software with data transfer technology…

Debate over GMO foods heats up – The war over bioengineered products in food erupted in several battles in 2014, most noticeably in Vermont, which in the spring enacted the nation’s first law requiring mandatory labeling of foods made with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). If it survives legal challenges, it will take effect in 2016. More recently, voters in Maui County, Hawaii, approved a moratorium on growing genetically modified crops until further health and environmental tests are conducted. Voters in Colorado and Oregon, however, defeated ballot measures to label GMO foods. Meanwhile, the Coalition for Safe Affordable Food, which consists of 37 trade groups including the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Biotechnology Industry Organization, pushed for passage of a federal labeling bill introduced by Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan…

Battle over school nutrition – Michelle Obama made headlines again this year, jumping into the fray over what children eat and school nutrition standards. The standards, which took effect at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, require school lunch programs to offer more fruits, vegetables, and whole grain rich foods; offer only fat-free or low-fat milk; limit saturated fat, sodium and trans fat, as well as limit the calories offered in a meal.  The first lady made the standards a centerpiece of her “Let’s Move” anti-obesity campaign for children. However, criticism soon surfaced from schools struggling to meet the standards under tight budgets as well as from student athletes who said they needed more calories than the standards provide. Congressional Republicans sought to weaken the requirements…

Waiting…and waiting… for the RFS – For much of this year, farmers, environmentalists and the U.S. biofuels and petroleum industries waited… and waited…. and waited for the EPA to announce its final targets for the Renewable Fuel Standard – for 2014 – but the announcement never came. Instead, a top agency official told a House hearing earlier this month that EPA plans to finalize its 2014 targets for biofuels use sometime in 2015 and issue targets for 2015 and 2016 as well. That will “get the program back on track so that refiners and all other stakeholders will have the certainty that the statute calls for,” the official told a group of unhappy lawmakers…

Beef checkoff squabble continues – The $1.1 trillion spending bill passed by Congress this month forced Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack towithdraw his attempts to create a parallel beef checkoff, leaving an industry working group to continue its slow-moving discussions. Vilsack’s action would have created a concurrent beef promotion and research program governed under 1996 general farm commodities legislation rather than the 1985 law specific to the beef industry. The administrative act was seen as a victory for groups such as the National Farmers Union (NFU), who called negotiations occurring in the Beef Checkoff Enhancement Working Group (BCEWG) “a waste of time and money” shortly before withdrawing from the group in September…