Ag in the News

10/24/2007

National and International

Agreement reached on interstate meat sales from smaller plants
A group of farm, consumer, union and government associations have agreed to a legislative compromise that would allow previously state-inspected, smaller meat processors to ship their products across state lines. MORE!

USDA outlines actions to combat E. coli O157:H7
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service outlined recent and upcoming actions it is taking to protect public health against the risk of E. coli O157:H7, including expanded testing and more attention to imported beef and beef products. MORE!

Envoy urges Seoul to resolve U.S. beef issue
South Korea's envoy to Washington pressed his country's lawmakers earlier this week to quickly resolve its beef-trade tiff with the United States in order to expedite the passage of a free-trade agreement, Yonhap News reported. MORE!

Smithfield funds water cleanup efforts
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper has announced almost $2 million in grants from Smithfield Foods aimed at improving the state's water quality. MORE!

Wrap Up

Overnight weakness. Chicago wheat futures showed strong followthrough selling overnight, dropping 10 to 17 cents in the most actively traded contracts. Corn futures were 1 to 2 cents lower overnight, while soybeans were 2 to 4 cents lower.

Farm bill markup today. The Senate Ag Committee today will finally get to writing details of its version of the next farm bill. It's not clear how long the panel may spend working on the bill, but some have predicted it will be a relatively short session with more activity likely for the floor debate.

More rust finds. USDA now says that 14 counties in Iowa have confirmed Asian soybean rust, with the latest finds in Des Moines, Lee and Muscatine counties. Two counties in Illinois have been confirmed with rust via McDonough County reporting it Tuesday.

Russian official says no need to hike wheat export duty. Wheat markets Monday were buoyed by talk Russia was mulling an increase in its wheat export tax from its announced level of 10%. But the country's economic minister said today that while the government was monitoring the situation closely, at the current time there was no need to raise the export duty.