Weekly Update for
April 4

The March podcast focuses on combatting pest and disease challenges from a policy standpoint with the National Wheat Improvement Committee and a grower and industry standpoint with IPP member FMC. Also hear from newly elected NAWG President Keeff Felty.

The National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) welcomes Elizabeth Rivera as the new Director of Communications and Partnerships. Elizabeth comes to NAWG with experience on Capitol Hill, interning with the U.S. House of the Representatives Committee on Rules and serving as Deputy Press Secretary for U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow and the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Elizabeth is from Sacramento, California, and attended the University of Oregon to earn her Bachelor of Science degree. She is eager to continue advocating for our nation’s producers and rural communities in her position at NAWG. “Elizabeth’s experience on Capitol Hill will be a great asset for NAWG,” said NAWG CEO Chandler Goule. “Her work will be essential in continuing NAWG’s work with industry partners and advocating for wheat priories in Washington, DC. We are excited to have her join our team.” In addition to other organizational duties, Elizabeth will be responsible for sending out press releases and will act as NAWG’s point of contact for all media inquiries. “I am excited and honored to join the National Association of Wheat Growers. I look forward to the opportunity to advocate for wheat farmers in the United States,” said Elizabeth Rivera.

On April 2, NAWG joined more than 100 agriculture and food aid organizations in asking the House and Senate Appropriations committees to fully support and increase funding for international food aid programs in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 agriculture appropriations bill. These food aid programs include the Food for Peace, Food for Progress, and McGovern-Dole International Food for Education. The request was made for the funding to be increased to $2.4 billion for fiscal year 2025. According to the mid-year Global Report on Food Crises, there was a 10% increase from 2022 in people who are acutely food insecure. The letter recognizes the value in using American grown commodities for food aid, and the desire to continue this legacy.

On March 29, United States Trade Representative (USTR) Katherin Tai released the 2024 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE Report). This review provides insight on the foreign barriers that hold up U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S. foreign direct investment, and U.S. electronic commerce in key export markets for the United States and is broken down country-by-country. For the past 39 years, the NTE Report has covered foreign trade barriers in 59 different markets including barriers to U.S. agricultural exports, failure to recognize U.S. motor vehicle standards, lack of uniformity in the European Union, non-market policies and practices, and data policies in furtherance of state intrusion. The publishing of the 2024 NTE Report also follows the March 1 release of the 2024 President’s Trade Policy Agenda and the 2023 Annual Report. Following the NTE Report, the USTR plans to release its annual Special 301 Report on the effectiveness of trading partners’ protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights within 30 days.

On April 3, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2024 funding to invest in partner-driven conservation and climate solutions through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) as part of the President’s Investing in America agenda. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will hold two webinars for applicants on April 23 and May 30, 2024, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. EST. The same information will be covered at both meetings, and there will be time for questions following the presentation. The USDA is continuing to accept project proposals to help farmers, ranchers, and landowners expand conservation strategies to enhance natural resources and tackle climate crisis through July 2, 2024. These programs are estimated to help save money, create new revenue streams, and increase productivity for over 180,000 farms and 225 million acres in the next five years as part of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Program. The RCPP has two parts: RCPP Classic and RCPP Alternative Funding Arrangements (AFA). RCPP Classic projects are implemented using Natural Resource and Conservation Services contracts and easement with local community governments to implement projects. RCPP AFA works directly with agricultural producers to support the development of innovative conservation approaches that are not available under RCPP Classic.

On April 2, the U.S. Department of Agriculture published the second edition of Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Agriculture and Forestry: Methods for Entity Scale Inventory. The method improves upon the 2014 report to increase accuracy and provide new methods for farmers, ranchers, and producers to accurately assess their greenhouse gas emissions. Using an estimation method called COMET-Farm developed by the USDA and Colorado State University, the program helps farmers and ranchers create a farm-scale greenhouse gas inventory and provides them with a range of management scenarios that reduce emissions. This update comes after four years of work from 60 authors including USDA scientists, university researchers, and experts from environmental organizations who developed the metrics for estimating changes in emissions and carbon sequestration for farm, ranch, and forest operations.

On March 28, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the USDA is investing $124 million in renewable energy and fertilizer production projects in 44 states to lower energy costs, generate new income, and create jobs for small communities. The projects announced will be funded by the President’s Inflation Reduction Act through the Rural Energy for America Program. Near Omaha, Nebraska, the USDA selected the Midwest Electric Cooperative to receive funds to move forward to build solar renewable energy resource facilities and energy storage systems for the communities in Wallace, Grant, Paxton, and Lakeview with the Village of Emerson using additional funds to finance a solar facility. With domestic fertilizer production, the USDA has invested $174 million through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program (FPEP) to support 42 projects nationwide. The announcement on March 28 solidifies an additional $4 million in funding to Bluestem Systems to build facilities and purchase equipment to help the company make advancements to remove water and pathogens to create a sustainable dry fertilizer mix. Through FPEP funds, independent farmers can also use money to modernize equipment, adopt new technologies, build fertilizer production pants and more to lower costs and create new income streams for U.S. farmers.

On March 29, senior leadership from the White House, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) convened with national, state, agricultural, and food industry stakeholders to discuss impacts to the agriculture and food sectors from the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and partial closure of the Port of Baltimore. The meeting included Alex Jacquez, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Development and Industrial Strategy at the National Economic Council, Andrew Petrisin, Advisor for Multimodal Freight at DOT, and senior leadership at the USDA. Members of Maryland’s state government emphasized the need to reopen the port while agricultural stakeholders noted that they are working to collect information on the direct and indirect impacts of the closure for goods delivered in and out of the port. There were over 20 agricultural firms participating in the ongoing discussions, but some of the ones to note were the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Fertilizer Institute, American Soybean Association, National Farmers Union, and the National Grain & Feed Association.

NASA Acres and Ag Data Transfer (ADT) met their quota of participation in the survey that was shared the past two weeks. Thank you to those who participated! Learn more about NASA Acres at the following link.

This week, officers, committee chairs, and staff from the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) and the National Wheat Foundation (NWF) visited the Red River Valley as part of their Bayer Leadership Training Program. Northern Crops Institute (NCI) at North Dakota State University (NDSU) facilitated the training, which consisted of parliamentary procedure review, public speaking practice, board and officer responsibilities, and more. The national wheat leaders and staff had a reception with wheat boards from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, traveled to the North Dakota Mill and Elevator in Grand Forks, and heard from keynote speaker Collin Peterson about advocating for the Farm Bill. “It is very important for us to visit the different wheat-growing regions in the country so that we can get a firsthand grasp of their production and issues. Last year, we held this meeting in Kentucky, and the year before, we had it in Oklahoma. We wanted to visit hard red spring wheat country this year and learn more about this region. The North Dakota State Mill and Elevator, the 8th largest miller in the country, is an impressive facility and integral to spring wheat and durum growers. We thank them for their generosity for the tour this week and for partnering with us on the National Wheat Yield Contest,” said Bernard Peterson, Chair of the National Wheat Foundation and farmer from Loretto, Kentucky.

Winter wheat growers, make sure you register and enter the National Wheat Yield Contest by May 15. Thank you to all our partners for your support of the National Wheat Yield Contest!