Category: Industry News

The Ocean Shipping Reform Act, previously passed by the U.S. Senate, sailed through the U.S. House unopposed on June 13 and now heads to President Biden’s desk.

Supported by many agriculture groups, the bill addresses unreasonable ocean carrier practices that are undermining U.S. export competitiveness. 

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) CEO Ted McKinney issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Senate’s passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act.

“Undue burden to our food system and supply chain has been lessened today with the passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which maintains fair ocean carrier practices. Today’s actions couldn’t have come at a more needed time for the United States and the world as changes from the Ocean Shipping Reform Act will enable more U.S. agricultural products to reach the global marketplace,” McKinney said.
 
“NASDA also thanks Congress for working together in a bipartisan fashion to swiftly pass and provide solutions through the Ocean Shipping Reform Act.”

SOURCE: NASDA

The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer dropped to its lowest level since April 2020, down 22 points in May to a reading of 99. Agricultural producers’ perceptions regarding current conditions on their farms, as well as their future expectations, both weakened this month. The Index of Current Conditions dipped 26 points to a reading of 94, and the Index of Future Expectations fell 21 points to a reading of 101. The Ag Economy Barometer is calculated each month from 400 U.S. agricultural producers’ responses to a telephone survey. This month’s survey was conducted May 16-20.

“Despite strong commodity prices, this month’s weakness in producers’ sentiment appears to be driven by the rapid rise in production costs and uncertainty about where input prices are headed,” said James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture. “That combination is leaving producers very concerned about their farms’ financial performance.”

READ FULL REPORT

SOURCE: PURDUE UNIVERSITY/CME GROUP AG

• Pledge commitment to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 for regions within Asia, Africa and Latin America
• Pledge includes large commitment of vegetable and rice seeds which form part of the company’s broader sustainability commitments
• Bayer will work toward increasing the sustainable productivity for 100 million smallholder farmers through empowerment and access to agricultural products and expertise by 2030

Joining like-minded companies in the private sector, Bayer has signed the Zero Hunger Private Sector Pledge with a $160 million commitment dedicated to help end global hunger.

The Pledge, in the context of the UN Food Systems Summit of 2021 and as a part of the Summit’s Zero Hunger Coalition, recognizes the need for governments and the private sector to work together to end food scarcity. Companies taking the pledge commit to investing money, resources and expertise in areas of concern within regions where they do business. Bayer’s commitment will go toward communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

READ MORE

Originally called Decoration day, Memorial Day takes place on the last Monday in the Month of May each year at 3:00 p.m. local time. The observance is to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.

Following the end of the Civil war in the spring of 1865, Americans in various towns and cities started holding springtime tribunes to countless fallen soldiers by decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers. 

Memorial Day was first widely observed May 30 1868. By proclamation of Gen. John A Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, it is to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers. It was at this first commemoration that Union Gen. and sitting Ohio Congressman James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery where 5,000 participants helped decorate the graves of over 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who were buried there.

It was in 1966 that Waterloo, New York was declared the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo was chosen because it hosted an annual community wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags dating back to May 5, 1866.

SOURCE: USDA

Forget Batman, the Bat is Agriculture’s Unsung Hero

For years, bats have gotten a bad rap as the creepy creatures lurking in the dark. But for just as long, agricultural producers have known that the winged wonder is actually the hero of the story, not the villain. Now a plague is decimating bat colonies. The culprit: white-nose syndrome. And it’s costing U.S. agriculture up to $495 million each year, according to new Colorado State University and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research supported by NIFA.

“When bats get this disease, it’s deadly to them, and it’s highly contagious,” said Colorado State University Associate Professor Dale Manning. “Lost bat populations have harmful ripple effects on food and agriculture,” said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Professor Amy Ando. “Crop yields fall- and input costs rise as farmers try to compensate for the services bats usually provide. That drives down the value of farmland and the number of acres planted, and the supply shock probably also hurts consumers as ag production becomes more costly.”

READ FULL ARTICLE

SOURCE: COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY

T-L Irrigation Co. has introduced a gooseneck cradle corner system attachment option and a simplified auto-reverse system to add stability and durability to two pivot locations.

The gooseneck corner cradle option drops the corner connection point by 24 inches. This lowers the corner span’s center of gravity, allowing for greater stability on steep terrain and in areas with high winds or frequent severe storm activity, according to the company.

The simplified auto-reverse system incorporates over-centered actuation arms to change the position of the reversing valve. The over-center feature assures snap action and full engagement of the reversing valve. The arms have also been moved farther up the tower to prevent damage.

Visit www.tlirr.com. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced May 16 that commodity and specialty crop producers impacted by natural disaster events in 2020 and 2021 will soon begin receiving emergency relief payments totaling approximately $6 billion through the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) new Emergency Relief Program (ERP) to offset crop yield and value losses.

ERP Eligibility

ERP covers losses to crops, trees, bushes, and vines due to a qualifying natural disaster event in calendar years 2020 and 2021. Eligible crops include all crops for which crop insurance or NAP coverage was available, except for crops intended for grazing. Qualifying natural disaster events include wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex), smoke exposure, excessive moisture, qualifying drought, and related conditions.

2020 ERP Drought Eligible Counties

2021 ERP Drought Eligible Counties

Read More

Sakata Seed America is continuing its infrastructure expansion with the purchase of 35 acres of land in Culiacan, Mexico. Sakata Seed has been leasing the land and facilities for the past three years. Significant growth in the region led to the decision to secure a permanent location in Culiacan, home to many global seed breeding companies.

According to Sakata, this acquisition of land and newly expanded infrastructure will improve the company’s breeding, sales, marketing and production efforts in the growing Mexico market. The site will be called the Culiacan Innovation Center and will serve as a central research and development (R&D) hub for Sakata in Mexico and Central America and allow for further collaboration with the company’s four other R&D stations in North America.

Russian troops occupying the Ukrainian city of Melitopol plundered nearly $5 million of farm vehicles from a John Deere dealership. According to a CNN report, some of the equipment was shipped more than 700 miles to Chechnya, only to find it had been rendered useless by a remote-locking system that prevented the thieves from turning on the equipment.

The network is also reporting that huge amounts of Ukrainian grain has been stolen by Russian troops. Sowing operations in many areas of this southern Ukraine area have since been disrupted or abandoned

SOURCE: CNN

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a notification warning agricultural cooperatives about a notable increase in ransomware attacks during the critical seasons of planting and harvest. To serve as proof of the real threat, research by NordLocker has shown that agribusiness was among the top industries targeted by ransomware gangs in 2020-2021.

“Disrupting operations of agribusiness, including agricultural cooperatives, during key seasons may result not only in huge financial losses for some conglomerates. It may also drastically impact the food supply chain and result in surging product prices for a consumer, chaos in trading and stocks, spoiled food, or even its shortages,” explains Oliver Noble, a cybersecurity expert at NordLocker, an encrypted cloud service provider. “Well aware of the matter, cybercriminals look for vulnerabilities to exploit, and some agribusiness companies may unwillingly serve them in the form of lack of robust protection.”

What makes the agribusiness industry a lucrative target for ransomware gangs?

Agribusiness may be enticing to cyber racketeers because of the core processes that steer the industry. “The reputation of companies in this industry is largely built upon the on-time service delivery, for example, production and supply of seeds and fertilizers during the planting season, which is at risk during any delays caused by ransomware attacks,” says Oliver Noble. “This provides ransomware groups with conditions that make a payout more likely. Additionally, the industry may be a tempting target to ransomware gangs because of its relatively traditional business model, which is to a large degree yet to implement advanced cybersecurity solutions.”

Even though big companies have a higher probability of offering hackers larger ransoms, small companies are not safe either. “Small enterprises usually do not have the same cybersecurity checks in place as larger businesses, making them an easier target for ransomware attacks. For example, among 17 agribusiness companies that fell victim to ransomware in 2020-2021, there were a family-owned wholesale tree farm and California’s premier supplier of cherries and apples,” the expert notes.

How to protect your business from ransomware

Although ransomware attacks are evolving, Oliver Noble provides some easy-to-implement cybersecurity tactics to serve your business as defense:

• Make sure your employees use strong and unique passwords to connect to your systems. Better yet, implement multi-factor authentication.
• Secure your email by training your staff to identify signs of phishing, especially when an email contains attachments and links.
• Implement and enforce periodic data backup and restoration processes. An encrypted cloud might be the most secure solution.
• Adopt zero-trust network access, meaning that every access request to digital resources by a member of staff should be granted only after their identity has been appropriately verified.

SOURCE: NORDLOCKER