Current Policies affecting

Grains and Oilseeds

Sara Wyant

Agri-PulseFebruary 21, 2014

• Over three years of hearings, markup and floor time• 2008 Farm Bill expired in 2012, key parts extended for one year• House and Senate farm bills out of committee by 5/15/13• Senate passage 6/10/13 by 66-27• House vote failed on 6/20/13 by 195-234• House approves ‘Split’ farm bill by 216-208 on 7/11/13• House approves stand alone nutrition bill 217-210 on 9/19/13• Conference report delivered 1/27/14• House approves 251-166 on 1/29/14• Senate approves 68-32 on 2/4/14• President signs Agricultural Act of 2014 on 2/7/14

Finally, a farm bill!

The Agricultural Act of 2014

I. Commodity programsII. ConservationIII. TradeIV. NutritionV. CreditVI. Rural Development

VII. ResearchVIII. ForestryIX. EnergyX. HorticultureXI. Crop InsuranceXII. Miscellaneous

Target Prices under the 2008 Farm Bill vs. 2014 Farm Bill

Crop 2010-12 Target Price 2014 Target Price

Wheat $ 4.17 bushel $ 5.50 bushel

Corn $ 2.63 bushel $ 3.70 bushel

Grain Sorghum $ 2.63 bushel $ 3.95 bushel

Barley $ 2.63 bushel $ 4.95 bushel

Oats $ 1.79 bushel $ 2.40 bushel

Long Grain Rice (with an adjustment for California medium grain)

$ 10.50 cwt. $ 14.00 cwt.

Soybeans $ 6.00 bushel $ 8.40 bushel

Other oilseeds $ 12.68 cwt. $ 20.15 cwt.

Peanuts $ 495 ton $ 535 ton

Dry Peas $ 8.32 cwt. $11.00 cwt.

Lentils $ 12.81 cwt. $ 19.97 cwt

Small chickpeas $ 10.36 cwt. $ 19.04 cwt.

Large chickpeas $ 12.81 cwt $ 21.54 cwt.

EPA’s proposed changes to the RFS

The agency's proposal would lower the requirement to 15.2 billion gallons of renewable fuels, with 13.01 billion gallons from conventional ethanol and 2.2 billion gallons from advanced biofuels.

Previous requirements passed by Congress called for 18.15 billion gallons of renewable fuels next year, with 14.4 billion gallons of conventional ethanol and 3.75 billion gallons of advanced biofuels.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp called the EPA’s proposal a “significant step backward.”

• Would help modernize nation’s aging lock and dam system, other navigation systems

• Negotiations between House and Senate conferees largely stalled despite strong bipartisan votes in both chambers in October

Water Resources Reform and Development Act

When 98 percent of our exporters are small businesses, new trade partnerships with Europe and the Asia Pacific will help them create even more jobs. We need to work together on tools like bipartisan trade promotion authority to protect our workers, protect our environment and open new markets to new goods stamped “Made in the U.S.A.”

President ObamaState of the Union address

Focus on trade

• Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): 12 countries: U.S., Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam• 793 million consumers, $28.1 trillion in GDP

• Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP): Spans 28 countries, over 500 million consumers and a GDP of $16.5 trillion

• Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) needed to seal these deals

Despite benefits, Trade is a Hard Sell!

Fast track or Slow Track?

“I’m against fast track. Everyone would be well advised just to not to push this right now.”

Sen. Harry Reid

“Camp-Baucus, in its present form, is unacceptable to me.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi

Japan’s offer on TPP: Unacceptable to U.S. AgJapan's parliament has listed five "sacred" commodities that must be excluded from TPP tariff-zeroing: rice, beef/pork, wheat, sugar and dairy.

“Japan wants to exempt from tariff elimination 586 tariff lines, or 11 percent of its tariff schedule. In the 17 other FTAs the United States has concluded this century, only 233 tariff lines were exempted from tariff elimination.

“The U.S. must reject Japan’s offer….” noted NPPC, NCBA, AMI, NAWG and US Wheat

Hard lines being drawn on TTIP

“To be very clear, we are not going to import hormone beef. Because it would mean we would have to change our basic legislation, and we are not going to do it. We’re not going to even make a legislative proposal for that because it has no support in Parliament, it has no support in the Commission. So we will keep and stick to our regulations”

Karel de GuchtEuropean Commissioner for Trade

“It’s a negotiation. There is not likely to be an agreement with the EU unless we deal fully with agricultural issues. We have to put on the table issues like beef, biotech and geographical indicators….It’s not appropriate to take a line in the sand attitude.”

Tom VilsackSecretary of Agriculture

• New biotech approvals• Drones and precision agriculture• Big data

Technology issues

Thank you!

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