🧪 Ag Oversight Gets Awkward

A new memorandum of understanding (MOU) directs the FDA to hand over regulatory oversight of food animal biotechnology to the USDA - and they aren’t loosening their grip.

The MOU, signed by Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir, leaves the FDA with control over just gene-edited animals unrelated to agriculture.

The industry-backed move has groups such as the National Pork Producers Council cheering for faster approvals through the USDA. While managing crop biotechnology, the USDA has opened the door to dozens of genetically-engineered [GE] plant varieties while the FDA has only green-lighted two animal equivalents.

But not everyone is on board with the swap.

After the MOU was announced, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn took to Twitter to express his....uhm, disagreement.

Rumors are swirling about Hahn’s refusals to sign the MOU and judicial challenges are expected.

Where this goes: It’s a game of wait-and-see with the new administration and incoming USDA head Tom Vilsak, but bets are on that it’ll be a brawl.

“I think that the FDA will keep fighting USDA on this,” said Jaydee Hanson, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety.

+ Side note: In December, GalSafe pigs joined Aquabounty’s GE salmon as the second GE animal to ever be approved by the FDA. GalSafe pigs don’t contain alpha-gal sugars, allowing red-meat lovers with Alpha-Gal Syndrome to finally put a fork in pork.

→ Vax Incentive: JBS & Pilgrim’s Pride are doling out $100 bills to U.S. employees who voluntarily snag the COVID-19 vaccine.

→ Boeing to bank on biofuels. The U.S. planemaker set goals to deliver aircraft capable of flying on 100% biofuels by 2030.

→ Corteva board situation gets dicey. Activist investor, Starboard LP, hopes to lock in multiple board seats to shake up leadership over ‘mediocre performance.’

→ New hemp rulebook: The USDA unlocked final regulations to go into play March 22 for commercial hemp production that ease some regulatory burdens for growers.

→ China, we have a problem. A new strain of African Swine Fever in Chinese hog farms is likely spreading due to illegitimate, unapproved vaccines.

Migratory bird patterns have accelerated the bird flu spread across Europe and Asia, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon.

New strains in wild birds upped the deadliness in recent weeks. Here’s a quick roundup of where things stand:

Europe: Battling the spread since November, Germany ordered another 37K chickens to be culled while France’s total slaughtered bird numbers will reach 600K by month’s end.

Middle East: The virus ventured south to Iraq, wiping out 92% of a 69K-bird flock.

South Asia: The world’s #6 poultry producer, India, is in the cross-hairs. A $450 million (USD) economic hit is estimated, and chicken prices fell almost a third as consumers become leery of the protein.

East Asia: Possibly facing the worst conditions, Japan and South Korea have collectively culled 20 million chickens since last fall. Precautions for domestic producers are on overdrive to stop the spread.

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In a nutshell, COVID-19 and export issues are putting a lot of pressure on the nut industry. Almonds and pistachios and walnuts, oh my, farmers in the nut industry are worried.

What’s COVID doing now? Some operations simply had fewer workers because of outbreaks while others had to shut down at the busiest time of the year, resulting in a loss of crop and revenue.

And it’s not just the pandemic. Exports also matter. With the retaliatory tariffs from China in 2018 and 2019, the nut industry was hit hard. One grower said China isn’t importing at the same levels as previous years.

Add in a top-notch harvest, and one grower summed it up by saying, “Record crops and poor economic conditions in importing countries are depressing prices.”

The big concern: 94 percent of nut growers are worried about where prices are headed.

The writing’s on the walnut. California ranks first in the production of almonds, walnuts, and pistachios in the U.S. Plus, California almond exports make up the majority of the world’s supply. All in, the California nut industry could lose between $486 million to $728 million.