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August 1, 2023

Good Morning. 

Moths are not always seen as a critical nuisance, rather just the butterfly’s less-attractive cousin. But the USDA is tracking a species known for sneaking into food packages and contaminating foods. 

U.S. customs officials have detected the Indian Meal Moth in commodities entering ports. Infestations have occurred across the globe, including Antarctica. While the moth does not bite or sting, officials warn that infestations are threatening to U.S. agriculture. 

For now, the USDA is urging consumers to avoid buying damaged food packages in case the international hitchhikers had the first bite.

Stories:

• New Bill Goes Head-to-Head with the Death Tax

• Introducing CSB: Fancy Field Maps

• Diverting Wasted Food 

POLICY

GIPHY

"I can’t wait to do my taxes."

Okay, maybe no one has actually said that, but if a new bill on Capitol Hill becomes law, doing those taxes may be a little less painful for generational farmers.

Representatives Jimmy Panetta (CA) and Mike Kelly (PA) recently introduced legislation that would update IRS Code Section 2032A—making things a lot better for farmers faced with paying estate taxes.

Death to the Death Tax? Not exactly, but if passed, the new law would allow farmers and ranchers to pay estate taxes based on the land’s value for agricultural use.

History Lesson: Back in 1976, Congress recognized that estate taxes were placing huge burdens on generational farm families and passed the Tax Reform Act of 1976 to help keep taxes down via Special Use Valuations.

But deduction caps haven’t risen with rising land values, and the farmers and ranchers of today are now in the same boat as earlier generations.

According to Panetta, "My Preserving Family Farms Act would ease the burden on these [family farms] by ensuring that farms are appraised by the value of their business, rather than for development."

And ag groups are applauding the bill.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and several state-level organizations have already endorsed the proposed legislation.

Where this goes: A similar bill sputtered out in the Ways and Means Committee during the last congressional session. But if the ag community keeps fueling the issue, this one might just make it past the finish line.

→Got Milk? Well, China could be asking for less of it as its dairy imports declined amid slower-than-expected economic growth. 

→ Into the (Ag)Metaverse. European tech company Kynetec launched its AgMeta platform to drive data-driven sales and marketing decisions for crop protection and seed businesses.

→ Farm labor controversy. H-2A programs are gaining steam as applications rise exponentially but are accompanied by mounting controversy. 

→ Rural route health care. The USDA announced $129 million to fund grant programs for rural health care access in 39 states.

→ Beefy imports. China maintained the top spot as the world’s largest beef importer in 2022, holding the ranking since 2019. The country also retained the No. 1 rank in pork imports, while increasing poultry consumption. 

→ Yield busters. Midwestern farmers are gauging the potential impact the gripping heat from last week will have on crop yields. Temperatures topping 100 degrees in certain areas added to the drought stress from low soil moisture.

INDUSTRY

GIPHY

Ayo technology, the USDA just released a nifty new geospatial product called "Crop Sequence Boundaries" (CSB).

Which is a fancy name for field maps that give crop acreage estimates plus historical planting information for the 48 contiguous states.

"How are they spying on my fields?" you might ask. The open-source product uses satellites, and cloud computing with Google Earth Engine.

And in return users can analyze planted crops.

Soundbite: "Farmers will be able to use eight years of historical crop rotations to enhance their farm records or look at the management history of land that they might have recently started operating. They can also look at how their planting decisions compare in their regions." – National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Administrator Hubert Hamer

Knowledge is power: farmers looking to rent or purchase land could use CSB to decide what to plant based on past rotations and even go as deep as looking at what conservation methods were used.

Anyone can download the data sets from 2015-2022. 

CSB was created by the USDA’s statistical scientific research agencies: NASS and the Economic Research Service (ERS). The agencies have created several tools through the years for agricultural analyses to make data more accessible and beneficial for all.

Ranchers just got another reason to focus on telling their story to consumers. According to an Elanco Animal Health Survey 78% of consumers say they trust ranchers to keep their food safe.

Can you guess what percentage said they trust social media influencers? 

Answer at the bottom of the email.

INDUSTRY

Yuliia Chyzhevska

Giant Food, a regional food chain, hit a giant milestone in the mission to recycle food waste. 

Through partnering with tech company Divert, Giant Food managed to, well, divert nearly 30.8 million pounds of food to recycling rather than sending it to a landfill. Divert processes the wasted food into a renewable energy source. That 30.8 million pounds of food mitigated nearly 1,400 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. 

All this in just the first year of collaboration. 

Dive in on Divert: Divert’s diversion technology helps to shift food that can’t be repurposed or donated into a recycling program. The company was founded in 2007 and uses technology and sustainable infrastructure to cut out wasted food. 

Soundbite: "We're proud of the success of our collaboration with Divert thus far and look forward to continuing our work together and expanding our efforts toward a healthier planet," said Diane Hicks, Senior VP of Operations for Giant Food. 

Only getting bigger: Giant Foods and Divert plan to take the partnership further in future years. It now includes all 165 stores in Giant’s name across several New England states. 

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Social media influencers claim the trust of a measly 37% of consumers. 

Written & Edited by Kevin Cross, Amelia VanLandegen, Kelsey Faivre, Jen Hill and Dawson Schmitt

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