Chairman Boozman Releases Farm Bill Draft

On June 23, Senate Ag Committee Chairman Boozman released his draft Farm Bill. Overall, the bill is budget-neutral and includes the remaining Farm Bill titles not addressed in the Reconciliation Bill enacted in 2025. Chairman Boozman hopes to hold a markup on the bill after the July 4 recess and before the August break.

Highlights and items of interest:

• Reauthorizes the Supplemental and Alternative Crops research program (but does not increase the authorized funding level). 
• Includes the crop insurance study for winter oilseeds 
• The bill would reauthorize the Conservation Reserve Program through 2031, maintaining the current 27-million-acre cap, while increasing CRP payment limitations to $125,000.
• The bill's credit title modernizes USDA loan programs to help lending authorities keep pace with rising production costs. The legislation would significantly increase Farm Service Agency loan limits while indexing those caps to inflation going forward.
• Creates a new Office of Biotechnology Policy at USDA, aimed at coordinating biotechnology policy and regulatory issues affecting agriculture. 
• Creates a USDA crop input economist tasked with monitoring fertilizer and other input markets and improving market transparency.

Canola Grower Survey Underway


The U.S. Canola Association and Northern Canola Growers Association are sponsoring the industry’s first-ever voluntary, nationwide canola grower survey to collect data on production practices in major growing regions across the country.

This aggregate data is increasingly important for informing scientific models and ultimately determining the value of canola for use as a biofuel feedstock. Most other major crops in the U.S. benefit from survey data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; however, USDA surveys have historically omitted canola, leaving very little public information on standard practices used by canola growers. To close this gap, the U.S. Canola Association and Northern Canola Growers Association are partnering on a nationwide survey to collect key information, including tillage and residue management, fertilizer and chemical use, and yield performance over multiple years.

Over the next several weeks, the research firm SMRP will be calling canola growers across the country to ask for their participation in this voluntary survey. For those who agree to participate, a survey link with roughly 20 questions will be sent to complete online. We highly encourage all growers who are contacted to participate in the survey.

USDA Biofuels Regenerative Ag Rule Includes Spring Canola

On June 26, USDA unveiled Final Technical Guidelines for the Production of Regenerative Agricultural Biofuel Feedstocks. Notably, USDA has included spring canola in the rule and the updated version of its Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator (FDCIC). The initial versions did not include canola and USDA cited a lack of available data. In meetings and comments, USCA provided recommendations on data sources that could be used to enable canola to be included. The USDA rule outlines an approach for farmers to quantify net emission reductions from the use of specified regenerative agriculture practices and report and track those reductions throughout the biofuel production process. The USDA FD-CIC quantifies the CI (in CO2e emissions per bushel) of four domestic feedstock crops (field corn, soybeans, sorghum, and spring canola) based on user-supplied nutrient management data and user-supplied checklists of low-carbon practices.

In the rule, USDA cites the change to include “spring canola” as an eligible feedstock in response to comments: “In response to public comment, this final rule includes spring canola as defined in subpart B in § 2100.011 for which a reduced-CI could be quantified using USDA FD-CIC. Spring canola is a prominent biofuel feedstock and is designated by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) as a principal crop with millions of acres of annual production in the United States. In addition, USDA was able to model the impact of low-carbon agriculture practices on spring canola production, given sufficient data available.”

The rule defines Spring canola as a canola crop planted between January and June. USDA indicated that it received many comments requesting the addition and inclusion of over 30 different types of additional feedstocks and spring canola was the only additional crop added to the initial list of corn, soy and sorghum. USDA indicated that additional data is needed to add winter canola. 

The Regenerative Ag for Biofuels Feedstocks rule will need to be incorporated into the Final Rule for the 45Z tax credit, which will come from the Department of Treasury in the coming months. 

Read the USDA press release: https://bit.ly/3SDOI8F

Click the link to download the U.S. Canola press release: https://bit.ly/4aT0nqm

White House Sends Congress Request for Additional Economic Aid for Agriculture

On June 24, the White House submitted a $88 billion supplemental funding request to Congress, including $11.1 billion for agriculture assistance. The driver and bulk of the supplemental funding request ($67 billion) is to replenish Defense spending. Of the $11.1 billion for agriculture, $10 billion would be for economic assistance for row crops and specialty crops for the 2026 crop year. The other $1.1 billion would be for disaster assistance for winter storms that impacted Florida ag producers. There are no details on how the $10 billion would be administered, but I would expect it to follow the recent FBA, unless Congress establishes something different. Senate Ag Chairman Boozman and Sen. Hoeven continue to indicate their intent to push for a higher amount, up to $17 billion, for ag economic assistance. There is also the likelihood that the ag disaster assistance needs will grow as the year goes along, considering the widespread drought conditions and upcoming Hurricane season. The prospects and timing for Congressional action on the supplemental funding package are very uncertain. Bipartisan support would typically be needed to pass a supplemental funding bill and that’s a significant hurdle with this Defense spending request.

Updated GREET-45ZCF Model Released

In June, Argonne National Lab released the updated GREET model for the 45Z biofuels tax credit, incorporating congressionally enacted changes to remove induced land-use change (ILUC) and limit tax credit eligibility to North American feedstocks. The updated GREET 45ZCF also included updated canola values that improve the carbon intensity score and tax credit values. The canola 45Z tax credit values are currently estimated to range from $.21 to $.32 per gallon for biodiesel and renewable diesel made with canola oil. 

Ag Biotech Alliance Submits Comments to USDA on Plant Protection Act



The Agriculture Biotechnology Alliance (ABA), which includes the U.S. Canola Association, submitted comments to USDA in response to the “Request for Information on Modified Organisms Subject to the Plant Protection Act.”  The ABA reiterated its support for the adoption of regulatory approaches to agricultural biotechnology products that are proportionate to the risks they pose and grounded in science. The ABA urged USDA to approach any potential deregulatory action or rulemaking with the understanding that agricultural biotechnology products have a long history of safe use and that genetically engineered (GE) plants do not possess plant pest risks materially different from those of conventional plants. Plants derived from breeding innovation, such as genome editing, that are comparable to those developed through conventional breeding and mutagenesis should not be regulated differently. 

Regulatory approaches in the United States should not disadvantage American producers. Growers operate in global markets and compete with foreign producers who may have access to similar innovations under different regulatory systems. Any framework that regulates agricultural biotechnology according to the Plant Protection Act must facilitate trade, support market access, and enable American leadership in agricultural productivity and biological innovation. The ABA also urged USDA to prioritize meaningful interagency coordination with EPA and FDA as it considers reforms to its framework for modified organisms.