Enews

March 11, 2024

In this Edition Minnesota Certified Crop Advisors   Capitol Corner- State 2/29/2024 House Agriculture and Finance Committee Overview Hearings on Nitrates  Rep. Hansen’s Legislative Update - Addressing Nitrate Pollution  Legislative Bill Updates Capitol Corner - Federal ARA Honors Rep. Panetta with Legislator of the Year Award  Update from Kyle Kunkler – American Soybean Association  Industry Related News AFREC Research Roundup: 2023 Nutrient Management Findings  Minnesotans Work Together to Address Environmental Challenges: Ag Water Stewardship: Farmers Play an Active Role in Improving Groundwater Management 2024 Commodity Classic: 3 Farmers Talk Technology and Equipment  World’s 1st Carbon-free Fertilizer Plant Seeks $20M Property Tax Break from Richland  Yara Inks Rare Long-Term Deal for Green Ammonia From Acme (1)  Law and Disorder: The State of Crop Protection in the Courtroom  Bayer wins Arkansas Trial over Roundup Cancer Claims  Baltimore County Company Sued over PFAS in its Fertilizer Sold in Texas  China's Buys of Corn and Sorghum Are Surging Right Now, But Why?

Minnesota Certified Crop Advisors

Hey, MN CCAs, check your email for a survey link. The MCCA board is conducting a survey of CCAs to learn more about how we can better meet your needs. We are looking to have the surveys completed by 3/22. Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us. We would love to get a great response from our Minnesota CCAs.

Capitol Corner

STATE

2/29/2024 House Agriculture and Finance Committee Overview Hearings on Nitrates  The following organizations provide brief presentations on nitrates in soil.  Freshwater Society  Minnesota Farmers Union  Minnesota Farm Bureau  Minnesota Corn Growers Association  Minnesota Pork Producers Association  Minnesota Milk Producers Association  Minnesota Crop Production Retailers Association    2/29/2024 HF 4135 (Hansen) – Passed House Agriculture and Finance Committee and was referred to the Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy (Scheduled for a hearing on 3/12/2024). We anticipate that the Health Finance and Policy Committee will hear this bill and then send it back to the House Ag Committee for consideration in the omnibus agriculture bill.  The bill adds definitions for nitrogen fertilizer.  The bill creates a private well drinking water assistance program that is funded by a new fee on nitrogen fertilizer at $0.99 (with a built-in increased fee of $1.39 on anhydrous ammonia). The bill is currently targeting eight (8) counties in SE MN to provide assistance to private wells owners.   The bill includes an escalator to increase the fee in future years by the percentage increase in nitrogen fertilizer sales.   The bill extends AFREC for one year and then sunsets the program.  The bill increases the current MDA inspection fee from $0.44 to $0.70.  The bill also includes a section requiring MPCA to analyze PFAS in sewage sludge biosolid agricultural fertilizer.

Rep. Hansen’s Legislative Update - Addressing Nitrate Pollution  Last week, the Agriculture Committee passed my proposal for a “personal responsibility” fee on fertilizer that will help provide clean drinking water to residents affected by nitrate pollution in Southern Minnesota. Read more background here: Proposal would tax Minnesota farmers to help pay for cleanup of nitrate pollution.  We’ve done more than most states to address this issue, but it’s still not working, and average taxpayers have been on the hook to subsidize those who use fertilizer. My bill would add a dedicated source paid by users to address the drinking water crisis. I was glad to see the committee advance my proposal, which will next be heard in the Environment Committee.

Legislative Bill Updates 3/4/2024 SF 3719 (Putnam) The Senate Agriculture and Broad Agriculture, Broadband, and Rural Development Committee passed the AFREC renewal bill and referred it to the State and Local Government and Veterans Committee for review of the sunset extension.   3/4/2024 SF 4288 (Westrom) The Senate Agriculture and Broad Agriculture, Broadband, and Rural Development Committee heard a bill to modify financial requirements for agriculture cooperatives. The new provisions are:   For an agricultural cooperative, the reports must also show the financial condition of, including the net creation or use of member equity within, each business division or unit of the cooperative for the fiscal year.    3/5/2024 HF 4044 (Jacob) The House Agriculture and Finance and Policy Committee heard the bill. The committee did not pass it on to the tax committee. Instead, it was laid on the table. The bill establishes a $5 per acre property tax credit for acers certified under the Minnesota agricultural water quality certification program. This bill targeted eight (8) counties in SE Minnesota but was amended in committee to include several additional townships in Dakota and Rice counties.   3/7/2024 The House Agriculture and Finance and Policy Committee heard the following bills:  HF 3823 (Hansen, R) Fertilizer definitions amended.   HF 4082 (Hansen, R) Pesticide product discontinuing and canceling provisions modified. (Upon the request of a registrant, the MDA Commissioner may cancel pesticide registration.)

FEDERAL

ARA Honors Rep. Panetta with Legislator of the Year Award  ARA honored Representative Jimmy Panetta with a 2023 Legislator of the Year Award for his support of issues that are important to the success of ag retailers, specifically his leading efforts with the Plant Biostimulant Act of 2023.  [Read More]

Update from Kyle Kunkler – American Soybean Association  As you may have seen, Congress released the text of one of its final joint FY24 minibuses containing the Ag (USDA funding) and Interior (EPA/FWS funding) bills. There were several provisions included in the final bill related to coalition request letters on the FY24 Interior (PRIA funding, ESA, etc.) and Ag (OPMP funding) bills. Since many of your organizations signed on to letters and submitted asks to the Hill related these FY24 coalition asks, I wanted to provide you an update of where they landed.    A quick note – this language/funding levels have not yet been enacted by Congress, but are likely to be adopted in the next week ahead of the March 8th funding deadline.    Here’s a high-level readout on some of the provisions of interest:  ESA Pesticide Language: The joint Interior ES includes coalition-supported report language which directs EPA in its pesticide program to use real-world data when conducting ESA reviews, including pesticide usage data, existing conservation practices, real-world studies on spray drift, ground and surface water concentrations, and sub-county species maps.    FWS Maps Language: Coalition-supported language also appears to have been retained from both the House and Senate reports directing Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to create sub-county level species range maps moving forward. This issue was not specifically addressed in the final ES, but the joint ES specifies that unless otherwise noted in the joint ES, the House and Senate language is retained. I am not including the language from the House or Senate reports here but let me know if you’d like it and I’m happy to send a copy.    Epidemiological Data Language: Like with the ESA Maps language, since the final ES does not specifically address this matter, coalition-supported language seems to have been retained from the House and Senate reports directing EPA to update its Framework for Incorporating Human Epidemiologic and Incident Data in Risk Assessments for Pesticides. Both the House and Senate language direct that the guidance should be updated, while the House language specifies that “that any epidemiological study or data considered by the Agency for regulatory decision making in the pesticide review process meets existing data quality requirements and can be verified and independently reviewed by the Agency.” I am not including the language from the House or Senate reports here but let me know if you’d like it and I’m happy to send a copy.    FIFRA Labeling Language: Unfortunately, the Joint Interior bill does not retain coalition-supported language that was included in the House bill which would have prevented EPA from adopting any policy position or approving any pesticide labels inconsistent with agency findings under its human health risk assessments.    PRIA Funding: Unfortunately, the Joint Interior ES specifies that funding for the pesticide licensing program was reduced from $120.277 million for FY23 to $115.375 million for FY24. This is disappointing given that both the House and Senate reports had funding at or greater than FY23 levels, and yet the joint level reduces program funding. The coalition requested $166.0 million for this funding level.    OPMP Funding: The joint Ag ES increases funding for USDA’s Office of Pest Management Policy (OPMP) by $300,000 for FY24, for a total of $1.8 million. This is a 20% increase over the $1.5 million for FY23. The coalition requested $2.5 million for this funding level.    FWS Consultation Funding: The joint Interior ES also included $1 million specifically for pesticide consultations under FWS’ pesticide consultation process. The coalition requested $3.0 million for this funding level.    Will be sure to share if there are additional details we discover in the days ahead but wanted to provide this quick readout on coalition supported provisions.    Kyle Kunkler  Director of Government Affairs, American Soybean Association

Industry Related News

AFREC Research Roundup: 2023 Nutrient Management Findings  This episode of the Nutrient Management Podcast is our 2023 AFREC research roundup. What is AFREC and how does it help our panelists conduct their research? What AFREC-funded projects are they currently working on? Have there been any interesting findings from the 2023 growing season? What have been our panelists’ favorite AFREC research projects and why? What would happen if AFREC were to go away?  Guests:  Daniel Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist (St. Paul)  Jeff Vetsch, U of M researcher (Waseca)  Lindsay Pease, Extension nutrient and water management specialist (Crookston)  Fabian Fernandez, Extension nutrient management specialist (St. Paul)  Additional resources:  AFREC website  AFREC video  MDA web page on AFREC    [Listen to the podcast]

Minnesotans Work Together to Address Environmental Challenges: Ag Water Stewardship: Farmers Play an Active Role in Improving Groundwater Management This month we continue our discussion of nitrate and drinking water issues, with emphasis on the current situation playing out in southeast Minnesota’s karst region. Recall that in recent months, activists petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, asking it to step in and take action where they allege state agencies have failed to act.  The primary focus of this petition is a call for new or increased levels of regulation of farmers, citing private well testing results showing that in the karst region, about 10% of wells would not meet the nitrate drinking water standard of 10 milligrams per liter.  [Read More]

2024 Commodity Classic: 3 Farmers Talk Technology and Equipment  Commodity Classic – the annual late-winter, all-things-ag mega tradeshow – bills itself as the largest farmer-led and farmer-centric event in North American agriculture.  Naturally then, we set out to connect with as many farmers as we could at the show and see what was on their minds with spring planting season drawing close for most of the country.  [Read More]

World’s 1st Carbon-free Fertilizer Plant Seeks $20M Property Tax Break from Richland  The Richland City Council will consider waiving nearly $20 million in property taxes over 10 years to woo a $1.1 billion green fertilizer plant to town.  The city council will consider a tax break submitted by Atlas Agro when it meets at 6 p.m., Tuesday, March 5, at city hall, 625 Swift Blvd.  The matter is on the council’s “Items of Business” agenda, with a presentation by the city’s economic development manager followed by a possible discussion by the council members.  [Read More]

Yara Inks Rare Long-Term Deal for Green Ammonia From Acme (1)  Acme to supply 100,000 tons a year to the fertilizer maker  Start up of production from the plant is planned in 2027  Europe’s largest fertilizer maker, Yara International ASA, agreed to buy ammonia made using solar power from India’s Acme Group in a deal that may spur activity in the fledgling renewable commodity.  The deal covers 100,000 tons a year in what may be the world’s first arm’s length contract for renewable ammonia of this scale, the companies said in a statement. Acme will supply the commodity from the first phase of its Oman manufacturing project with an expected start date of 2027.  [Read More]

Law and Disorder: The State of Crop Protection in the Courtroom  In early February, dicamba once again found itself on the wrong side of the law. A federal court in Arizona vacated EPA’s 2020 registrations for dicamba products to be used in over-the-top applications. This effectively meant that the agricultural community would be unable to apply XtendiMax (Bayer), Engenia (BASF), and Tavium (Syngenta) for the upcoming 2024 growing season.  In reviewing the case, the court found that EPA to be in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) when it re-authorized dicamba back in 2020. “Being aware of the practical effects’ of vacatur and difficulties these growers may have in finding effective and legal herbicides to protect dicamba-tolerant crops due to vacatur, the court nevertheless found the seriousness of the agency error, including in part its failure to assess risks and costs for non-users of over-the-top dicamba compelled vacatur,” said the court in its ruling.  [Read More]

Bayer wins Arkansas Trial over Roundup Cancer Claims  March 1 (Reuters) - Bayer (BAYGn.DE), opens new tab on Friday evening won a trial in a lawsuit brought by the family of an Arkansas woman who says she developed cancer from exposure to Roundup, one of thousands of lawsuits the German company is facing over the weedkiller, while another trial ended with a hung jury earlier in the day.  A jury in the Circuit Court of Conway County found that Bayer was not responsible for the cancer that killed Wanda Cody, who used Roundup at her place of business, the company said. [Read More]

Baltimore County Company Sued over PFAS in its Fertilizer Sold in Texas  A Baltimore County company that makes fertilizer using residual material from wastewater treatment plants has been sued by several Texas residents, who allege its products contaminated their farmland with dangerous “forever chemicals.”  The suit, filed last month in Baltimore County Circuit Court, alleges that Synagro, which is headquartered in the White Marsh area, markets its products as safe, despite knowing of the threat posted by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which can be found in sewage.  [Read More]

China's Buys of Corn and Sorghum Are Surging Right Now, But Why?  China continues to ramp up its purchases of feed grain around the globe with even more expected in the coming weeks. On Monday, Bloomberg reported China has purchased more than 20 cargoes of feed grain in just the past two weeks, which totals 1.2 million tons of grain.  From corn to sorghum to even barley, China continues to buy feed grains. Last week, trade sources said China was pricing corn out of the PNW; however, no daily sales have been confirmed. Then, this week, trade sources report China is purchased 10 cargoes from Ukraine.  No matter the source of the surge in purchases, one thing is clear: China is stockpiling grain.  [Read More]

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