Agribusiness Update for Monday 2/18/13

This is the Agribusiness Update...I’m Greg Martin...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has offered a sequestration package that includes farm bill provisions. Ag Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow says the package would eliminate direct payments avoid all sequestration-related USDA cuts and fund disaster assistance programs that were not included as part of the farm bill extension. She says the provision will fill the holes in the extension passed New Year’s Eve so that all of agriculture is supported.

The Grazing Improvement Act of 2013 has been introduced in the U.S. House. The legislation seeks to improve the livestock grazing permitting process on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service. The measure was actually passed the House with bipartisan support. Both the Public Lands Council and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association strongly support the bill.

During his State of the Union Address on Tuesday the President called for bipartisan solutions for climate change. National Biodiesel Board says the biodiesel industry is positioned to play a growing role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, saying biodiesel is a practical, cost-effective and bipartisan solution that’s already here to solve the climate change problem.

That’s today’s Agribusiness Update from the Ag Information Network.