1-9 Agribusiness Update
This is the Agribusiness Update...For Greg Martin...I'm David Sparks
More and more new policies are decided in a courtroom and American Farm Bureau General Counsel Ellen Steen said in Thursday's Newsline that three pending cases could have huge impacts on the nation's farmers and ranchers. One of these is a water-related case the Farm Bureau is appealing after a court ruled the Environmental Protection Agency could issue a "pollution diet" on a region of this country. "For us it really isn't a regional issue at all," Steen said. "It's about the scope of EPA's power to require changes in land use activity, to micro-manage land use decision-making, across a vast landscape to achieve water quality goals."
U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is conducting the national Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey. Farmers, ranchers and horticulture producers across the United States will begin receiving the survey today in the mail asking them to provide information about their water use and irrigation practices, with responses due by February 10.
Funding for implementing the new health care law and other sticking points remain, but negotiators reported significant progress Tuesday on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September.
That's today's Agribusiness Update from the Ag Information Network.
