USDA on Hurricane Ag Losses and Meat & Cell-based Truce
From the Ag Information Network, I'm Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.**Georgia farmers and ranchers who suffered land damage and livestock losses to Hurricane Michael are encouraged to sign up for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
A series of special sign-ups for agricultural livestock mortality and carcass disposal is being conducted for the 6 counties designated under the expedited major disaster declaration by President Trump.
The first sign-up period ends October 26th. A second sign-up period will end November 16th.
https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2018/10/16/assistance-available-hurricane-damaged-ag-land-through-nrcs
**CoBank, a cooperative bank serving agribusinesses, rural infrastructure providers and Farm Credit associations has announced a multi-year sponsorship of the National FFA's "Living to Serve Platform."
Through Living to Serve, FFA chapters throughout the country are able to seek funding for a variety of service-learning projects through a competitive grant application process.
CoBank's three-year, $450,000 grant will support the continued expansion of the program, increasing the number of grants to FFA chapters seeking to address issues like hunger, health and nutrition, community engagement, community safety, and environmental responsibility.
**The U.S. meat industry and its emerging competitors in the lab-grown meat field struck a truce in a letter to the White House.
According to agriculture.com, both sides want FDA and USDA to jointly regulate the new product that they agreed to call "cell-based meat and poultry" to avert a potentially nasty fight over product regulations, including whether they can be sold as meat, something cattle groups oppose.
The letter says "Cell-based meats are the latest in a long history of innovation in American agriculture."
https://www.agriculture.com/news/livestock/cell-based-meat-sees-a-truce