California Snowpack 160% Above Normal and US Dairy on Canadian Restrictions
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**California’s snowpack is 160% higher than normal, according to the state Department of Water Resources’ first seasonal snow survey.
Early winter storms have been a blessing for California agriculture, which has faced severe water cutbacks due to historic drought.
But water officials remain uncertain that this year’s precipitation will be enough to replenish reservoirs to provide irrigation water through the summer.
Snowmelt supplies a third of California’s water supply.
**The U.S. dairy industry celebrated last week’s decision which found Canada is improperly restricting access to its market for U.S. dairy products, violating tariff-rate quota commitments in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The case is the first of any kind brought before a USMCA Dispute Settlement Panel and was launched with bipartisan support last May.
National Milk Producers Federation CEO Jim Mulhern says Canada is ignoring mutually agreed-upon commitments.
**Corn and biofuel groups are voicing concerns over EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard proposal.
EPA proposes Renewable Volume Obligations that Growth Energy says would undercut blending requirements for biofuel in 2021, and retroactively waive 2.96 billion gallons from 2020 RVOs finalized almost two years ago.
Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor says the proposal “sets an extremely troubling precedent of revising finalized volumes for 2020 and back-setting volumes for 2021 rather than driving growth in renewable fuels.”
