California Climate-Smart Grants and New Zealand to Tax Cow Burps
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**Twenty California projects have received grants under the first pool of $2.8 billion in funding from the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities program.
The grants support efforts such as manure management to reduce methane emissions, regenerative farming practices for almonds and data collection for developing a national soil inventory.
California grant recipients recently discussed individual climate-smart programs in a meeting of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture.
**Sales of corn to overseas buyers jumped week-to-week, while wheat sales declined during the week ending October 13.
USDA data says corn sales hit 408,300 metric tons, more than double the 200,000 tons sold a week earlier.
Mexico was the big buyer at 183,700 metric tons.
Wheat sales dropped to 163,100 metric tons, down from almost 212,000 the previous week.
Mexico was also the top wheat buyer.
**New Zealand is the latest country to tax cow burps.
Farmers recently gathered in locations across the country to protest against the government’s plan to tax “agricultural emissions.”
Reuters says the government confirmed plans to price agricultural gases and biogenic methane, which it says come from cow and sheep burps.
Farm groups worry about how the emissions will be priced and how the program will be governed.
The government wants to work with producers to find a solution.
