USDA Funding Supply Chain Improvement and World Ag Output Down
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says USDA is making investments to strengthen American food and agriculture supply chains, expand markets for producers, and lower food costs.
Vilsack says, this will result in more affordable prices and choices for consumers, as well as more opportunities and revenues for farmers.
USDA is making investments in 185 projects worth nearly $196 million to create new and better market opportunities across the country.
**A recent U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement dispute panel is allowing Canada to continue restricting dairy access that the U.S. negotiated under the agreement.
The action comes after an earlier panel ruled that Canada had improperly restricted access to its market for American dairy products.
Jim Mulhern, president of the National Milk Producers Federation, is urging USDA and the USTR to look at all available options to ensure that Canada stops playing games with trade agreements.
**In the past decade, the world’s ag output grew at an average annual rate of 1.94%.
A USDA report says that’s slower than the 2.74% over the previous decade and below the average annual rate of 2.3% over 60 years.
The slowdown was tied primarily to a slowing rate of growth in agricultural total factor productivity, or TFP.
TFP measures the ag output produced from the aggregated inputs used in the production process.
