“NCBA Releases Responses to Audit”
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has released a 27-page response to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board audit and independent accountant’s report critical of the way NCBA expenses are charged as beef checkoff activities. According to the report – the audit was performed to assist the Board in determining that the salary and wages, disbursements and other charges selected for testing are in compliance with the Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985 and the Beef Promotion and Research Order and the contract between NCBA and the Beef Promotion Operating Committee.
In the NCBA report – the organization’s leaders addressed each discrepancy. Here is a sampling. One of the problems cited was expenses for three employees to attend the NCBA Charity Golf Tournament. In submitting their expenses neither participant charged their expenses to the same account. The report also noted seven invoices totaling nearly 188-thousand dollars that were not paid timely. Payments ranged from two to twelve days late.
A question that came out of the audit was spouse and family travel. The NCBA response stated historically – an officer dinner with spouses at the annual industry meeting has not been an issue. Currently – CBB guidelines for contractors and NCBA policies do not prohibit spousal travel expenses – but we will meet with CBB to establish a guideline.
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“Checkoff Guidelines Needed”
Working through the NCBA response to the CBB audit – one quickly sees that work needs to be done to address the problems identified by the report with guidelines to address each issue. And in some cases – it will be necessary to review existing guidelines and change them to better address each issue. Also – guidelines for establishing a paper trail before an event is incurred will likely be of help.
The report also addresses time reporting. Often times – trips are used to address several issues covered by different divisions of NCBA. The report detailed 25 instances in which auditors were unable to determine if time was properly recorded. Once again - NCBA says the independent accountant was unable to reach a conclusion on these items in large part due to a lack of detailed checkoff guidelines.
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“Others Watching NCBA Situation”
Several agricultural and livestock organizations are closely watching the NCBA situation. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson notes an appropriate checkoff program with the right financial, operational and governance structure is important for everyone. Johnson says his organization commends the CBB for assisting in the audit and pushing for further evaluation, with a more comprehensive compliance review.
In a joint letter – five agricultural and livestock groups addressed the CBB audit and indicators that NCBA has substantially breached the financial firewall and did not maintain sufficient documentation differentiating between the policy and checkoff sides of the organization.
NFU is continuing dialogue with NCBA, CBB and other agricultural and livestock leaders to ensure producers benefit from a revised checkoff program.
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“Estate Tax Remains Outside of Bill Considerations”
Senate Republicans stood against Democrats Thursday by voting against a motion to limit debate on a substitute amendment to the small business bill. Republicans complained that they were not given a fair chance to get votes on five amendments – including one on the estate tax.
Still – Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says we’re getting closer. He predicted a chance of significant progress very soon. But Majority Leader Harry Reid remains frustrated. Reid accused the Republicans of not wanting an agreement. Democrats and President Obama continue to urge the Senate to act quickly.
The measure pending before the Senate would create a 30-billion dollar small business lending fund, extend 12-billion in tax breaks and enhance federal programs designed to help small businesses.
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“Lincoln’s Ag Disaster Money Dropped from Senate Bill; Will Come from USDA Instead”
Senate Ag Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln pulled her 1.5-billion dollar ag disaster provision from the pending Small Business Jobs bill on Thursday after the Obama administration agreed to take money from existing programs to fund the payments to eligible farmers and ranchers. Lincoln told Agri-Pulse that while she firmly believes agricultural producers are rural small businesses – it was clear the Republicans pulled out all the stops to block her legislation.
In exchange for pulling ag disaster from the small business bill – she says she secured an agreement from both Majority Leader Reid and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel – and have their commitment to deliver critical agriculture disaster assistance administratively in the next two weeks. Lincoln declined to say where the money would be taken from. She simply told Agri-Pulse they’re looking and will find it.
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“Senators Lincoln, Lugar: Child Nutrition Bill Needs Passage Before Programs Expire”
Senate Ag Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln and Senator Richard Lugar were joined by four other Senators Thursday in urging passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act – a bill that will reauthorize child nutrition programs before they expire September 30th. Lincoln says the act will put the nation on a path to end childhood hunger and obesity and improve the health of the next generation of Americans. Lugar says food from child nutrition programs may provide the bulk of nutrition children from low-income homes receive during the day. Given the nation’s economic climate – he says the moment to pass the bill should be seized.
The legislation passed the Senate Ag Committee unanimously at the end of March. It provides the first non-inflationary increase in the Federal reimbursement rate for school lunch programs in nearly 40 years. The bill includes a provision requiring the Ag Secretary to establish national nutrition standards consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for all foods sold on school campuses throughout the school day.
Doctor Sandra Hassink – American Academy of Pediatrics Obesity Leadership Workgroup Chairman – says as a pediatrician who specializes in treating obesity – she’s pleading for the Senate to put her out of a job. Hassink says she would like nothing more than to have an empty clinic. If legislators miss the opportunity to pass the bill and improve programs – Senator Lincoln says the nation’s children will pay the price.
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“Senators Chambliss, Brownback Question USDA Budget”
Senate Ag Committee Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture Ranking Member Sam Brownback wrote a letter to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack Wednesday urging USDA to take deficit reduction seriously. The Senators say they openly question why USDA would require flexibility from the Office of Management and Budget to cut mandatory farm safety net programs to meet discretionary funding reductions. They say honest budgeting requires discretionary savings come from reductions to discretionary programs – and they believe the President’s proposed budget for the 2012 fiscal year should be based on honest budgeting.
In their letter – Chambliss and Brownback note discretionary and mandatory programs in regard to USDA’s budget increased seven and 20-percent respectively over the previous two fiscal years. They state nutrition, feeding and food safety programs are significant portions of outlays for mandatory and discretionary accounts – but conservation, rural development and other discretionary functions received an approximated 15-percent increase this fiscal year compared to the previous one.
The Senators note farmers and ranchers need a level of certainty to operate. They say the time to examine and make changes to mandatory programs is during the upcoming reauthorization of the farm bill.
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“EPA Rejects Climate Science as Flawed”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has denied 10 petitions challenging its 2009 determination that climate change is real, is occurring due to emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities and threatens human health and the environment. EPA says the petitions to reconsider EPA’s Endangerment Finding are based on selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy – therefore providing no evidence to undermine their determination.
EPA Administrator Liza Jackson says defenders of the status quo will try to slow EPA’s efforts to get America running on clean energy. She says a better solution would be to join the vast majority of the American people who want to see more green jobs, more clean energy innovation and an end to the oil addiction that pollutes the planet and jeopardizes our national security.
EPA says the global warming trend over the past 100 years is confirmed by three separate records of surface temperature – all of which are confirmed by satellite data. Beyond this – evidence of climate change is seen in melting ice in the Arctic, melting glaciers around the world, increasing ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, shifting precipitation patterns and changing ecosystems and wildlife habitats.
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“NFU Joins Ag Groups Supporting, Urging Senate Inclusion of RES”
The Senate’s pending energy legislation doesn’t include a Renewable Electricity Standard that would provide significant opportunity for investment in ag and rural communities according to National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson. NFU supports an RES and wrote to Senate leadership with other ag groups about the critical importance of including a 25-percent RES as the Senate considers the energy legislation.
Johnson says the coalition is disappointed with Majority Leader Harry Reid’s omission of an RES from the legislation – saying including the provisions will help America’s drive toward energy independence, reinvigorate rural communities through job growth and income generation for ag.
Johnson states America’s farmers and ranchers support the opportunity to increase energy production under an RES and the Senate should have an opportunity to vote for it.
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“New York Times Fails, Mischaracterizes Fueling Freedom Plan”
Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis says Thursday’s Editorial titled Energy Subsidies, Good and Bad in the New York Times misrepresents the company’s proposal to open the U.S. transportation fuels market and fails to acknowledge the technological advancements that have made ethanol production cleaner and more efficient. Buis says the editorial doesn’t correctly signify Growth Energy’s Fueling Freedom Plan – which would redirect the current blender’s tax credit to support the build-out of the distribution infrastructure to give Americans a true choice of fuels at the pump.
Buis states the editorial mistakenly claims demand for ethanol will plow under more grasslands or forests. He says U.S. farmers produced a record corn crop on seven-million fewer acres last year than the previous record year – proving farm efficiencies and technology are helping produce even greater yields from fewer acres. Buis says the New York Times opinion fails to reflect the facts about modern American agriculture, its productivity and advancements in technology.
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“ASA’s Steps to Doubling Exports by 2015”
The American Soybean Association announced this week key steps it believes will help meet President Obama’s National Export Initiative goal of doubling exports in the next five years. Some of those key steps include approving the pending Free Trade Agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama and negotiating new FTAs with countries that have the potential to expand imports of U.S. products – among other things. However – the group says approving the pending deals is the most important step. ASA President Rob Joslin says the rest of the world is moving forward rapidly to expand bilateral trade while the U.S. is at a virtual standstill. He says that must change quickly if the NEI is to have a chance to succeed.
The U.S. has lost market share in Colombia and Panama due to delays in approving the FTAs. U.S. soy and livestock product exports declined 34-percent in Colombia and 6.9-percent in Panama. Joslin says soybeans and soybean products are the most important U.S. export commodity – with export sales exceeding 21-billion dollars last year. Those exports represented more than 50-percent of U.S. soybean production and 21-percent of total U.S. ag exports in 2009.
In order to move forward on the NEI agenda – Joslin says the Administration needs to reach consensus with Congress on the scope of FTAs and the priority of approving the concluded agreements as soon as possible.
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“Health Care Legislation Provisions Analyzed in Center for Rural Affairs Report”
The Center for Rural Affairs will release its second policy report in a series of reports examining the health care reform’s impact on rural America – titled Health Care Reform, What’s In It – on August 4th. The report examines important, beneficial provisions of the legislation. The report’s author – Center for Rural Affairs Research Director Jon Bailey – says much of the attention to the new federal health care law was paid to the politically volatile insurance coverage provisions. But he says an important part of the law received little attention – the portions concerning quality health care access.
Access issues are serious health challenges in most of rural America according to Bailey. He says the new law provides numerous opportunities for rural areas to increase all medical professions and stabilize their medical delivery system. The provisions also have the potential to aid the economies of many rural communities – Bailey says – as new and improved medical facilities and more health care professionals in rural communities will afford more jobs, more income and more economic opportunity in those communities. He states rural families, businesses and communities have a lot to gain from health care reform as it passed both the House and Senate – and much to lose if government fails to properly implement of Congress fails to adequately fund the provisions crucial to improving rural health care access.
Those provisions – highlighted in Bailey’s report – include funding opportunities for the training and education of rural physic8ians and expansion of other medical professionals; recruitment of young rural students for health care careers; expansion of medical care facilities in rural areas; improving Emergency medical services; and healthier eating and living initiatives and earlier access to primary care providers for disease prevention. He says they are long-term solutions to a significant challenge to rural health care – but they must become priorities for the Administration, Congress, state governments and all rural people for them to work.
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“Pioneer Agronomists Say Look Out for Foliar Diseases”
Pioneer Hi-Bred experts are suggesting scouting fields and then evaluating whether a foliar fungicide application offers benefits because of the wet, humid weather conditions causing risk of foliar disease in fields on top of extra disease inoculums from wet and cool conditions in 2008 and 2009. The conditions in those growing seasons allowed many disease inoculums to survive on field residue – corn-on-corn fields especially – and caused disease pressure to increase this growing season. Pioneer Technical Services Manager Brent Wilson says disease pressure varies from field to field – but foliar diseases are conducive to wet growing conditions.
Wilson says the window to see the greatest return from a fungicide application is rapidly closing as the corn crop and disease cycle progresses – and fields with high disease pressure could still see a return on a fungicide investment. He says hybrids with high tolerance will likely withstand any yield impact to foliar diseases. Fungicides potentially offer positive outcomes – but deciding to apply fungicides should be something growers assess on a field-by-field basis – according to Wilson. It’s imperative to apply fungicide at the right time – and the right time is during tasseling when spraying.
Wilson says corn planted in mid-April is near the end of the application window – but it’s a good time to evaluate and take note of fields impacted by foliar diseases for the crop in the ground and assessing hybrid performance for next year’s seed purchase decisions. For more information on foliar fungicide applications or hybrid tolerance ratings – contact your local agronomist or sales professional.
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“New Beef Resource Organization Formed With Purpose to Spread Facts”
Beef industry leaders at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference learned about the Sustainable Beef Resource Center and its goal to provide useful, science-based information to the food chain. SBRC Chairman Paul Parker says SBRC members see the organization’s role as that of a go-to resource for associations, coalitions, academia and other industry stakeholders – which allows the organization to zero-in on research that can fill information gaps as the industry improves its ability to produce safe, wholesome, affordable beef while using fewer natural resources.
The SBRC was formed because beef producers and branded-beef marketers recognized the need for a centralized source of facts about technologies used in sustainable beef production. Iowa Beef Industry Council Executive Director Nancy Degner says SBRC materials are so valuable in ongoing education about beef’s role in a healthy, affordable diet. SBRC invites other organizations and individuals to join its membership.
Anyone can visit www.SustainableBeef.org for more information on the organization, beef-production facts and talking points about the environmental and economic benefits of beef technologies.
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“Mandatory Price Reporting Bill Passes House Ag Committee”
The House Agriculture Committee recently approved three bills including the Mandatory Price Reporting Act of 2010. The bill reauthorizes mandatory price reporting for five years. It also adds mandatory reporting for wholesale pork cuts and electronic reporting for dairy products. House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson says mandatory price reporting ensures that producers have access to transparent, accurate and timely market information that helps them make the best decisions for their business.
The committee also passed the Veterinary Services Investment Act which establishes a competitive grant program to support efforts to increase access to veterinary care in underserved areas. Chairman Peterson points out that right now – the United States is experiencing an alarming shortage of large animal veterinarians who are the first line of defense against animal disease and play an essential role in ensuring food safety.
Also passed was the Chesapeake Bay Restoration and Improvement Act. The bill will give farmers and ranchers in the Chesapeake Bay region additional tools to help them meet regulatory requirements imposed on them by the Environmental Protection Agency. Peterson says Chesapeake Bay producers face some of the most stringent environmental regulations in the country – and this bill provides them with resources and certainty as they address environmental requirements and work to improve water quality and wildlife habitat in the region.
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“Eat Up: White Button Mushrooms Enhance Immune System”
Agricultural Research Service scientists have conducted animal-model and cell-culture studies showing white button mushrooms enhance the activity of critical cells in our immune systems. The mushrooms may actually promote immune function by increasing production of antiviral proteins released by cells when trying to protect and repair tissue. The mushrooms enhanced maturity of immune system cells that make important white blood cells that can recognize and destroy antigens on invading bacteria. Ninety-percent of the mushrooms consumed in the U.S. are actually white button mushrooms. The study appeared in a 2008 issue of the Journal of Nutrition.
