World’s first ag emissions tax, includes livestock flatulence
Denmark is introducing the world’s first tax aimed at agricultural emissions, such as cow flatulence. This comes as part of an agreement finalized Monday, Nov. 18 between the Danish government and farmers, industry groups and environmentalists.
The new tax looks to address the farming sector, which is the country’s largest source of carbon pollution.
Starting in 2030, Danish farmers will be required to pay approximately $43 for every ton of carbon dioxide equivalent their operations emit. This fee is set to increase to around $106 per ton by 2035.
The average farm in Denmark emits about 5.6 tons of carbon dioxide annually. About half of those emissions stem from methane released by livestock through burps and manure.
Officials estimate that in the first year, the new tax could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.8 million tons. That’s a reduction comparable to the annual emissions of a small city.
In addition to the emissions tax, Danish officials are also targeting the agricultural sector’s reliance on chemical fertilizers.
Denmark shares the lead for the highest proportion of cultivated land, at 60%. That means fertilizer usage throughout the country is high. Experts say the high use leads to to harmful nitrogen runoff.
This pollution has reportedly depleted oxygen levels in the nation’s waters to alarming levels, leading to notable marine life loss.
To combat this, the government plans to allocate $6.1 billion over the next two decades to purchase approximately 15% of Denmark’s farmland.
Officials plan to repurpose the land and plant one billion trees. Researchers estimate a reforestation project like this could absorb up to a decade’s worth of carbon emissions.
These are the Democrats Troy Nehls would smoke a cigar with
When Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, arrives at the Capitol, it’s pretty much a guarantee he’ll have two things, a cigar and Trump gear. Nehls is outspoken, unapologetic and supports President-elect Donald Trump unconditionally.
“If Donald Trump says ‘jump three feet high and scratch your head.’ We all jump three feet high and scratch our heads. That’s it,” Nehls told reporters after the president-elect met with House Republicans.
Nehls added Republicans should embrace every single objective, goal and word Trump says.
“Embrace the new day because the American people have spoken,” Nehls said. “Now many are probably at home crying in their milk and whatever, going to bed early, sucking on their woobie because they lost. But the American people have spoken. So now let’s all unite as one America.”
So, in the interest of unity, Straight Arrow News asked Nehls if he could invite any Democrat to a local cigar bar to get to know them for an hour. Who would it be?
“Well I don’t want to put any Democrat in that position, because that could hurt their positions maybe in some of these committees. I’ve got a few,” Nehls said. “I have a lot of respect for some of the Democrats. But I think it would be irresponsible for me to tell you who they are. But you got to understand, I have some bipartisan legislation out there with some Democrats, and if you do a little bit of research, you’d know who they are.”
So, SAN researched Nehls legislative proposals. Based on his fellow co-sponsors, these are the Democratic representatives Nehls would get a cigar with.
Sea squirts are being explored as a sustainable meat alternative
Norwegian company Pronofa is exploring innovative ways to make protein production more sustainable by transforming ciona, ocean-dwelling filter feeders also known as sea squirts, into a viable meat substitute. However, raising these invertebrates for human consumption has had its problems in the past.
Sea squirts are processed by Pronofa into a product with a flavor and texture close to that of beef without the need for any additives. The invertebrates have a natural seafood taste and a texture similar to calamari.
Eating these creatures creates a much smaller carbon footprint compared to traditional livestock. Sea squirts are also nutritionally similar to conventional meats.
Sea squirts can also help clean the ocean as they feed. The creatures naturally pull out nitrogen and phosphorus from their marine environments.
Despite these advantages, there are challenges to scaling sea squirt farming. Mass die-offs have been reported at some farms due to parasites.
Experts say the problem is exacerbated by the low genetic diversity within farmed sea squirt populations. This vulnerability presents a potential barrier to long-term, large-scale production.
Despite this, Pronofa remains optimistic about the future of sea squirts in the food market. The company sees them as a promising option for sustainable protein rather than a fleeting trend.
Failures and delays mark Biden’s $325M effort to disrupt meatpacking industry
Three years after the Biden administration launched a program to inject competition into the $200 billion U.S. meatpacking industry, the results are far from promising. One of the program’s recipients, Pure Prairie Poultry, declared bankruptcy and culled 1.3 million chickens in northern Iowa after the company couldn’t afford to feed them, despite receiving nearly $46 million in grants and loans from the USDA.
Pure Prairie, which had ambitions to market premium air-chilled chicken to supermarkets, was part of a broader government effort to reduce the power of industry giants like Tyson Foods, JBS and Cargill, which control 85% of U.S. beef processing.
The initiative was launched after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chain, prompting some farmers to euthanize livestock when meatpacking plants shut down.
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Despite the infusion of funds, including a $6.9 million grant and a $38.7 million loan guarantee for Pure Prairie, the company’s financial struggles led to bankruptcy. The failure has raised serious concerns about the government’s oversight of taxpayer dollars and the viability of small meatpacking ventures.
Smaller meatpacking projects have faced significant challenges, including securing supply agreements, attracting customers and competing with established industry players. Industry analysts noted that the market conditions have been difficult, with rising costs and declining cattle herds complicating the viability of new packing plants.
While some projects are still underway, including a beef plant in Amarillo, Texas, delays are common, with timelines extending to 2027.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defended the program, saying that it is still too early to assess its success.
However, the situation at Pure Prairie serves as a stark reminder of the risks involved in trying to disrupt an industry dominated by a few large companies.
With many projects still in the early stages, it remains unclear whether the administration’s plan will ultimately succeed in creating meaningful competition in the meatpacking industry.
US pays $72 million to pharmaceutical companies for bird flu vaccine
As the number of human cases of H5N1, also known as bird flu, grow, the United States announced on Friday, Oct. 4, that it is providing vaccine manufacturers with $72 million to double their ready-to-use bird flu vaccine stockpile. Manufacturers currently have nearly five million ready-to-use doses and expect to have about 10 million by the beginning of 2025.
The funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will allow four companies producing the inoculations to bring the vaccine out of a storage stockpile and put them in pre-filled syringes for quick distribution in case of a public health emergency.
Other companies like Pfizer and Moderna are continuing efforts to develop an mRNA bird flu vaccine similar to COVID-19 shots.
The announcement by the U.S. comes as two more farm workers in California tested positive for the virus on Thursday, Oct. 3. They continue to be monitored for symptoms. At the time this report was published, the workers had no respiratory symptoms and only exhibited conjunctivitis or pink eye.
The latest human infections bring the total number of cases in people to 16 in the United States. Currently, there are no recommendations for anyone in the country to get a bird flu shot and health officials maintain that the risk of the virus to humans remains “low.”
DHHS said that its spending on the vaccinations is out of “an abundance of caution” and “is essential in preparing for a public health emergency.”
Dairy herds infected with H5N1 double just days apart in California
California, the largest milk producer in the United States, saw cases of bird flu double in dairy herds just days apart. Officials reported on Thursday, Sept. 19, that the number of infected dairy herds stood at 17 and by Monday, Sept. 23, it doubled to 34 infected herds.
The findings are deeply troubling for a state with around 1,100 dairy herds as infected cows will now have to be quarantined and nearby dairy farms will have to undergo specialized testing.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture said that it expected more cases to be found in the coming days and weeks. However, both state and federal officials maintain that pasteurized milk is still safe to drink.
California is now second in the nation in dairy herd cases of H5N1 while Colorado is first with 64 infected herds to date. However, California did not report its first case of H5N1 in a herd until Aug. 30, far after the outbreak started in March. So far, 232 herds in 14 states have tested positive for bird flu.
Infectious disease experts note that H5N1 could be spreading undetected in the United States because of “months of missing data” and narrow testing requirements. Right now, there is only mandatory reporting for the disease in poultry and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) only requires testing of lactating cows before they move across state borders.
Scientists are urging greater control measures including vaccinations, which they say may be needed “at scale” if the virus starts spreading from human-to-human.
Currently, there have only been 14 confirmed cases in humans, and it’s not been known to spread from human-to-human. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contends that the risk to humans remains low but said that it is closely monitoring people exposed to the virus.
Former President Trump threatens 200% tariff on John Deere products
Former President Donald Trump has threatened a 200% tariff on John Deere products if the company moves manufacturing to Mexico, sparking debate on U.S. trade policy and its impact on domestic manufacturing. Trump issued an ultimatum to John Deere during a speech at a farming event in Pennsylvania on Monday, Sept. 23.
“John Deere — and anybody else that does this, because it’s hurting our farmers, it’s hurting our manufacturing, and if you do that you’re gonna have a 200% tariff put on the products that you make in Mexico, right across the border,” Trump said during the event. “They think they’re gonna make product cheaper in Mexico and then sell it here for the same price and make a lot of money by getting rid of our labor and our jobs and really a great name, because John Deere is a great name.”
Trump stated that he purchases a lot of John Deere products as a private citizen, and that his tariff policy would mean “our country is going to make a lot of money” on John Deere products if they’re manufactured in Mexico.
However, economists, business leaders and political opponents have raised concerns about the potential economic impact of Trump’s tariff plans, arguing they could harm U.S. households and businesses.
America’s agricultural sector is currently facing multiple challenges, including potential tariffs on equipment manufacturers, labor shortages and farmland consolidation.
Straight Arrow News reported earlier this month that some agricultural economists warn the farm economy is collapsing. In August, Purdue University’s Farmer Sentiment Index hit an eight-year low, indicating a notably bleak mood among farmers.
According to a recent University of Missouri survey, more than half of agricultural economists believe the farm economy is already in a recession.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis reports that labor shortages have significantly worsened the situation for many in agriculture over the past five years.
Short corn offering high hopes for the future of farming in Midwest
“Knee high by the 4th of July” may not be the measure for a successful corn crop in the future. That’s because there are high hopes for short corn in the Midwest, and soon, towering corn stocks as far as the eye can see may be a relic of farms past. Short corn, created by Bayer Crop Science, is undergoing a pilot program on about 30,000 acres of in the Midwest, according to a report by The Associated Press on Monday, Sept. 23.
“As you drive across the Midwest in the next seven, eight, 10 years, you’re going to see a lot of this out there,” Cameron Sorgenfrey, an Iowa farmer, said when referring to the short corn crop.
Scientists said that the crop shows promise in withstanding powerful windstorms like a derecho that hit the area in 2020.
“It changed a lot of people’s lives,” Sorgenfrey said, referring to the derecho. “The next morning, when you woke up, or that afternoon, when you saw it and drove around, it was a real mess. A lot of stuff destroyed, and most of the corn was pretty flat.”
Sorgenfrey said a similar event this year in Nebraska did not impact the short corn crop nearly as much as the derecho did tall corn in 2020.
A Bayer spokesperson said the company has been working on the crop for more than two decades. While the ultimate goal is reportedly to create a climate change-resistant corn, researchers also said that it will make it easier for farmers to get into the fields with equipment to seed or spray fungicide.
However, some experts warned that short corn is also more susceptible to disease and mold because it is lower to the ground. It is also reportedly more prone to lodging, which is when corn grows along the ground due to heavy rain. Still, Bayer argued the positive outweighs the negative and expects to expand production in 2027 with the hopes of farmers growing it everywhere.
“I feel like in the last two years, it’s been a much better-looking corn out of the gate,” Sorgenfrey said. “It much more denser with extra population that it helps on that end and not only that, it grows the same until the row is closed. So, it helps with weed control, too, because you have more plants out there and less sunlight hitting the ground.”
The new crop could be a fundamental change to the industry that saw around 400 million tons of corn grown. Most of the crop was used for ethanol, animal feed or exported to other countries.
Soybeans are having an incredible year. That’s bad for prices.
Everything seemingly went right for growing soybeans this year, which is why prices are going all wrong. Soybean futures are near 4-year lows and down about 45% from its 2022 peak. Corn is also in a similar boat.
The U.S. is in the midst of a farm slump right now, despite very high yields for the country’s two biggest crops.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected net farm income would drop 26% in 2024, affecting not only the farmer but also businesses that rely on the farmer’s income, like John Deere and Kinze. Deere expects its North American sales to continue to slump. This summer, the company has laid off hundreds of salaried employees.
We’re just really good at making bushels. The problem, of course, is we don’t need all these bushels.
Damian Mason, The Business of Agriculture
For a detailed look at what led to the low prices and how farmers may adjust, Straight Arrow News interviewed Damian Mason, host of “The Business of Agriculture” podcast.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full interview in the video above.
Simone Del Rosario: Damian, why do we have such high soybean yields this year?
Damian Mason: First off, farmers in America are very, very good at doing what they do, which is produce commodities. We’re remarkable at it. On a trend line — granted, there’s been some down years, we’re on a trend line — every year, our soybean production goes up about a bushel per acre, eight-tenths to one bushel per acre.
We’re going to put out about 53 bushels per acre. When I was in high school, we were at about half that. So 53 bushels per acre put on 86 million acres means a whole heck of a lot of soybeans. We’re going to be around 4.6 billion bushels of soybeans produced in the United States of America this year.
Favorable weather patterns; technological advances; the machinery is so good, you mentioned John Deere; the ability for us to get the right seeding population, to get it at the right soil planted depth, to use the right fertility at the right time; it’s just amazing compared to where we were just a long time ago.
As an agricultural person, a farm boy, I always point out, remember, environmentally, we’re doing this with [fewer] units of natural resources per bushel produced than we ever have. So we’re just really good at making bushels. The problem, of course, is we don’t need all these bushels.
It’s just a situation where we’re probably in an oversupply situation. And that’s what happens with commodity production. The cure for low prices is low prices. The cure for high prices is high prices. You’re kind of seeing that this year.
Simone Del Rosario: And exports are up this year, so it’s not that we’re not exporting as much. It’s simply, as you said, these yields are pretty incredible and we’ve seen really favorable weather conditions. How are farmers adjusting to this reality?
Damian Mason: Some are going to, unfortunately, put their head in the sand and say, ‘Oh well, you know what? This will all be fine. It’s just a blip.’ Some people like me out here with the agricultural economics angle, have pointed out [a different trend].
I just pulled something [I printed off] almost a year and a half ago. This is a stat from the United States Department of Agriculture, and it’s from the end of year 2022. China was our No. 1 agricultural customer in 2022 with $36 billion of agricultural products bought from the United States. They’re going to be about half that this year.
So what we’ve got now is a very ascending productive capacity in soybeans, 86 million acres planted and harvested, whereas just 30, 40 years ago, we might have been around 60 or 70 million [acres]. So we’ve got a bunch more acres, growing a bunch more bushels per acre. And we did that, we were conditioned to do that in agriculture, to supply the new China tiger, this whole thing about China over the last 20 years.
The problem is China’s plenty supplied. Brazil ramped up production. Argentina ramped up production. Other Asian countries ramped up production, as well as us. So we’re in this situation.
What are farmers doing to adapt? Well, they could switch acres to something else, but with 86 million acres planted, it tells me they didn’t switch off many acres. They could also figure out new ways to sell their product, and that’s where biodiesel is going to come into effect, although that’s more government-driven than farmer-driven.
Simone Del Rosario: You were on a farm recently where they had said, forget about the soybeans. We’re going to be grazing cattle on this land. Can you tell me about that?
Damian Mason: So think about this, Simone. Soybeans were not really much of a crop until post-World War II in the United States. They were grown in Asia 1,000 years ago. But they didn’t really come into mass acreage, broad acre production here in the United States, until really the 1950s.
So we’re going to have 86 million acres. That’s almost 1/4 of our total cropland acres in the United States, just to put that in perspective. Corn is about 90 million, soybeans are about 90 million, those two commodities occupy about one half of all cropland, food producing acres, not counting rangeland and grassland.
So the intriguing part of that episode, that video that you saw, my friend Kelly Garrett in Iowa, a large-scale farmer, also has cattle as well as a cropland. He ran the numbers with his consultant financial adviser on the farm, and he said, ‘We’ve retooled what we think our cost of production is on these soybeans, and at $9 soybeans, which is where we’re hovering right now, a little over $9 per bushel, we think we can make more money by putting a mix of cover crops and forage crops on these fields and putting cattle on them.’
Right now, beef prices are still pretty high. The consumer’s still paying for steaks and cheeseburgers and so there’s a little bit of a shortage of cattle. So he says, ‘What if I took some of my acres out of soybean production and plant it to an array of forage crops, and then turn the cattle in there, intensively grazing it.’
You’re not talking about one cow per acre. You’re talking about a bunch of cows per acre and moving them, maybe two times a day, and really maximizing that. And it looks like that’s going to work.
Most people wouldn’t think that you could do that in Iowa. They would say, ‘Oh, soybeans in Iowa all day long trump cattle.’ But you know, it looks like the cattle are going to make more money per acre on some of his fields than soybeans.
Simone Del Rosario: That’s certainly economic innovation on the farmer’s part to to make that type of dramatic transformation. But to your point, a lot of other farmers are holding out hope. Do you think that, with this 4-year low in prices, do you think there will be a turnaround? Obviously, low prices cure low prices. Are we going to see fewer acres of soybeans planted in the following crops?
Damian Mason: Most of the hope is hinged on this. I pulled up a couple of things in some agricultural media. This one right here is a big one. United States Department of Agriculture announces $99.6 million, almost $100 million, for biofuels and clean energy projects.
You’ve heard about ethanol. Ethanol is in its 20th year now, generally derived from corn. We invented the Renewable Fuel Standard under the George Bush administration 20 years ago. There are approximately 190 ethanol plants that use corn as their feed stuff as their supply to make ethanol. Ethanol then goes into your gas tank. About 10%, 11% of everything that you burn in your tank, on average, is ethanol derived from corn.
Well, we’re kind of looking at doing that with soy with biodiesel. We’ve had biodiesel products before. The new angle is to use the oil. If you crush a soybean, 80% of it ends up as soybean meal, which is best used to feed to a pig or a cow to make a pork chop or a steak. The 20% becomes oil. That oil would be required then to go straight into a refining process to make diesel.
So there’s a lot of hope for a cleaner diesel, a less emission, a less pollutive diesel, derived from using soybean oil. Of course, then you’re going to have a little bit of a glut of soybean meal, which makes a very cheap feed, which also might help bring down the cattle prices, because that would go then to the beef. So I think that’s the biggest hope right there.
The idea that farmers are going to produce less; no farmer that you will ever meet says, ‘You know what I want to do next year? I want to decrease my yields by 10% by doing a crappy job.’ Most of them are saying, ‘I want to go ahead and get more bushels per acre, and I want to be more efficient. I want to be a star producer.’
John Deere steps back from diversity initiatives amid criticism
Farm equipment manufacturer John Deere is the latest company to announce that it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events. The move follows a trend among major U.S. companies to scale back on diversity and inclusion initiatives amid conservative criticism. The Illinois-based company also plans to review its training materials and remove any “socially-motivated messages” to ensure compliance with federal and local laws.
Our customers’ trust and confidence in us are of the utmost importance to everyone at John Deere. We fully intend to earn it every day and in every way we can. pic.twitter.com/8BgyPyQJQo
“The existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy,” John Deere said in a statement.
This shift echoes a recent move by Tractor Supply, which also scaled back its corporate diversity and climate efforts following online pushback led by conservative figures.
John Deere’s decision has not gone unnoticed or unchallenged. Civil rights and advocacy groups quickly voiced their concerns following the announcement. The National Black Farmers Association called out the potential setbacks to diversity and inclusion efforts in the business world.
Critics also pointed out that this decision comes one month after John Deere agreed to pay $1.1 million in back wages to 277 Black and Hispanic job applicants following accusations of hiring discrimination by the Labor Department.
