From the Farm Desk
FUEL STANDARDS ROLLBACK PLAN GETS SECOND HEARING (Associated Press) – In August, the Trump administration shared their proposal to roll back Obama-era national fuel economy standards. The administration says that waiving tough fuel efficiency requirements would make vehicles more affordable.
KOREA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT RENEGOTIATED – President Trump and South Korea President Moon Jae-in recently signed the renegotiated U.S. – Korea Free Trade Agreement. South Korea also agreed to lift its cap on the import of U.S. trucks and allow the U.S. to extend its 25 percent tariff on Korean trucks.
DON’T CALL BULL (Business Insider) – A Dutch company near Amsterdam is set to debut the world’s first floating dairy. The facility, complete with 40 dairy cows, is said to be 89-by-89 feet and will produce an average of 211 gallons of milk each day.
AUTONOMOUS TRACTOR-GRAIN CART TESTED IN FIELDS (Prairie Farmer) – Smart Ag has introduced AutoCart, a system allowing an autonomous tractor to function in the same way it would with a driver behind the wheel. Smart Ag isn’t the first company to demonstrate an autonomous tractor but is the first company to offer this system as a commercial product.
GREAT PUMPKINS (FarmWeekNow.com) – Despite early season rains that put a scare into pumpkin producers this year, harvest results so far indicate an above-average crop in terms of both quantity and quality, according to Jim Ackerman, with Nestle Libby’s in Morton. The commercial crop dried out and has excelled, but, meanwhile, output was a bit patchier for specialty growers.
FDA MOVING AHEAD WITH PLANT-BASED PRODUCT LABELING (Agri-Pulse) – The FDA is moving forward with changes that could potentially prevent plant-based products, such as almond milk, from using dairy nomenclature.
NEW COMMODITY? (FarmWeekNow.com) – While Illinois prepares to license industrial hemp production, the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) point person helping develop new rules emphasized the focus is reasonable regulations. IDOA “wants to treat industrial hemp like a commodity (crop) as much as possible,” said Jeff Cox, head of IDOA’s medicinal plant bureau. But farmers “must understand this is a regulated program. You can’t just go plant.”