FARM REPORT: Clean Fuel, Red Meat and Pork Production

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Clean Fuels Alliance America finished up their meeting in Texas.

More than 800 people attended from over 20 countries, and it was a chance to network with others in the biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel industries.

Clean Fuels CEO Donnell Rehagen said as the industry continues to expand, it will be even more important to remain together and focus on issues.

Some of the companies there included, BSNF Railway, Union Pacific, American Airlines and PepsiCo.

These industries vocalized their sustainability goals and how clean fuels can work with them to reach that goal.  Heavy machinery was the focus at this conference.

Rural Minds is a national, non-profit organization.  They have been chosen to receive the 2023 STARR Coalition Advocacy Organization of the Year Award.

They have been recognized for their dedication to those living with mental illness in rural areas and helping expand mental health research.  Rural Minds Founder Jeff Winton said that they look forward to the ongoing work with other nonprofits, corporations, and individuals as they confront the growing health issue facing rural America.

The Department of Agriculture is optimistic about red meat exports.  They are projecting that long-term, the volume of U.S. red meat exports will grow over the next nine years.  That’s because they think incomes will rise overseas and the U.S. dollar will start to fall, when compared to other currencies of major agricultural trading partners.

They also think it will be led by a steady growth in U.S. pork exports, but are you ready for this?  It’s because some of the new environmental laws and restrictions in the European Union are expected to cause farmers to cut back or get out of the business completely.

That will cause the E.U. to rely on other countries to provide their food.

United States Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack blasted California’s Proposition 12. That’s the law that tells the rest of the nation how to raise pigs. He said that if Congress doesn’t act, we’re going to have chaos in the marketplace.  That law went into effect on January 1 and placed housing restrictions on farms that send pork to California, even if the farm it was raised on isn’t in California.

By setting production standards in other states, California is regulating interstate commerce, which they do not have the authority to do.  Vilsack says it means that there is no certainty for producers and if the issue isn’t taken seriously, it’ll mean chaos because other states can take the same steps.

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