U.S. wheat farmers have long played a major role in the fight against world hunger, which is why the U.S. Wheat Associates’ (USW) Trade Policy Team has been helping push for changes to the international food assistance programs under the 2023 Farm Bill. Among other things, proposed changes would reinstate the Food for Peace program’s original intent to allow U.S. farmers to share their harvest to fight global hunger.

USDA cut its forecast Wednesday for the value of U.S. ag exports in fiscal year 2023 to $181 billion, a $3.5 billion reduction from the agency’s February prediction of $184.5 billion...USDA left its sorghum export forecast unchanged at $800 million, but cut its wheat prediction $900 million to a total of $7.4 billion. The cut in wheat exports is “significantly due to smaller-than-expected winter wheat production for 2023-24.

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) Director of Trade Policy Peter Laudeman recently returned from Australia, where he joined members of that country’s wheat and grain industries in discussions on plant breeding innovations and other issues ripe for collaboration. Laudeman attended an international conference in Canberra focused on the research and regulatory landscape of gene-edited crops and implications for international trade.

Join NAWG’s advocacy campaign to engage with legislators on increasing Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) programs authorized in the Farm Bill. MAP’s authorized funding has not changed since 2006 and FMD funding has remained the same since 2002. Inflation and sequestration have significantly eroded our ability to compete with other countries who are steadily investing more in their agricultural export promotion efforts. Please visit NAWG’s website to participate in the grassroots efforts to make your voice heard.

Farm-level prices for many of the state’s top agricultural commodities have softened from record or near-record levels last year. But overall farm production costs have held steady for many of the state’s ag producers. This has created some headwinds for the 2023 growing season and could squeeze profitability for many of Idaho’s 25,000 farms and ranches.

A federal judge has yanked approval for a phosphate mining project in southeastern Idaho, saying federal land managers in the Trump administration didn’t in part properly consider the mine’s impact on sage grouse, a bird species that has seen an 80% decline in population since 1965. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill’s Friday decision came five months after he found fault with the way the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved the Caldwell Canyon Mine in 2019.

When it comes to agriculture, wheat is king in Nez Perce County. But the county is very diverse geographically and plenty of other crops are produced there as well.