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US to Lift Most Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

The Biden administration will end most of the last remaining federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements next week when the national public health emergency for the coronavirus ends, the White House said Monday. Vaccine requirements for federal workers and federal contractors, as well as foreign air travelers to the U.S., will end May 11. The government is also beginning the process of lifting shot requirements for Head Start educators, healthcare workers, and noncitizens at U.S. land borders. MORE

Source: WMC

‘Ticking Time Bomb’ Awaits EPA’s Latest WOTUS Rule

It’s difficult to imagine any issue that has captured more attention and time and resources of U.S. farmers and agricultural groups than the debate over the Waters of the U.S. or WOTUS definition in the Clean Water Act. Since passage in 1972 the WOTUS definition in the amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 has been a lightning rod for farm and environmental groups debating how far the federal government should go in protecting water.“ MORE

Source: MBS

For Farmers, An Uncertain Crop Season Awaits

Farmers are set to plant more acres than a year ago, as crop prices and input costs remain high. China bought higher than expected levels of U.S. corn and soybeans early in the year, a trend that could be threatened by a strong Brazilian crop. U.S. corn, soybean and wheat acreage is expected to rise for the 2023 growing season, but several variables will affect whether farmers will eventually harvest those bigger acres. MORE

Source: MBS

Food Safety Concerns Are Said to Require the Defeat of the “Well-Intentioned” PRIME Act

Food safety is reason enough to kill the Processing Revival and Interstate Meat Exemption Act, otherwise known as the PRIME Act, according to some of the industry’s most powerful players. The North American Meat Institute and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association put themselves on record for the 118th Congress as again opposing the PRIME Act. The PRIME Act is seen as “vital to small-scale producers, their communities, and consumers who demand local products” by the legislation’s sponsors. MORE

Source: MBS

American Business Is ‘Hungry for More’ From Biden on Trade

When Joe Biden ran for the White House in 2020, he tweeted a warning: If the US didn’t write the global rules for trade, “they may be written by China or other nations that don’t share our values.” Now, as President Biden begins to campaign for a second term, some businesses lobby groups want to see more tangible progress inking trade deals that open foreign markets to US exports. MORE

Source: MBS

US Adds a Strong 253,000 Jobs Despite Fed’s Rate Hikes

America’s employers added a healthy 253,000 jobs in April, evidence of a labor market that still shows surprising strength despite rising interest rates, chronically high inflation and a banking crisis that could weaken the economy. MORE

Source: MN Chamber

USDA and FDA Propose Rule Changes on Meats, Milk and Sodium

As the first quarter of 2023 drew to a close, both the FDA and USDA were busy proposing new rules that affect labeling and formulation of products. The Dept. of Agriculture in March said it plans to change how meat, poultry and egg products use “Product of USA” labeling. Current labeling is misleading to consumers, according to the agency. A voluntary “Product of USA” or “Made in the USA” label claim could be used on meat, poultry and egg products only when they are derived from animals born, raised, slaughtered and processed in the U.S. The new regulatory requirements would align the label claims with what consumers actually understand the claim to mean, the agency says. Under current rules, meat can be labeled Product of USA as long as it is merely processed here — including when meat is raised overseas and then merely processed into cuts of meat here. MORE

Source: FoodProcessing.com

Biden Administration Looks to Increase Organic Agriculture

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced USDA will soon begin accepting grant applications to expand and improve markets for domestically produced organic products. The news came during his remarks at Organic Trade Association Annual Policy Conference in Washington. Grant funding will come from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service’s Organic Transition Initiative that was announced last fall. MORE

Source: MBS

Minnesota Senate Approves Said Family and Medical Leave Plan

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, and Republican lawmakers, have tried with little success since the early days of the session to block or scale back the program because of the costs for employers, especially small businesses. MORE

Source: MN Chamber

Ag Exports Critical to Minnesota in a Changing World

The season’s first grain ship loaded this week at the Port of Duluth-Superior. The 620-foot Solina is bound for Algeria with 720,000 bushels of durum wheat. That’s the equivalent of about 200 train cars of grain, grown on about 20,000 acres of farmland in the Upper Midwest, said Daniel Vandenhouten, operations manager at CHS Terminal in Superior, Wis. It’s one of several grain terminals in the port. The CHS facility stores grain in about 500 towering concrete silos that fill 35 to 40 ships with grain every year. MORE

Source: MN Chamber



GOP Lawmakers Remove Hundreds of Items from Gov. Tony Evers' Budget

GOP members of the Legislature's budget committee voted from the governor's proposed two-year spending plan, ranging from a new paid family leave program to a deal to fund Other Evers budget initiatives rejected by Republicans Tuesday include an expansion of Medicaid, the legalization of marijuana and an enrollment freeze in the state's voucher school program.

While it's a dramatic step, it's also an expected one. Each year that Evers has introduced his budget to the Legislature, lawmakers have started their work on the plan the same way. On the night Evers introduced his budget, Republicans were already talking about rejecting much of the proposal and starting over with their own. But the scope of what Republicans are removing is greater than in years past. With the way the budget committee operates, those ideas will no longer technically be up for debate. MORE

Source: WisPolitics

CVB’s Cindy Brown Among Appointees to the WI DATCP Board

Gov. Tony Evers announced four appointments to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) Board, effective May 1, 2023. Two of the appointments are current members of the board and two are new appointees. Cindy Brown (Menomonie) is the President of Chippewa Valley Bean, North America’s largest exporter of kidney beans and the largest processor of dark red kidney beans in the world. She has also served in varying leadership capacities on national and international trade boards and councils. Ms. Brown is appointed to fill a vacancy created due to the recent resignation of Board member Patty Edelburg. MORE

Source: DATCP

The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency is Ending. What Does that Mean for WI?

Although your private insurance plan may still cover at-home COVID tests, you'll probably have to pay more out-of-pocket for them. If you have Medicare, you'll be able to get those at-home tests for free through September 2024. Regardless of your insurance status, if you live in Wisconsin, you can still order two free at-home antigen test kits per household per month through the state's Say Yes! Covid Test program. But that program will only continue until supplies run out, which may happen as soon as early May, Wisconsin Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Deb Standridge said. MORE

Source: WisPolitics

Wisconsin Researchers are Looking at Solar and Agriculture Coexistence

As renewable energy generation grows, the agriculture industry has voiced concerns about it driving up the cost of quality farmland. That’s why some Wisconsin researchers are looking at ways the two industries can coexist. "Agrivoltaics," the use of land for both agriculture and solar power, was at the center of a panel with a regulator and researchers recently hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. MORE

Source: WisPolitics



No Surprise Here: Wisconsin Tops in Cheese Production

The surprise here would have been our state’s dethroning. But once again, it failed to happen as Wisconsin led the way in 2022 for cheese production nationwide. State cheesemakers produced 3.52 billion pounds of cheese last year compared to 3.47 billion pounds in 2021, according to Cheese Market News, which cited data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. California ranked second with 2.46 billion pounds of cheese while Idaho ranked third with 989.5 million pounds produced. MORE

Source: WMC

71% Will Switch Food & Beverage Brands to Save Money: Survey

A 2023 survey by Attest in all product categories finds 80% of Americans believe brands are using inflation as an excuse to hike prices. Price increases are causing a large majority of American consumers to question long-held brand loyalty, according to the results of a 2023 consumer survey by consumer research platform Attest. 80% of Americans believe brands are using inflation as an excuse to hike prices. 88% of consumers will switch brands to save money. (While the survey involved all consumer product categories, 71% said they will drop brand loyalty to food & beverage brands to save money.) The survey of 2,000 American consumers was taken Feb. 15. It covered a number of consumer categories, not just food & beverage, and most of the general responses were for the full universe of brands. MORE

Source: FoodProcessing.com

Landwerx Working to Advance U.S. Food and National Security

Landus, an Iowa-based agricultural cooperative, and Defensewerx have announced the launch of Landwerx, an agriculture innovation hub intended to advance the United States’ food and national security efforts. The Landwerx innovation hub, based out of the Landus Innovation Connector in Des Moines, Iowa, will grant farmers access to problem solvers and solutions within Defensewerx’s ecosystem. Defensewerx is an innovation ecosystem intermediary serving national security, defense, and intelligence communities. MORE

Source: MBS

FDA Reopens Plant-based Dairy Draft Labeling Guidance Amid Consumer Confusion Complaints

FDA is reopening the comment period for draft guidance on labeling plant-based milk at the request of several stakeholder groups, but comments already submitted reveal a wide rift between dairy and plant-based players about how best to describe non-dairy milk and its nutritional value to consumers. MORE

Source: CLFP

Expiring Confusion About Food Date Labels

Congress has an opportunity to help tackle America’s food waste problem via the bipartisan Food Date Labeling Act. Nearly 10% of all wasted food in the U.S. is due to confusion over how to interpret food date labels—often mistakenly thought of as “expiration dates*.” The numerous types of date labels confuse consumers who believe their food will make them sick when more often the manufacturer is intending to relay a guarantee of peak freshness. MORE

Source: CLFP

MWFPA would like to thank the Sponsors of the 2023 Scramble!

Alliant Energy (Presenting Sponsor)

Del Monte Foods (Beverage Cart)

Lyco Manufacturing (Gold Sponsor)

Lakeside Foods (May 31 Member Reception)

Seneca Foods (19th Hole Reception)

Forberg Smith (Golf Cart Sponsor)

SILVER SPONSORS: Bush's Brothers, HOH Water Technology, Oxbo, Silgan Containers

LUNCH SPONSORS: Gallatin Valley Seed, ISG, Sonoco, WDS Construction

SCHOLARSHIP HOLE SPONSORS: Hydrotex, Syngenta, Trivium Packaging

BRONZE SPONSORS: Anderson Chemical Company, ChemStation, Crown Cork & Seal, Excel, Hydrite, Lodi Canning Company

HOLE SPONSORS: Anderson Chemical Co., Brotherton Seed, Inc., Brown & Brown, Crown Cork & Seal, Cushman & Wakefield, Doral Corporation, Harris Moran, Hygieneering, Innovative Waste Recycling, JAX INC., Lubriplate Lubricants, M3 Insurance, Oxbo, Pearl Engineering, Plainfield Trucking, ProEx Food, Seminis Vegetable Seeds, Seneca Foods, SERVPRO of Evergreen Park/South Chicago, Viresco, and Watertech of America.

View 2023 MWFPA Sponsorship Opportunities - HERE!

May 31 - NFPA 70E Electrical & Arc Flash Training - Kalahari, Wisconsin Dells

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May 31 & June 1 - MWFPA Annual Summit & Scramble - Agenda

Trappers Turn, Wisconsin Dells

https://mwfpa.org/events/golf-2023

SAVE THE DATE! October 10 - Sporting Clays Classic

Woods & Meadow Hunting Preserve

Warrens, Wisconsin

https://www.woodsandmeadow.com

November 28 - 30 - 2023 Convention & Processing Crops Conference

Kalahari Resort & Convention Center, Wisconsin Dells

Registration Opens July 1 - MWFPA Convention Website

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