There’s never a shortage of agriculture news. Here are a few policy stories you may have missed recently.

States petition EPA for labeling clarity

Attorneys general from 11 states sent a joint petition to the EPA on Aug. 7 demanding clarity on labeling rules.  Specifically, they want EPA to acknowledge that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act prohibits states like California from imposing different labeling requirements on glyphosate.

According to the state officials, FIFRA requires EPA to approve all pesticide labels before distribution. Therefore, they argue, California should not be permitted to impose its own labeling mandates.

The attorneys general contend allowing California to do so hurts farmers and jeopardizes the future of multiple products. They also say California’s regulations are based on bad science, conflicting with EPA data showing glyphosate does not cause cancer.

“I will not stand by as California ignores science, breaks the law, and dictates how Iowa farmers farm,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says. “Glyphosate helps our farmers control weeds and produce higher-yielding crops to feed our families.”

Bird announced the petition in a joint press conference with Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers in Omaha. Also signing the petition were attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina and South Dakota.

Vance calls USDA payments “disgraceful”

Republican candidate for vice president J.D. Vance criticized USDA efforts to help minority farmers. In a wide-ranging Aug. 11 interview on the CBS show “Face the Nation,” Vance accused “a lot of people on the left” of dividing the country by giving certain benefits to people based on skin color and other uncontrollable characteristics. As an example of the policies he opposes, he noted the current administration awarded farm benefits to people based on skin color.

“I think that’s disgraceful,” Vance said. “I don’t think you should say, ‘you get farm benefits if you are a Black farmer, and you don’t get farm benefits if you are a white farmer.’”

While he didn’t go into specifics, he was presumably referring to the Biden administration’s recent decision to award $2 billion to producers who were denied USDA loans due to discriminatory policies.  Those payments came after a USDA Equity Commission report found numerous examples of past discrimination within the agency.

Thompson pushes for limits on Chinese land purchases

House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson, R- Pa., is pushing for legislation to limit Chinese land ownership. In an Aug. 9 letter to constituents, he says the Chinese Communist Party has purchased “an alarming amount of prime American farmland,” including sites near military bases and other federal lands.

“China is one of our most significant foreign adversaries; its involvement in our farm economy and strategic purchasing of land poses a real threat to our national security,” Thompson says. “To prevent these practices, I recently cosponsored H.R. 8693, the No American Land for Communist China Act, to prohibit the purchase of public or private real estate adjacent to any federal lands from any individual, agent, or business affiliated with the People’s Republic of China.”

H.R. 8693 was introduced by Rep. Dan Newhouse, R- Wash., on June 11 and was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. No action has been taken on the bill since.

Bipartisan House bill mandates more sustainable aviation fuel reports

A bipartisan House bill introduced by Reps. Mike Flood, R-Neb., and Troy A. Carter, D- La., calls on the U.S. Energy Information Administration to provide sustainable aviation fuels information. The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Information Act would require the EIA to include SAF information in its weekly and monthly reports in the same manner the agency reports other fuel types.

“Sustainable aviation fuel is an incredible growth opportunity that can help expand the biofuels industry and our rural economy,” Flood says. “This commonsense legislation directs the EIA to start including SAF in data sets they publish, allowing stakeholders and industry to better understand how production is developing.”

Additional cosponsors for the bill include Reps. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., Chris Pappas, D-N.H., Don Bacon, R-Nev., Dina Titus, D-Nev., and Hillary Scholten, D-Mich. The bill has also been endorsed by the Renewable Fuels Association, the National Corn Growers Association, the American Soybean Association, the SAF Coalition, the American Sugar Cane League, Growth Energy, and multiple state-level organizations.