Trump names ag A-team Presented by Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health

With help from Jason Huffman, Cogan Schneier, Catherine Boudreau and Jenny Hopkinson

TRUMP NAMES AG A-TEAM: After being chided — and even openly mocked — for a lack of firepower on his economic and foreign policy teams, Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled a lengthy list of agricultural advisers that is brimming with Republican heavy hitters. His rural and agriculture advisory committee includes more than five dozen members — with seven women among them — and several key GOP farm policy establishment leaders, from Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (Kan.) and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (Texas) to Reps. Rodney Davis (Ill.) and Robert Aderholt (Ala.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s agriculture panel.


The committee boasts no fewer than 10 current or former farm-state governors, including former Republican rivals Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, and Jim Gilmore, the former governor of Virginia. Current governors on the list include Kansas’ Sam Brownback, Iowa’s Terry Branstad, Nebraska’s Pete Ricketts, Oklahoma’s Mary Fallin, North Dakota’s Jack Dalrymple and South Dakota’s Dennis Daugaard.

That the campaign assembled such a mainstream lineup for a candidate that has splintered the party points to Trump’s strong support among rural voters, but it also illustrates agriculture’s willingness to embrace the brash New York City businessman with the hope of influencing his agriculture policy — something the candidate has said little about. Read the full story on Trump’s agriculture advisers from the Pro Agriculture team: Ian Kullgren, Catherine Boudreau, Jenny Hopkinson and yours truly. It’s here.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY, AUG. 17! Welcome to Morning Ag! Your host is amused by this story about what appears to be basically pumpkin kayaking, a gimmick in support of ag education. You know the deal: Thoughts, news, tips? Send them to [email protected] and @hbottemiller. Follow the whole team at @Morning_Ag.

WHAT TRUMP’S AG ADVISERS ARE SAYING: The list the Trump campaign released Tuesday runneth long: 65 names. (The official list had 64 names on it, but MA found one person on the panel who was left off: Doug Keesling, past chairman of the Kansas Wheat Commission.) That makes it nearly six times larger than 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s agriculture advisory committee — it includes a couple of the same names — and dwarfs other Trump advisory panels. The campaign has released the names of about a dozen advisers on economic policy, half a dozen on foreign policy, and most recently tapped 25 Christian leaders to guide Trump on religious and social issues.

MA reached out to many of the panel members to ask for their take on the effort, why they’re backing Trump and what they hope the group can accomplish. Here’s a quick rundown:

— Bull’s eye on WOTUS: While the panel represents a range of views and experience in different types of agriculture, concerns about regulatory overreach seem to be a common theme. And nothing is a better example of a policy that is seen in agriculture circles as regulatory overreach than EPA’s waters of the U.S. rule. Many of the panel members MA spoke to mentioned the rule, arguing that a Hillary Clinton presidency would offer more of the same. “Farmers and ranchers cannot afford another four more years of those failed policies,” Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said. “That’s why I support Donald Trump.”

— Vast support in rural America: Doug Keesling, a Kansas grain and livestock farmer and wheat industry leader, said the wide range of representation speaks to Trump’s appeal in rural America. “There is a very broad base of support,” Keesling said. “And I think this bodes well for Trump’s campaign. It shows he has more support than what current polls may be showing.”

— Building off rural enthusiasm: The advisory committee members held their first call on Tuesday morning, and the big theme was how to build on the momentum Trump already has among rural voters, according to John Block, a senior policy advisor at Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz, who served as agriculture secretary during the Reagan administration. “His policies will definitely be better for rural America,” Block said of Trump.

— A question mark on trade: Trump has said he opposes trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership, but that runs contrary to the general support for the move by agriculture groups. As a result, “it’s going to be important to articulate how important trade is to agriculture, and I think those are going to be ongoing conversations,” said Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey. Currently, it seems that both candidates are saying “they are against trade agreements but are for trade. Exactly what that means is something they need to articulate more.” So it’s TBD how much influence the ag panel will have on Trump and his trade stance.

HOW IT PLAYED: Here’s a look at how other news outlets covered release of Trump’s ag advisory panel. Reuters: “Trump names six U.S. governors as agricultural advisors.” The Texas Tribune: “Trump Taps Six Texans, Including Rick Perry, as Agriculture Advisers.” The Washington Post: “Several members of Trump’s agriculture committee have supported legal status for undocumented workers.”

APPEALS COURT DEALS STATES A WOTUS DEFEAT: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied states' latest bid to have their challenges to the Waters of the U.S. rule heard by district courts, where they think they'd find more receptive audiences, reports Pro Energy’s Annie Snider. A three-judge panel on Tuesday ordered that an appeal of an earlier injunction request from Georgia and 10 other states be held in abeyance while the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals proceeds with its morass of cases challenging the EPA rule, also called the Clean Water Rule.

The substance of the appeal was rendered moot when the 6th Circuit put the rule on hold nationwide last October. But states, with the backing of industry groups, had urged the 11th Circuit to take the appeal, arguing that the issue does not qualify under a provision of the Clean Water Act that allows certain challenges to leapfrog district courts and head straight to appellate court. The 6th Circuit, where appellate court challenges have been consolidated, has ruled that the issue belongs with it.

A split between the courts on the matter would have set up a venue fight that could have reached the Supreme Court.

BAYER CONSIDERS HOSTILE TAKEOVER OF MONSANTO: Bayer AG is considering making an unsolicited bid for the Monsanto Company, which last month rejected the German firm’s improved $125-per-share offer, the St. Louis Business Journal reports. Find that story here.

Speaking of Monsanto, today would have been John Francis Queeny’s birthday. Queeny (August 17, 1859 – March 19, 1933) founded Monsanto Chemical Works, in St. Louis, in late 1901 with just $5,000. Based on Bayer’s earlier offer, the company is now worth at least $64 billion.

TODAY: ERNST, JOHNSON HOLD AG HEARING IN IOWA: Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) are hosting a field hearing today in Dubuque, Iowa, that will focus on regulatory issues. The event is titled “From Crop to Craft Beer: Federal Regulation’s Impact on America’s Food and Agriculture.” It will kick off at noon with a panel of four witnesses: Rick Vaughan, CEO of Innovation Ag Services; David Fritz, president and volunteer director of the Potosi Foundation; Richard Williams, director of regulatory studies at the Mercatus Center; and Jim Zimmerman, a farmer from Rosendale, Wis. More here.

LAST CALL FOR MILK: Comments are due today on FDA’s decision to raise the amount of Vitamin D2 and D3 in plant-based milk and regular milk, respectively, following a petition from Dean Foods Company and WhiteWave Foods Company. While the FDA finalized the rule in July, objections to the measure can still be made through today. The request follows recent studies that show humans can take higher levels of vitamins D2 and D3 than current levels allow.

“Vitamin D is essential for human health,” helping to maintain “blood serum concentrations of calcium and phosphorus by enhancing the absorption of these minerals in the small intestine,” the FDA explains in its notice. However, excessive amounts of vitamin D can lead to hypercalcemia, a condition tied to the weakening of bones, creating kidney stones and interfering with the way the heart and brain work. Comments are being accepted here.

The comment period on U.S. grading standards for canned vegetables closed Tuesday. The USDA is proposing to nix descriptive terms set with the various grades. Under the change, what is currently known as a “Grade A” or “U.S. Fancy” canned product would just be a “U.S. Grade A” product. More about the proposal here.

MANURE PITS TAKE ANOTHER VICTIM: In case you missed it, a 55-year-old Michigan dairy farmer died after apparently falling into a manure pit on his property that was 10- to 12-feet deep. Steve Foley was “beyond any medical assistance” when firefighters found him at around 4:30 a.m. Friday, the Tuscola County sheriff’s office told the Associated Press. He and wife Diane Foley have owned Rainbow Creek Farms, near Saginaw, for 15 years.

Manure pit deaths are an all-too-common phenomenon, based on a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention two years ago. The CDC notes how farmers are frequently overcome by the “oxygen-deficient, toxic and/or explosive atmospheres [that] often result from fermentation of the wastes in confined areas.” In one gruesome account, the CDC recounts how five members of the same farm family were killed in 1989 as each entered the pit to mount a rescue effort. Read more about Foley’s death here and the 2014 CDC study here.

EPA GETS BRIEF EXTENSION ON CHLORPYRIFOS: The EPA will now have until March 31, 2017, to issue its decision on whether to revoke the tolerances for the pesticide chlorpyrifos, thanks to a three-month extension granted by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals late last week. While the agency had asked for an additional six months in order to complete additional studies before it makes a final decision on the chemical, the court found that “the requested six-month delay is not justified in light of EPA’s history in this matter as well as the court’s previous extensions.” Should the agency decide to revoke the tolerances for chlorpyrifos, it would effectively ban the pesticide in agricultural uses. The order is here. Brush up on the fight here.

TYSON FOODS HIT WITH WORKER SAFETY FINE: Tyson Foods, the nation’s largest meat and poultry processor, intends to meet with OSHA officials to address worker safety violations at a facility in Center, Texas, that triggered a $263,000 fine on Tuesday, according to a company spokesperson. “We never want to see anyone hurt on the job, which is why we’re committed to continual improvement in our workplace safety efforts,” the spokesperson said in an email, adding that Tyson employs nearly 500 health and safety professionals and already has programs and policies to protect employees.

OSHA cited Tyson for 15 serious violations, including a lack of proper safety guards on moving machine parts, carbon dioxide levels above the permissible exposure limit and a failure to provide employees with personal protective equipment. The agency also issued two repeat violations for failing to ensure employees had appropriate eye or face protection and for failing to separate certain compressed gas cylinders in storage — violations OSHA also cited Tyson for in 2012 and 2013 at different facilities. The inspection was prompted by an earlier report of a finger amputation at the processing plant.

As one of the country’s largest food suppliers, Tyson “should set an example for workplace safety rather than drawing multiple citations from OSHA for ongoing safety failures,” said David Michaels, OSHA’s assistant secretary of labor. Read the agency’s statement here.

MA’S INSTANT OATS:

— China’s obesity and cardiovascular disease rates are surging, and a Western diet is partly to blame, The New York Times reports.

— Brazil’s government says it will continue to challenge the U.S. for the title of world’s largest meat exporter over the next decade, Global Meat News reports.

— Reinventing hospital food is a lot hard harder than it sounds. VICE takes a look.

— World War II bomb shelters underneath the streets of London have been converted into urban farms, CNN reports.

THAT'S ALL FOR MA! See you again soon! In the meantime, drop your host and the rest of the team a line: [email protected] and @ceboudreau; [email protected] and @jennyhops; [email protected] and @hbottemiller; [email protected] and @iankullgren; [email protected] and @mjkorade; and [email protected] and @jsonhuffman. You can also follow @POLITICOPro and @Morning_Ag on Twitter.

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