Bloomberg writer Charlie McGee reported earlier this month that, “A company that develops packaging for cotton bales harvested with Deere & Co. tractors says it’s facing Chinese knockoffs and wants a U.S. trade agency to block the copycats from entering the country.

“Israel-based Tama Group and its U.S. unit filed a complaint on July 7 with the U.S. International Trade Commission saying two Chinese companies and their North American distributors are working together to sell cheaper replicas of a plastic wrapping Tama designed and patented more than a decade ago.

“TamaWrap is exclusively designed for John Deere tractors that Tama’s complaint says revolutionized cotton baling, enabling ‘a single machine to do what, until then, was impossible — harvest, collect, bale, and uniquely wrap cotton with a single machine and on-board wraps.'”

The Bloomberg article stated that, “The ITC complaint names Zhejiang Yajia Cotton Picker Parts Co. and its distributor, Arkansas-based Southern Marketing Affiliates Inc. It also names Hai’an Xin Fu Yuan of Agricultural Science and Technology Co. and its distributor, Canada-based Gosun Business Development Co.

“Tama says the companies’ knockoffs use its trademarked yellow color and are designed to uniquely work inside John Deere machines, but don’t work as well. The company received exclusive patent rights in the U.S. for the plastic cotton-baling material in 2004, and TamaWrap launched in the country in 2009.”

DTN writer Todd Neeley reported earlier this week that, “The plaintiffs in one of several lawsuits challenging the Navigable Waters Protection Rule have asked a federal court to vacate the rule.

“In a motion for summary judgment filed at the end of last week, the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League alleges the EPA’s new rule is ‘arbitrary, capricious and unlawful’ and asked the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina to throw it out.

“Agriculture, petroleum and other interest groups have intervened in the case, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Petroleum Institute, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Pork Producers Council and U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, among others.”

The DTN article stated that, “The South Carolina Coastal Conservation League alleged in its lawsuit in April that the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed the rule based on ‘political winds and currents.’

“The rule, published in the Federal Register on April 21, is alleged by the groups to have the effect of ‘dramatically reducing the universe of waters protected’ by the Clean Water Act.

“In its motion for summary judgment, the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League said the protection of the nation’s waters are at stake.”

A news release yesterday from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) stated that, “Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced an initial list of additional commodities that have been added to the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), and that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) made other adjustments to the program based on comments received from agricultural producers and organizations and review of market data. Producers will be able to submit applications that include these commodities on Monday, July 13, 2020.  USDA’s [FSA] is accepting through Aug. 28, 2020, applications for CFAP, which helps offset price declines and additional marketing costs because of the coronavirus pandemic. USDA expects additional eligible commodities to be announced in the coming weeks.

“‘During this time of national crisis, President Trump and USDA have stood with our farmers, ranchers, and all citizens to make sure they are taken care of,’ said Secretary Perdue. ‘When we announced this program earlier this year, we asked for public input and received a good response. After reviewing the comments received and analyzing our USDA Market News data, we are adding new commodities, as well as making updates to the program for existing eligible commodities. This is an example of government working for the people – we asked for input and we updated the program based on the comments we received.’

“USDA collected comments and supporting data for consideration of additional commodities through June 22, 2020.”

Yesterday’s update added that, “Producers have several options for applying to the CFAP program:

• Using an online portal, accessible at farmers.gov/cfap, allows producers with secure USDA login credentials—known as eAuthentication—to certify eligible commodities online, digitally sign applications and submit directly to the local USDA Service Center.  New commodities will be available in the system on July 13, 2020.
• Completing the application form using our CFAP Application Generator and Payment Calculator found at farmers.gov/cfap. This Excel workbook allows customers to input information specific to their operation to determine estimated payments and populate the application form, which can be printed, then signed and submitted to their local USDA Service Center.  An updated version with the new commodities will be available on the website on July 13, 2020.
• Downloading the AD-3114 application form from farmers.gov/cfap and manually completing the form to submit to the local USDA Service Center by mail, electronically or by hand delivery to an office drop box. In some limited cases, the office may be open for in-person business by appointment. Visit farmers.gov/coronavirus/service-center-status to check the status of your local office.”

Wall Street Journal writer Sara Randazzo reported yesterday that, “A federal judge cast doubt on Bayer AG’s proposal to neatly resolve all future lawsuits over the safety of its Roundup weedkiller, potentially snagging the German company’s attempts to move past the massive liability.

“Bayer said recently it would pay up to $10.9 billion to settle tens of thousands of current Roundup cases and create a system for handling future cases. The deal came after three juries in recent years awarded large verdicts to plaintiffs alleging Roundup caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma, spooking investors.

“But with Roundup still being sold and no plans to change the label or active ingredients, settling the litigation isn’t as easy as paying those who have already sued. Bayer proposed a novel type of class action to capture all future claims, which would be guided by the conclusions of a court-approved panel of scientists chosen to study Roundup’s potential carcinogenicity.”

The Journal article noted that, “U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco, who must approve the class action, said Monday he was skeptical of the plan and likely to reject the idea. In a four-page order refusing to delay a July court hearing in the case, he questioned ‘whether it would be constitutional (or otherwise lawful)’ to hand the issue to a panel of scientists instead of judges and juries.

“The company’s shares fell by 5% Tuesday in Europe.

“‘In an area where the science may be evolving, how could it be appropriate to lock in a decision from a panel of scientists for all future cases?’ the judge wrote. Bayer had proposed giving the panel four years to study existing research on whether Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, cause cancer.”

Ms. Randazzo added that, “Meanwhile, no one could bring new Roundup lawsuits, and if the panel found the weedkiller to be safe, it would essentially shut down any future cases. If the panel concluded Roundup was dangerous at certain exposure levels, lawsuits could go ahead, but those suing couldn’t seek any punitive damages.

“The judge said he also found it ‘dubious’ that news of the class action could possibly reach all farmer workers, gardeners and other Roundup users who haven’t gotten cancer yet and may want to sue.”

A news release yesterday from USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) stated that, “[USDA] today announced changes to several crop insurance policies improving options for producers, including introducing a new Quality Loss Option, a new unit structure assignment option for Enterprise Units (EU) and new procedures for Multi-County Enterprise Units (MCEU).

“‘In addition to making the changes required by the Farm Bill, we are making updates to provide producers more flexibility and options. We continually listen to producers and other stakeholders, and we adjust these policies when necessary,’ said Martin Barbre, Administrator of [RMA]. ‘With these changes, producers will have more coverage choices.'”

Yesterday’s update noted that, “Specifically:

• The new Quality Loss Option is in response to the 2018 Farm Bill that required the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) to research and develop methods of adjusting for quality losses. The new Quality Loss Option allows producers to replace post-quality production amounts in their Actual Production History (APH) databases with pre-quality production amounts, thereby increasing their actual yields for individual crop years.

• For EUs and MCEUs, a new unit structure assignment option was added. Now, if the producer doesn’t qualify for separate EUs on both practices (EUs for both irrigated and non-irrigated practices, or EUs for both Following Another Crop (FAC) and Not Following Another Crop (NFAC) cropping practices, as authorized), an EU may apply to one practice meeting EU requirements and basic/optional units on the other practice.”

A news release last week from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) stated that, ” [USDA] is providing additional flexibilities for producers to file on acres with failed crops or crops that were prevented from planting because of extreme weather events. USDA’s [FSA] is adding these flexibilities for Notice of Loss on both insured and uninsured crops to enable Service Centers to best assist producers.

“‘With many program deadlines approaching, our Service Centers are working hard to accommodate as many producer appointments as possible,’ said FSA Administrator Richard Fordyce. ‘By providing flexibilities to our Notice of Loss policy, we can ensure we provide the best customer service.'”

The FSA update noted that, “For insured crops, producers who timely filed a prevented planted claim with the reinsurance company but filed a Notice of Loss (CCC-576) form after the deadline will be considered timely filed for FSA purposes. FSA can use data from the Risk Management Agency (RMA) for accepting the report of prevented planting with FSA. If the information is not available through RMA, the producer may also provide proper evidence to FSA that the prevented planted claim was timely filed with the reinsurance company.”

Last week’s update added that, “For failed acreage of uninsured crops, the Notice of Loss (CCC-576) must be completed, signed and verified before the disposition of the crop;” and, “A Notice of Loss cannot be filed for a crop before the final planting date, but it can be filed before completing the crop acreage report.”

“Producers who miss FSA’s July 15 acreage reporting deadline will not face a late filing fee if filed within a month of the deadline.

“For questions, please contact your FSA county office. To locate your FSA county office at your Service Center, visit farmers.gov/service-center-locator.”