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Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez Tuesday urged Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson to use her existing waiver authority as soon as possible to adjust the corn-ethanol mandate for the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), becoming the fifth and sixth governors to make such a request, according to the American Meat Institute....More

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published a Federal Register notice opening a 30-day comment period on requests from the governors of Arkansas and North Carolina to waive the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) requirements. Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe and North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue each submitted an RFS waiver request last week because of the historic drought and threats to each state’s livestock and poultry industries....More

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the severity of the U.S. drought may be peaking, but the impact on corn and soybean crops may not be known until harvest, according to a report from Bloomberg News. Steadying weather conditions may ease pressure to relax federal requirements for the use of corn to make ethanol, he added in an interview at the Iowa State Fair. “The overall impact of the drought is beginning to decline,” Vilsack said. Uneven dryness from farm to farm make crop predictions difficult this year....More

Corn prices pushed higher by the worst U.S. drought in half a century would not necessarily moderate if the federal government's corn ethanol mandate were temporarily suspended, according to a report by Purdue University agricultural economists....More

A crop report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today shows U.S. corn supplies for 2012-2013 will hit a nine-year low due to the nation’s record-breaking drought and other factors, which will drive record corn prices even higher. According to the crop report, corn is projected at a record $7.50 to $8.90 per bushel, up sharply from the $5.40 to $6.40 per bushel projected in July....More

Affected by one of the worst droughts on record, U.S. corn growers are forecast to harvest 87.4 million acres in 2012, down 2% from June estimates, according to the Crop Production report released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service....More

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) today praised a group of congressional lawmakers for asking the U.S. Environmental Protection agency (EPA) to waive the federal mandate for the production of ethanol to help livestock and poultry producers weather the worst drought in more than 50 years....More

In a letter sent today to Obama administration trade officials, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) expressed strong objection to re-opening the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) negotiations with Taiwan because of that country’s continued failure to lift a ban on a widely approved dietary additive used in pork production. The Taiwanese parliament recently voted to ease restrictions on U.S. beef imports from cattle produced with ractopamine –  but left the ban in place on pork produced with the same product....More

Events that take place early in life almost certainly have consequences for later cognitive development. Establishing the connections is difficult, however, because human infants cannot be used as laboratory subjects. Rodney Johnson and his collaborators at the University of Illinois (U of I) have developed an alternative model for studying infant brain development. “Assistant professor Ryan Dilger and I became interested in establishing the neonatal piglet as a model of human brain and cognitive development 3 or 4 years ago,” he says....More

Preliminary results of an experiment conducted at the University of Illinois indicate the possibility of selecting pigs that can make efficient use of energy in less expensive feed ingredients, thus reducing diet costs....More

Since 1944, the National Research Council has published 10 editions of the Nutrient Requirements of Swine. This reference has guided nutritionists and other professionals in academia and the swine and feed industries in developing and implementing nutritional and feeding programs for swine. The swine industry has undergone considerable changes since the tenth edition was published in 1998 and some of the requirements and recommendations set forth at that time are no longer relevant or appropriate....More

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a statement regarding the Codex Alimentarius Commission's recent adoption of standards for ractopamine. He said, "After five years of hard work by the Codex Commission, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and our federal agency partners, the United States welcomes the Commission's adoption of standards for the veterinary drug ractopamine. This action by Codex affirms the pre-eminent role of science in setting international standards for food safety."...More