Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters — Iowa’s Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency has “screwed” the U.S. ethanol industry and farmers by granting waivers to 31 small petroleum refineries, effectively exempting them from an obligation to use more ethanol in their products. The powerful senator, who represents the largest ethanol-producing state in […] Read more
Ag-state senator says Trump EPA ‘screwed us’ with biofuel waivers
U.S. EPA proposes hike in 2020 biofuel mandate
Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington | Reuters — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday proposed refiners increase the volume of biofuels blended into their annual fuel output but did not reallocate the waived amounts under the hardship program, drawing ire from powerful corn and biofuel groups as well as Republican senators. The EPA is charged with setting […] Read more
As Biden tours Iowa, farmers want to know where he stands on ethanol
Reading Time: 4 minutes New York | Reuters — Joe Biden may have an ethanol problem. The former U.S. vice-president has pledged support for advanced biofuels as part of his bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. But Biden, who leads the crowded Democratic field in opinion polls in Iowa and nationally, faces lingering questions in the U.S. Farm […] Read more
Bernie Sanders promises help for family farms
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — U.S. presidential contender Bernie Sanders unveiled a plan on Sunday to help family farmers and rural residents, promising to break up corporate agricultural monopolies and invest heavily in social and economic programs in struggling rural communities. Sanders, an independent U.S. senator and fierce corporate critic, said on a campaign trip to Iowa that […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn up on China buying, flood worries
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures rose to a 3-1/2-week high on Friday as China booked its largest purchase of the grain in more than five years and as flooding in the western U.S. Midwest raised concerns over spring planting. Technical selling and profit-taking later pulled corn from the highs, although the market closed […] Read more
Grain markets walled off from flood impacts by mountains of supplies
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — A massive supply of grains has shielded the futures markets from the impact of flooding in the U.S. Midwest so far, with traders largely shrugging off this week’s reports of destroyed storage bins, swamped elevators and questions about if waters will recede in time for planting. The problem is grain glut […] Read more
Floods shut nearly a sixth of U.S. ethanol production
Reading Time: 3 minutes Mead, Neb./New York | Reuters — Massive flooding in the U.S. Midwest has knocked out roughly 13 per cent of the nation’s ethanol production capacity, as plants in Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota have been forced to shut down or scale back production following the devastation. Production facilities owned by large companies like Archer Daniels […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn rises as Midwest floods fuel planting concerns
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures jumped more than one per cent on Thursday to their highest level in 2-1/2 weeks as concerns about delayed planting in the western U.S. Midwest sparked buying and fund short-covering. Soybeans followed corn higher, although gains were restrained by lower-than-expected weekly export sales data and concerns about trade […] Read more
U.S. farmers face devastation following Midwest floods
Reading Time: 4 minutes Winslow, Neb./Chicago | Reuters — Midwestern farmers have been gambling they could ride out the U.S.-China trade war by storing their corn and soybeans anywhere they could — in bins, plastic tubes, in barns or even outside. Now, the unthinkable has happened. Record floods have devastated a wide swath of the Farm Belt across Iowa, […] Read more
U.S. Midwest’s catastrophic floods cause widespread damage
Reading Time: 3 minutes Brownville, Neb. | Reuters — Severe flooding caused by rainfall and melting snow devastated farms and towns in Nebraska and Iowa on Tuesday, leaving at least four people dead and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, with waters yet to crest in parts of the region for several days. The floods inundated stretches […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
