Dairy Aid Announcement Coming Today as Vilsack Visits Vermont
Other USDA pandemic aid announcements coming soon
In Today’s Digital Newspaper
Market Focus:
• FOMC minutes indicate officials could start paring stimulus later this year, early next
• Bond market signals confidence in Fed policy outlook
• Jobless claims for week ended Aug. 14 totaled 348,000, new pandemic-era low
• Fed Chairman Powell’s reappointment threatened by far-left Democrats
• U.S. construction of new homes tumbled in July
• USDA daily export sales:
— 263,000 MT soybeans to China during 2021-2022 marketing year
— 148,590 MT soybeans to Mexico during 2021-2022 marketing year
• Crude oil futures fell around 3% early today, hitting lowest since May intraday
• CME said it’s not in talks to buy rival Chicago exchange Cboe for $16 billion
• Half of U.S. farmers in biggest corn, soybean, and wheat states employ precision ag
• Ag demand update
• Corn, soybean and wheat price pressure overnight
• Day 3 results from Pro Farmer Crop Tour
• Anticipated rains expected to move into Northern Plains today
• Canada records first frost
• Philippines reports ASF cases are waning
• Soaring beef prices push packer profit margins near $1,000 a head
• Pork prices slightly higher for the week
Policy Focus:
• Dairy aid announcements expected today as Vilsack visits Vermont
• Other USDA pandemic aid announcements coming soon
• Pelosi meets with White House officials amid split over infrastructure, reconciliation bills
China Update:
• China calls for world to judge ‘more rational’ Taliban
• Afghanistan estimated to have $1 trillion to $3 trillion of rare-earths
• China President Xi signaling plans to more assertively promote social equality
• Meng Wanzhou’s Canadian extradition hearings are over
• Weekly data confirms big soybean export sales to China
Energy & Climate Change:
• Alaska oil permits blocked by federal judge
• Lumber isn’t the only way to make money from timber
Livestock, Food & Beverage Industry Update:
• Brexit gradually leading British officials to better understand value of poultry workers
• Burger King parent Restaurant Brands expects beef costs to rise
Coronavirus Update:
• Covid-19 booster shot to be offered to Americans fully vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna
• Biden administration will require nursing homes to vaccinate their staff
• Education Dept. to use civil-rights enforcement authority re: masks in schools
• WHO warns against booster shots until more of global population receive vaccines
Politics & Elections:
• GOP gets a competitive candidate for Nevada Senate race
• Georgia’s State Election Board appoints panel to investigate past elections in Fulton County
Congress:
• House Democrats poised to pass sweeping election bill
Other Items of Note:
• Biden says troops will stay in Afghanistan until all Americans are out
• Former President Donald Trump on Afghanistan
• EPA bans use of pesticide chlorpyrifos linked to developmental problems in children
• Athleisure group Lululemon invests in producing nylon from plants, not petroleum
• Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will meet with President Biden on Aug. 26
MARKET FOCUS
Equities today: Major U.S. indexes were poised to significantly extend their retreat and the dollar strengthened as rising Covid-19 cases temper the economic outlook and the Federal Reserve mulls withdrawing stimulus. U.S. stock futures slid another 1% overnight on the news, after the major averages closed 1% lower on Wednesday. Things don't look better in Europe as European equities are broadly lower in early trading following Asian declines and U.S. losses Wednesday. The Stoxx 600 is down 1.9% with regional markets seeing losses of 0.8% to 2.5%. In Asia, the Nikkei was down 304.74 points, 1.10%, at 27,281.17. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 550.68 points, 2.13%, at 25,316.33. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs cut its U.S. economic growth forecast, saying the effect of the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus is “somewhat larger” than expected.
U.S. equities yesterday: The Dow declined 382.59 points, 1.08%, at 34,960.69. The Nasdaq fell 130.27 points, 0.89%, at 14,525.91. The S&P 500 lost 47.81 points, 1.07%, at 4,400.27.
On tap today:
• U.S. jobless claims, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, are expected to fall to 365,000 in the week ended Aug. 14 from 375,000 a week earlier. Update: Jobless claims for the week ended Aug. 14 totaled 348,000, the Labor Department reported. That was well below the estimate for 365,000 and a decline of 29,000 from the previous week. The last time claims were this low was March 14, 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic declaration hit and sent the U.S. economy spiraling into its deepest but briefest recession on record.
• Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing survey, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to tick up to 22 in August from 21.9 a month earlier.
• USDA Weekly Export Sales report, 8:30 a.m. ET.
• Conference Board's leading economic index for July, due at 10 a.m. ET, is expected to rise 0.7% from the prior month.
• Japan's consumer-price index excluding food, due at 7:30 p.m. ET, is expected to fall 0.4% in July from a year earlier.
Federal Reserve minutes indicate officials could start paring stimulus later this year, early next year. According to the minutes of the July 27-28 FOMC meeting, most Fed policy makers said “it could be appropriate to start reducing the pace of asset purchases this year,” with some commenting that “economic and financial conditions would likely warrant a reduction in coming months.” Several others indicated, however, that a reduction in the pace of asset purchases was more likely to become appropriate early next year because they saw prevailing conditions in the labor market as not being close to meeting the committee's "substantial further progress" standard or because of uncertainty about the degree of progress toward the price-stability goal. Participants agreed that the committee would provide advance notice before making changes to its balance sheet policy.
Bottom line: A consensus is emerging among Fed policy makers to begin scaling back the central bank’s $120 billion in monthly purchases of Treasury and mortgage securities later this year or early next year, potentially curtailing easy-money policies as the U.S. economy recovers. Economists and investors expect that a Fed interest-rate hike wouldn’t happen until the monthly bond buying program is fully wound down. The Fed has telegraphed 2023 as the time for an interest-rate increase.
More taper talk ahead. The FOMC meets next in just a month’s time. Next week, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The annual economic symposium could provide some color on his thinking about tapering, as well as managing the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bond market signals confidence in Fed policy outlook. The closely watched spread between five- and 30-year Treasury yields has hardly changed after falling sharply when the Fed shifted its message in June. Investors and analysts pay close attention to the 5-30 spread because it can show how near-term monetary policy is expected to affect the long-term economic outlook.
Fed Chairman Powell’s reappointment threatened by far-left Democrats. If the Fed’s management of the economy were all that mattered, Chairman Jerome Powell would probably be cruising toward reappointment. But the Fed is also a financial regulator, and Powell’s shot at another term when this one expires in February is now threatened by progressive Democrats whose priority is a more activist Fed on regulation and other nonmonetary matters, the Wall Street Journal reports (link). “In some ways, though, progressive criticism of Powell's record on regulation rings hollow: Despite the pandemic’s unprecedented economic shock, no major bank failed, none needed bailouts, and they vastly expanded lending to businesses,” the WSJ item notes.
U.S. construction of new homes tumbled in July, a sign builders are running up against rising material costs, trouble attracting enough workers and difficulty securing a sufficient number of lots. Housing starts fell 7% in July compared with June, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.534 million. Low interest rates, a desire for more space and millennials aging into prime homeownership years have spurred demand coming out of the pandemic, but builders haven't been able to keep up. That's led to low inventories of homes for sale and rising prices.
Market perspectives:
• Outside markets: The U.S. dollar index is higher as the euro, yen, British pound and Swiss franc all higher versus the greenback. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note has weakened to trade under 1.23% while global government bond yields are steady to weaker. Gold futures are posting gains ahead of economic data, trading around $1,790 per troy ounce. Silver, however, is weaker, trading around $23.35 per troy ounce.
• Crude oil futures fell around 3% early today, hitting their lowest since May intraday, as the latest Fed minutes propelled the dollar to a nine-month high. Oil is also sliding for the sixth straight day as rising Delta variant cases cast a cloud on demand outlook. Pressure continues to build in crude oil markets though they have pared earlier declines somewhat. U.S. crude was trading around $63.20 per barrel and Brent around $66.10 per barrel ahead of U.S. trading. Futures fell sharply in Asian action, with U.S. crude down $1.16 at $64.30 per barrel while Brent was down $1.05 at $67.18 per barrel.
• On Day 3 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour, scouts measured an average corn yield potential of 196.30 bu. per acre for Illinois, up from 189.4 bu. last year on Tour and 184.4 bu. for the three-year average. Pod counts in a 3’x3’ square came in at 1,280 pods for the state, also up notably from 1,247 pods in 2020 and 1,186 pods for the three-year average.
Results for the western-most three districts of Iowa were also released last night, which you can access here. Corn yields and soybean pod counts were up from last year’s derecho-hit crop. Compared with the three-year average, corn yield potential was marginally lower in District 1 but up from year-ago in Districts 4 and 7. Soybean pod counts were up from the three-year average across all three districts.
The full results for Iowa won’t be released until tonight. Minnesota results will also be released this evening. Pro Farmer production and yield estimates (informed by Tour data, but separate) will be released at 2:30 p.m. ET on Friday.
• Half of U.S. farmers in the biggest corn, soybean, and wheat states employ precision agriculture in their operations — from GPS guidance of tractors and combines to deploying drones to scout fields or monitor livestock — twice the national average, according to a USDA report on computer usage (link). Far more farms have a cellular internet connection than broadband; 18% have no internet access at all. Overall, 57% of farms access the internet through a cellular data plan, compared to 41% that use a high-speed connection via DSL, cable, or fiber-optic, according to USDA’s Farm Computer Usage and Ownership report, issued every two years. In a June survey that drew 15,000 responses, 82% of farmers said they have internet access, up from 75% in 2019.
For the first time, the USDA asked producers if they use precision agriculture practices to manage crops or livestock. “This would include use of global positioning (GPS) guidance systems, GPS yield monitoring and soil mapping, variable rate input applications, use of drones for scouting fields or monitoring livestock, electronic tagging, precision feeding, robotic milking, etc.,” said the survey. In six major Farm Belt states, from Illinois to North Dakota, positive responses were roughly double the U.S. average of 25%. Some 54% of farms in North Dakota said they use precision agriculture, followed closely by South Dakota (53%), Iowa (52%), Nebraska (51%), Illinois (48%), and Kansas (46%). The report did not detail which practices are being used.
• USDA daily export sales:
— 263,000 MT soybeans to China during 2021-2022 marketing year
— 148,590 MT soybeans to Mexico during 2021-2022 marketing year
• Ag demand: Egypt’s state grain buyer purchased 120,000 MT of wheat from Romania and 60,000 MT of wheat from Ukraine in a tender yesterday. The Korea Feed Association bought an estimated 65,000 MT of animal feed corn in a private deal, likely from South America or South Africa. Jordan’s state grain buyer issued a tender to buy 120,000 MT of milling wheat from optional origins. Japan purchased nearly 63,000 MT of food-quality wheat from the United States, as well as 29,340 MT from Canada and 51,445 MT from Australia.
• CME, the world’s largest futures exchange operator, said it’s not in talks to buy the rival Chicago exchange Cboe for $16 billion, after reports of a bid.
• NWS weather: Heavy rain and possible flash flooding lingers today in the East as Post-Tropical Cyclone Fred moves offshore... ...Severe thunderstorms and flash flooding are possible as a potent cold front moves through the north-central U.S. and the Intermountain West.
Items in Pro Farmer's First Thing Today include:
• Corn, soybean and wheat price pressure overnight
• Day 3 results from Pro Farmer Crop Tour
• Anticipated rains expected to move into Northern Plains today
• Canada records first frost
• Philippines reports ASF cases are waning
• Soaring beef prices push packer profit margins near $1,000 a head
• Pork prices slightly higher for the week
POLICY FOCUS
— Dairy aid announcements expected today as Vilsack visits Vermont. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack will be in Vermont today with Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and is expected to make dairy aid announcements. Expectations are that dairy aid will be announced by Vilsack, including aid that was a part of the December Covid aid package. USDA initially announced broad outlines of the assistance in March and then June 15 said that for dairy, it would include $400 million for the Dairy Donation Program (DDP), additional pandemic payments targeted to dairy farmers suffering losses not covered by prior pandemic assistance and around $580 million in supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) payments that would be targeted to small and medium-sized farms.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed their review Aug. 5 of USDA’s DDP plans and there was talk Vilsack was to announce additional dairy aid for a trip to Wisconsin with President Joe Biden that was scrubbed when the focus shifted to infrastructure. Indications were at the time that around $750 million in additional aid for dairy was being contemplated. Some reports are signaling a smaller level for the additional payments.
Some reports are signaling a smaller level for the additional payments which Politico said would be made based on 80% of the revenue difference per month, based on annual production of up to 5 million pounds of milk marketed and on fluid milk sales for July-December 2020. They also reported USDA would make payments within 60 days of reaching an agreement with independent handlers and cooperatives and they would then have 30 days to distribute funds to qualifying dairy farmers.
— Other USDA pandemic aid announcements coming soon. While USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack will announce dairy aid today in Vermont, ag interests can now expect some additional aid announcements coming soon from USDA. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed their review of new rules to implement the provisions of the December Covid aid plan (Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021) to provide assistance to agricultural producers and others impacted by the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak. USDA also sent forward revisions of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) regulations to provide additional assistance. USDA sent the package to OMB for review Aug. 5 and it was completed Aug. 18, setting the stage for announcements from USDA soon.
— Pelosi meets with White House officials amid split over infrastructure, reconciliation bills. Axios reports that on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met with White House officials, including White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, counselor Steve Ricchetti and legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell about how “to ensure passage of major infrastructure spending.” Axios says that “with the president’s top legislative priority facing resistance among a Democratic caucus that’s divided about how to proceed, top Biden aides and Pelosi are seeking to present a unified front.” According to Axios, “moderate Democrats are growing increasingly frustrated over Pelosi’s determination not to bring the bipartisan bill to a vote without the reconciliation bill.” Axios also reports that the meeting “comes before the House returns on Aug. 23 and holds procedural votes on infrastructure legislation as well as a voting rights bill, which also was discussed.”
CHINA UPDATE
— China calls for the world to judge ‘more rational’ Taliban objectively. Meanwhile, Beijing is demanding the Afghanistan group cuts its ties with other terror organizations.
Afghanistan is estimated to have $1 trillion to $3 trillion of rare-earths and shares a 57-mile border with China. The latter is widely known as the world's dominant player in rare-earth metals (owning 35% of global reserves), and only hours after the Taliban overran the Afghan government, said it was ready for "friendly cooperation." Beijing has also been looking to play a constructive role in Afghanistan's peace and reconstruction process and previously threatened to cut off rare-earth supplies to the U.S. during the trade war in 2019.
— China President Xi Jinping is signaling plans to more assertively promote social equality, as he tries to solidify popular support for continued Communist Party rule. The push is captured by a catchphrase, “common prosperity,” now appearing everywhere in China, including in public speeches, state-owned media and schools — and in comments from newly chastened business tycoons like Jack Ma. Like many Communist party slogans, details remain vague. But officials and analysts who have tracked the phrase’s use say it is meant to convey the idea that leaders are returning to the party’s original ambitions to empower workers and the disadvantaged and will limit gains of the capitalist class when necessary to address social inequities. “[Xi Jinping] wants this to demonstrate that socialism is better than Western capitalism in caring for all the population,” said Bill Bikales, former senior economist for the United Nations in China. Link to more via the WSJ.
— Meng Wanzhou’s Canadian extradition hearings are over, almost 1,000 days after airport arrest. A ruling on whether to free the Huawei executive or allow her to be sent to the U.S. for trial will take months to deliver. The judge is only allowed to consider inferences about evidence that support extradition, Canadian government lawyers say on the final day of hearings.
— Weekly data confirms big soybean export sales to China. U.S. export sales activity for the week ended Aug. 12 confirmed sizable new-crop sales to China, with purchases totaling 1,030,000 tonnes for 2021-22.
Activity for the week for the 2020-21 marketing year included net sales to China of 92,276 tonnes of soybeans, 2,887 tonnes of corn, and net reductions of 4,650 tonnes of sorghum.
For 2021-22, net sales of 197,367 tonnes of wheat, and 161,861 running bales of Upland cotton were reported.
For 2021, net sales of 1,841 tonnes of beef and 621 tonnes of pork were reported for China.
ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE
— Alaska oil permits blocked by federal judge. A federal judge threw out federal approval of a multibillion-dollar oil project planned for Alaska, saying the government failed to properly assess the project’s impact on climate change and its potential harm to polar bears. The ConocoPhillips Willow project in a federal oil reserve in the North Slope had been backed by both the Biden and Trump administrations and comes with wide support from Alaskan political leaders. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy criticized the decision, saying it put thousands of potential jobs at risk.
— Lumber isn’t the only way to make money from timber, the hot housing market notwithstanding. Demand for carbon offsets means some trees around the Great Lakes and in New England are worth more standing than they would be chopped down and processed, the Wall Street Journal reports (link), as businesses looking to meet air-quality regulations or show environmental bona fides load up on the climate-change currency. The growing market could be a boon for states like Michigan, which has agreed to limit logging for four decades in a state-owned forest known as the “Big Wild” through a pact with DTE Energy that could reap more than $10 million over the next decade. Great Lakes states control big tracts of timber, and mills there have a hard time competing with rivals in the South, the leading producer of softwood lumber, which is used to build homes. About 65% of Michigan’s forest acres are eligible for offsets, and some 25 states are weighing similar moves.
LIVESTOCK, FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY
— Brexit is gradually leading British officials to better understand the value of poultry workers, as a shortage of them has led to a supply crisis, causing many popular chicken restaurants like KFC and Nando’s to close outlets. Roughly 60% of British poultry sector workers come from the European Union, the Financial Times reports (link), but new British immigration rules classify the workers as “low skilled,” meaning visas are in short supply. The British Poultry Council has called on the government to reclassify the jobs as skilled before the Christmas rush, as the group warned that the supply of turkeys could be reduced by a fifth.
— Burger King parent Restaurant Brands expects beef costs to rise as the labor shortage crimps staffing at meatpacking plants, Bloomberg News reports (link). Restaurant Brands International Inc., which owns the Tim Hortons chain as well, also sees higher costs for key ingredients including pork that it uses for sausage and bacon, the company said in a July report that was viewed by Bloomberg News. According to the document, stimulus checks in the U.S. are reducing incentives for meatpacking workers to show up.
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
— Summary: Global cases of Covid-19 are at 209,334,425 with 4,393,138 deaths, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. case count is at 37,155,209 with 624,253 deaths. The Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center said that there have been 358,599,835 doses administered, 169,186,268 have been fully vaccinated, or 51.5% of the U.S. population.
— Covid-19 booster shot to be offered to Americans fully vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna. The booster shot will be administered about eight months after the second dose for people ages 18 and older. The U.S. gov’t said it is preparing to offer boosters starting the week of Sept. 20. The third dose will be of the same vaccine from the two-dose regimen. The extra dose will be offered free, like the way previous shots were handled, health officials said. They said that the U.S. had ample supplies to meet demand, with shots to be administered at the 80,000 pharmacies and other vaccination sites operating across the U.S. The FDA has been weighing whether adults who received Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine will need another dose, according to the health officials. Data regarding J&J’s shot isn’t complete, but it is likely this population will also need a booster, the officials said. A booster shot of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine can significantly improve immunity in those aged 60 and above, early data from Israel suggests.
President Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden would get an additional coronavirus vaccine. “We got our shots all the way back in, I think, December. So it’s past time,” the president said in an interview that aired on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Data from nursing homes on weekly Covid-19 case counts demonstrated that vaccine effectiveness against infection decreased over time from 75% in March to 53% on Aug. 1. In a study in New York state, gov’t researchers found that the efficacy of the Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson shots against infections dropped to about 80% in late July, when the Delta variant was spreading, from about 91% in early May. An efficacy rate of more than 95% at preventing hospitalizations held up during the same period.
— Biden administration will require nursing homes to vaccinate their staff against Covid-19 or risk losing Medicare and Medicaid funding. President Biden announced the planned rule as Covid-19 cases rise across the U.S., with some states’ hospitalization rates surpassing those at the height of the pandemic.
Also, the Education Department plans to use its civil-rights enforcement authority to prevent states from blocking mask requirements in schools. Two of Florida’s largest school districts voted Wednesday to implement mask mandates, a day after the state moved to punish two other districts that passed similar orders.
— World Health Organization (WHO) continues to warn against administering booster shots until more of the global population receive vaccines. To date, only 31% of the world has received one dose. WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan put the disparity in stark terms at a Wednesday news conference: “We are planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while we are leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket.”
POLITICS & ELECTIONS
— GOP gets a competitive candidate for Nevada Senate race. Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt (R) announced that he would enter the state’s Senate race against Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV). Laxalt’s entry gives the GOP its preferred candidate to run in the swing state. President Biden and Hillary Clinton narrowly won the state in 2020 and 2016, respectively, by just two points. Cortez Masto first won her seat in 2016 by a similar margin. Democrats indicated they intend to hit Laxalt over his proximity to Trump and past support for conspiracies that election fraud marred the 2020 presidential race.
— Georgia’s State Election Board appointed a panel to investigate past elections in Fulton County, taking a step toward a possible takeover of election operations in the state’s most populous county.
CONGRESS
— House Democrats are poised to pass a sweeping election bill that would reestablish provisions of the Voting Rights Act the Supreme Court has already struck down to advance voting reforms that have repeatedly stalled on Capitol Hill.
OTHER ITEMS OF NOTE
— U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan until all Americans are evacuated: Biden. President Biden said U.S. troops will stay in Afghanistan until all Americans are evacuated out of the country, even if they must remain past the Aug. 31 deadline previously set. Biden told ABC News that 10,000 to 15,000 Americans need to be evacuated and that there are around 50,000 to 65,000 Afghans and their families that the U.S. wants to get out of the country. "If there's American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out," Biden told ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview.
The Afghan city of Jalalabad became the first site of protest against impending Taliban rule, with witnesses reporting at least three people killed by Taliban militants after they opened fire on protesters. Protests have spread to Kabul, a display of defiance in the capital that showed the steep challenges the Taliban face in governing the country.
The Taliban continues to block access to Kabul’s international airport, hampering evacuations as U.S. officials try to negotiate with the insurgent group. Many Afghan women are already retreating from public spaces, unpersuaded by the Taliban’s pledge to respect their rights. The country’s deposed president, Ashraf Ghani, was welcomed by the United Arab Emirates on humanitarian grounds. Separately, a large portion of the Afghan Air Force fled to neighboring Uzbekistan in U.S.-supplied planes and helicopters.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund said that the new government in Afghanistan is cut off from using the fund’s reserve assets and other resources days before the nation is set to receive almost $500 million. The U.S. froze nearly $9.5 billion of Afghanistan's reserves after the Taliban seized power. The insurgent group now faces a cash crunch and currency pressures, but others note that the Taliban has “other ways” to tap some financial resources, mostly via illicit drug trading like the bountiful opium trade, extortion, and illegal mining. By some estimates, the Taliban made in 2020 alone $464 million from illegally mining iron ore, marble, copper, and rare earths from the country's mineral-rich mountains, often strong-arming Afghan mining companies into giving Taliban fighters access and hitting them with hefty levies.
— Former President Donald Trump on Afghanistan: “You don’t take the military first, you take the military last. This is like the captain jumping off the ship if the ship is taken. And it's crazy. You take your people out first. Always the Americans first as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but always the Americans first. And then we'll take some people that helped us, but you got to get your people out, and you got to get them out first. Then you take your equipment. And after you take your equipment out, you bomb the hell out of the forts so nobody else can use them because I was going to do that.”
— EPA bans use of pesticide chlorpyrifos linked to developmental problems in children. In a statement on Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that it was revoking all food tolerances for chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to lower IQ, impaired working memory and negative impacts on motor development. The announcement follows a court order earlier this year that gave the agency limited time to either find uses for the pesticide that are safe or outlaw it. “The EPA has spent more than a decade assembling a record of chlorpyrifos’s ill effects and has repeatedly determined, based on that record, that it cannot conclude, to the statutorily required standard of reasonable certainty, that the present tolerances are causing no harm,” the majority opinion in that case stated. EPA said it will continue reviewing whether to allow use of chlorpyrifos for purposes not directly tied to food production, such as cattle ear tags and mosquito control.
The Agricultural Retailers Association, whose members sell pesticides and provide pest control services, said the appeals court had improperly “substituted its judgment” for EPA’s. “Not only is this an unjustified usurpation of the agency’s authority and expertise, but canceling tolerances for a product that remains registered for use creates uncertainty for users,” the group said.
Earthjustice attorney Patti Goldman urged the EPA to ban dozens of other organophosphate pesticides, citing similar developmental risks.
— Athleisure group Lululemon has invested in a company that produces nylon from plants, not petroleum, a play for consumers who care about green credentials. Link for details.
— Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will meet with President Biden on Aug. 26 to discuss Iran, among other issues.
