Sorting Fact from Fiction in Meat Industry Focus by Biden Team and Congress

GOP lawmakers want more info re: Biden water rule redo while Dems want more for biofuels

In Today’s Digital Newspaper

Market Focus:
• Fed Chair Powell speaks at hearing today, but prepared remarks tell key comments
• Biden meets with FEMA today regarding preparing for extreme weather events
• Secretary of State Antony Blinken begins weeklong trip to Europe today
• Chip shortage has wreaked havoc on global supply chains
• Bitcoin forms a death cross… what that means… erases 2021 gains
• As shipping costs skyrocket, so have stocks that dominant in industry
• Ag demand update
• Spring wheat soars, pulling winter wheat higher
• Corn, soybean CCI ratings slip again, spring wheat rating plunges
• Cordonnier stays the course on U.S. crops, but leaning down
• Cordonnier lowers Brazilian corn crop forecast, increases Argentine corn crop
• Cold storage report to provide another read on post-pandemic meat demand
• Mexico blocks shipments of pork from Tar Heel, North Carolina facility
• Boxed beef prices still sliding
• Path of least resistance is down for hog futures

Policy Focus:
• Another slight rise in CFAP 2 payments
• What about announced but still undelivered payments to hog producers?
• Infrastructure legislation update

China Update:
• China’s imports of American goods slowed again in May
• Biden's administration weighing whether to ban polysilicon imports from Xinjiang

Energy & Climate Change:

• U.S. doesn't currently impose a cost on carbon emissions, but…
• Reuters: Lawmakers seek biofuel provisions in massive infrastructure package
• Manchin releases energy infrastructure draft

Livestock, Food & Beverage Industry Update:
• Group sues Smithfield for allegedly misleading consumers during pandemic
• U.S. meatpacking industry faces stricter oversight following complaints
• Two U.S. facilities delisted from exporting to Mexico
• WSJ: Sanderson Farms, U.S. poultry giant, reportedly weighing a sale
• Group files motion to return to Obama-era Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices rule
• USDA announces meat inspection grant program 

Coronavirus Update:
• Covid-19 is raging in South America
• Global vaccine production

Congress:
• Senate to decide to advance a bill to overhaul election system and voting rights

Other Items of Note:
• Shimkus joins lobbying firm
• Supreme Court backs paying student-athletes
• Belarus sanctions
 

MARKET FOCUS

Equities today: Global stock markets were mixed overnight, with Asian shares mostly firmer and European shares mostly weaker. The U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward narrowly mixed openings. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell today will tell that job growth should pick up in coming months and inflation pressures should ease as the economy continues to recover. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index jumped 3.1% by the close of trading. In China, the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.8%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged down 0.6%. European equities are narrowly mixed with several markets moving between losses and gains. The Stoxx 600 was up 0.1% while regional markets were mixed from down 0.4% to up 0.3%.

     U.S. equities yesterday: The Dow closed up 586.89 points, 1.76%, at 33,876.97. The Nasdaq gained 111.10 points, 0.79%, at 14,141.48. The S&P 500 was up 58.34 points, 1.40%, at 4,224.79.

On tap today:

     • U.S. existing-home sales have fallen for three straight months due to a shortage of homes to buy and rising prices. Economists expect the decline to continue in May. (10 a.m. ET)
     • Preparing for extreme weather events. President Biden will meet at 1:45 p.m. ET with Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell and Homeland Security Adviser and Deputy National Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall.      • Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks before a House committee on the coronavirus response at 2 p.m. ET. See next item for some of Powell’s prepared remarks.
     • U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken begins a weeklong trip to Europe today, making his first stop in Berlin, where he is due to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. His travel includes calls on Paris — the first visit to France by a senior Biden administration official — and Rome, where he will co-chair an anti-Islamic State coalition meeting before participating in a G-20 foreign ministers meeting in the southern Italian cities of Bari and Matera.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will tell lawmakers today that officials aren't worried about the steep inflation readings of the past two months. Price increases will ease in the months ahead, he will say, and the labor market will pick up. “The economy has shown sustained improvement,” Powell’s prepared testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Coronavirus Crisis Subcommittee said. “Job gains should pick up in coming months as vaccinations rise, easing some of the pandemic-related factors currently weighing them down,” Powell’s remarks said.

     As for inflation, Powell will tell lawmakers the situation “reflects, in part, the very low readings from early in the pandemic falling out of the calculation; the pass-through of past increases in oil prices to consumer energy prices; the rebound in spending as the economy continues to reopen; and the exacerbating factor of supply bottlenecks, which have limited how quickly production in some sectors can respond in the near term. As these transitory supply effects abate, inflation is expected to drop back toward our longer-run goal.” Powell is testifying on the Fed’s response to the pandemic, with his testimony indicating that the series of actions taken by the Fed “helped unlock more than $2 trillion of funding to support businesses large and small, nonprofits, and state and local governments between April and December of 2020.”

     Comments: Powell will tell lawmakers that inflation had picked up but should move back toward the U.S. central bank’s 2% target once supply imbalances pass. There is little new in Powell’s remarks compared with his post-meeting comments delivered last week after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. Lawmakers on the panel may focus more on Fed policy ahead, including trying to get Powell to offer a timeline for monetary policy adjustments like tapering their $120-billion-per-month in bond purchases or increasing the target range for the Fed funds rate, the latter of which a majority of Fed officials expect will not happen until 2023. 

     Meanwhile, on Monday, New York Fed President John Williams said the recovery had not reached a point where officials needed to pull their support for the economy. Williams said he saw the Fed as “quite a ways off” from reaching the moment when the central bank would wind down its asset purchases.

Chip shortage has wreaked havoc on global supply chains over the past year, adding to inflation pressures and spurring governments across major economies to rethink their reliance on imports of the tiny slithers of silicon that power the new economy. President Joe Biden has laid out a $52 billion plan to bolster domestic chip manufacturing, responding in part to China’s accelerating blueprint to place semiconductors at the heart of its development. South Korean companies like Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. are committing $450 billion over a decade on chip research and expansion, while leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. alone has earmarked $100 billion over the next three years.

      Chip-price increases are particularly pronounced for some so-called microcontrollers, which generally are the smarts for a range of gadgets, appliances and even cars. Supplyframe, a company that tracks the prices distributors charge, said the median price of the top 20 bestselling microcontrollers increased by more than 12% since the middle of last year. Industry officials say the increases may continue.

Market perspectives:

     • Outside markets: The U.S. dollar index is firmer. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note has eased to trade around 1.49% with a mixed tone in global government bond yields. Gold and silver futures are slightly weaker ahead of U.S. economic updates, with gold around $1,781 per troy ounce and silver around $25.97 per troy ounce.

     • Crude oil prices have come under pressure ahead of the U.S. trading start, with U.S. crude trading around $73.15 per barrel while Brent is trading around $74.45 per barrel. Crude prices edged up in Asian action, with U.S. crude up 13 cents at $73.77 per barrel and Brent up 23 cents at $75.13 per barrel. Reports said Russia is considering proposing OPEC and its allies increase output at the next OPEC meeting on July 1, with the world oil market presently estimated to need an additional 3 million barrels a day to satisfy demand.

     • Bitcoin has formed a death cross, meaning its average price over the last 50 days fell below that of its 200-day moving average. Overnight, Bitcoin slipped another 2.8% to $31,652, spooked by renewed crackdowns from China. This morning it fell below the key $30,000 level. Beijing even summoned officials from its largest banks and Alipay (BABA) to reiterate a ban on providing crypto services, a day after cracking down on mining operations in Sichuan. "It basically says now OTC transactions are not legitimate... we are not allowed by the banks to transfer money for cryptocurrency purchases and sales," said Bobby Lee, formerly CEO of BTC China, China's first Bitcoin exchange. Meanwhile, Mark Cuban said bitcoin is a better store of value than gold. The billionaire investor said the cryptocurrency is easier to transfer, trade and convert.

     • As shipping costs skyrocket, so have the stocks that are dominant in the industry. Shares of, Global Ship Lease and ZIM are up 1,700%, 370% and 278% over the past year. Other shares that have risen: Navios Maritime Partners, Matson and Mærsk. This also comes before the shipping industry enters its peak season, with retailers stocking up before the return to school and year-end holidays. "The ripple effects of this slowdown in Yantian will be felt in about four weeks' time in the United States," said Mirko Woitzik of Everstream Analytics. "Depending on how quickly the West Coast ports can clear the current vessel backlog, the congestion will only get even worse when the Yantian exports start arriving." With ships from Asia taking two weeks to unload, domestic freight like Union Pacific and FedEx have even accelerated peak season surcharges by months.

     • Ag demand: Japan’s ag ministry is seeking 159,665 MT of food-quality wheat from the U.S. and Canada in a regular tender.

     • Weather outlook from NWS: There is a slight risk of excessive rainfall over parts of the southern Mid-Atlantic to the Eastern Gulf Coast through Wednesday morning... ...There is a slight risk of severe thunderstorms over parts of the Central Plains and the Middle Mississippi Valley through Wednesday morning... ... Fire weather conditions forecast across the Great Basin...

Items in Pro Farmer's First Thing Today include:

     • Spring wheat soars, pulling winter wheat higher
     • Corn, soybean CCI ratings slip again, spring wheat rating plunges
     • Cordonnier stays the course on U.S. crops, but leaning down
     • Cordonnier lowers Brazilian corn crop forecast, increases Argentine corn crop
     • Cold storage report to provide another read on post-pandemic meat demand
     • Mexico blocks shipments of pork from Tar Heel, North Carolina facility
     • Boxed beef prices still sliding
     • Path of least resistance is down for hog futures

POLICY FOCUS

— Another slight rise in CFAP 2 payments. There have now been $13.73 billion in Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2 (CFAP 2) payments approved as of June 20, up slightly from the prior week, according to FSA data. The total includes $6.28 billion in acreage-based payments, $3.45 billion for livestock, %2.72 billion for sales commodities, $1.22 billion for dairy and $62.54 million for eggs/broilers. CFAP 1 payments are pegged at $10.58 billion.

— What about the announced but still undelivered payments to hog producers? Recall that on March 24, USDA announced: “Additional payments for swine producers and contract growers under CFAP Additional Assistance remain on hold and are likely to require modifications to the regulation as part of the broader evaluation and future assistance; however, FSA will continue to accept applications from interested producers.”

— Infrastructure legislation update. President Joe Biden met separately yesterday with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to discuss issues including infrastructure, according to a White House official. A bipartisan group of senators trying come up with an infrastructure compromise say they are moving closer to agreement on a proposal but are still wrestling with how to pay for their plan in the face of White House opposition to indexing the gasoline tax to inflation.

     Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), one of the leaders of the group, said the senators are requesting a meeting with White House officials today and plan to draw up a “fleshed out” framework for a proposal this week.

     As for potential pay-fors, the administration has been pushing Biden’s plan to bolster funding for Internal Revenue Service enforcement to collect from tax cheats. The group has proposed limited new revenue from bolstering IRS enforcement but far short of the amount the White House estimates could be recouped in unpaid taxes. Portman said they also are looking at raising revenue from airwaves sales and fees from major polluters.

     Meanwhile, Senate Democrats and Republicans are looking to a new bank to help pay for roads, bridges, and transit. The idea was endorsed in a framework last week from the group of about 20 senators and is seen as an alternative to raising the gasoline tax or other infrastructure funding mechanisms. Proponents have argued that a federal infrastructure bank would allow more private funding to pay for the nation’s transportation network. But demand for privately funded infrastructure in the U.S. has been limited beyond toll roads, and when there has been interest, some projects have been plagued by overoptimistic forecasts that burned investors. Critics also warn that politics could seep into the lending process.

—  Republicans on Senate panel seek more explanation from EPA on WOTUS plans. Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are asking EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the review the agencies said was conducted which prompted them to conclude that the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule needed to be repealed and replaced. “After the administration’s continued commitments to transparency, engagement, and communication with stakeholders and Congress on this issue, the lack of transparency surrounding the decision to abandon this legally defensible and environmentally sound rule is disheartening,” the lawmakers said in the letter (link) to EPA Administrator Michael Regan and acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jaime Pinkham.

     The lawmakers said the administration has not provided its analysis to back up their claims the Trump-era rule caused “significant environmental damage” and “ongoing environmental harm” and that it faced “implementation challenges.” They are asking for specifics of the harm, damage and implementation issues and information on the 333 projects that did not require a permit under the Trump rule but would have under the Obama-era Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule. The lawmakers are seeking a response by July 5.
 

CHINA UPDATE

— China’s imports of American goods slowed again in May, putting the purchase targets agreed with the U.S. in the 2020 trade deal even further out of reach. China bought almost $10 billion worth of manufactured, agricultural and energy goods from the U.S. in May, the lowest monthly total since October 2020. That took total imports to almost $157 billion since January 2020, 41.4% of the targets the two nations agreed at that time. The slowdown was despite corn imports surging to a record in the month. China is also buying agricultural products for delivery from later in the year, and these will bump up the totals somewhat once they actually arrive in China.

— The Biden's administration is weighing whether to ban polysilicon imports from Xinjiang because of concerns that China is using forced labor to make products in the region, Politico reported (link). The Chinese government has been accused of rounding up Uyghur Muslim population in the region, which is also the origin point for roughly half the world's polysilicon, a critical material used in most solar panels.

ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE

— U.S. doesn't currently impose a cost on carbon emissions. But just the risk that it might someday price carbon can make businesses change their behavior today. The uncertainty around future policy could cause firms to invest in cleaner technologies or to hold off on some kinds of investments altogether. For instance, a 10% chance of a $45-per-ton carbon tax generates about 10% of the emissions reductions that would result from an actual $45 tax, find Stephie Fried of the San Francisco Fed, Kevin Novan of the University of California, Davis, and Fed economist William Peterman (link for details).

— Reuters: Lawmakers seek biofuel provisions in potential massive infrastructure package. Reuters is reporting some Democratic lawmakers are seeking to include provisions to bolster biofuels in a potential massive $6-trillion infrastructure package. Lawmakers making the push are Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Reps. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) and Cindy Axne (D-Iowa).

     Democratic lawmakers intend to introduce two bills soon that they hope will be melded into the potential big infrastructure plan, including:

• Setting aside $2 billion to pay for new fuel pumps and other infrastructure needs to get higher levels of ethanol and biodiesel blended into fuels.
• Looking for a 5-cent-per-gallon tax credit for gas stations offering E15. The higher blend has been cleared by EPA and the agency has approved year-round sales of the fuel that previously had been prevented from being sold in the summer months.
• Getting more “flex fuel” vehicles on the road is another effort, with lawmakers looking at a $200-per-vehicle tax credit for automakers relative to marketing vehicles that can use up to 85% ethanol fuel.
   

— Manchin releases energy infrastructure draft. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday will discuss broad legislation from Chairman Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) that aims to address policy issues including: energy grid reliability, cybersecurity, the supply chain for critical minerals, carbon capture technology investments, hydrogen and nuclear energy research and development, wildfire management, and abandoned mine land reclamation.

     The new 11-title draft bill also seeks to fully fund several projects authorized by the 2020 Energy Act that Manchin and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) shepherded into law at the end of the last Congress.

LIVESTOCK, FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

— Group sues Smithfield for allegedly misleading consumers during pandemic. Consumer group Food & Water Watch filed suit against Smithfield Foods, charging the company with “fearmongering” about a meat shortage during the Covid-19 pandemic and misrepresenting worker safety measures.

     The group took issue with Smithfield stating that the country was “perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply” while the company’s meat exports were rising. “Government data further refute Smithfield’s doom-and-gloom warnings, showing that pork inventory held in cold storage warehouses was well into the hundreds of millions of pounds, which analysts have estimated could have kept grocery stores stocked with pork for months, even absent any additional production,” the suit stated. The group said that Smithfield’s warnings on supply prompted consumers to stock up on meat — sales between March and July 2020 increased by 20% for fresh pork, 29% for bacon and 20% for ham compared to the year before.

     The group also said in the 46-page complaint that the company misrepresented its worker safety measures, saying Smithfield “utterly failed to protect its workers” as Covid “spread like wildfire throughout its meat processing facilities.”

     Smithfield downplayed the allegations in the suit. “We have not been served with a copy of this purported complaint and have not had adequate time to review the allegations or prepare any substantive response to them,” said Keira Lombardo, chief administrative officer of Smithfield. The allegations of price manipulation are “wrong,” Smithfield said, and it stressed their worker safety measures were comprehensive and guided by medical and worker safety experts. 

— U.S. meatpacking industry faces stricter oversight following complaints about meat companies’ alleged influence over markets and farmers. The Wall Street Journal took a look at the topic (link), noting that new rules an legislation would revamp markets for livestock and poultry. USDA is crafting new rules that would change how companies pay chicken farmers, while making it easier for farmers to pursue disputes against meatpackers, the agency said this month. On Capitol Hill, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have proposed legislation that would require beef processors to buy more cattle on open markets and set minimum regional prices. Senators this month rolled out a separate bill that would appoint a special investigator to enforce meatpacking regulations and probe potential anticompetitive conduct.

     The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday to examine meatpackers’ cattle purchasing—and how that affects livestock markets and burger prices for consumers. Witnesses at tomorrow’s hearings:

     USDA official points a finger. Andy Green, USDA’s senior adviser for fair and competitive markets, said some of farmers’ troubles stem from a handful of companies controlling the bulk of U.S. meat processing. “America’s food industry has a monopoly problem,” said Green, a former senior fellow for economic policy at the think tank Center for American Progress who joined USDA earlier this year. “There’s a lot that we want to do to bring competition back to the market.”

     The North American Meat Institute, which represents meat companies, is pushing back against tighter regulations for the industry. Mark Dopp, the group’s head of regulatory affairs, said USDA’s planned rules would narrow farmers’ options to sell livestock, enable frivolous lawsuits and potentially boost supermarket prices for burgers and chicken breasts. USDA under the Obama administration proposed similar rules that were later blocked by Congress and court challenges, he said: “They were a bad idea then, and they’re still a bad idea.” Link to Dopp’s full remarks.

     The big four beef processors’ share of the cattle market has held roughly steady for 25 years, according to data compiled by the meat institute, while some cattle producers were earning record profits as recently as 2014. Recent low prices for cattle ranchers showed fundamental market forces at work, Dopp said, as the disruptions that closed meat plants left a greater supply of cattle on the market, pushing down livestock prices.

     USDA recently announced grants and loans to support new and smaller meat-processing plants as part of a $4 billion program to strengthen the U.S. food system (see related item below).

     Calls for the government to make the food system more resilient by ensuring there is more packing capacity “ignore important considerations,” Dopp said. “First, in the hog industry more capacity has been added over the last several years in response to market forces. Significant harvest facilities have been opened in the last few years in Michigan, Missouri, and Iowa, with smaller plants also opening -- before the pandemic and in response to market forces. And just last week Wholestone Farms announced plans to build a packing facility in South Dakota.5 In cattle, a plant recently opened, and expansions and new facilities have been announced, all in response to market forces.”

     “These new entrants or company expansions were based on decisions to build or expand based on market conditions, not because of government intervention,” Dopp stressed. “This market-based reaction is exactly what cattle industry analysts have called for in reports. As Rabobank said in September 2020, ‘An additional daily packing capacity of 5,000 to 6,000 head of fed cattle could restore the historical balance of fed cattle supplies and packing capacity and still allow for positive packer margins.’”

     “The pandemic that began in 2020 and continues today may be the ultimate black swan event,” said Dopp. “But its occurrence does not automatically mean the system needs to be torn down and rebuilt.” He noted:

• “Americans spend less of their disposable personal income on food than any other country in the world;
• “Rhetoric about increasing concentration in the beef industry does not match reality, which is that the United States fed cattle market has had four firms operating in the space for more than 25 years;
• “The factors with the greatest effect on markets are livestock inventory and the ability of packers to utilize their capacity; and
• “Efforts to increase capacity through government intervention are shortsighted.”

— Two U.S. facilities delisted from exporting to Mexico, including Smithfield’s Tar Heel, North Carolina hog plant. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said that the Smithfield Foods plant at Tar Heel, North Carolina, and the Rava Forwarding facility in Laredo, Texas, have been delisted as plants eligible to ship products to Mexico. FSIS said the Smithfield facility was delisted June 16 relative to slaughter, boning, cut up, grinding, and processing pork, while the Rava Forwarding cold storage facility was delisted June 18. The facility is listed as cold storage for beef, poultry, pork, bison, sheep and wild game. The Smithfield situation involved Mexican concerns over quality of a specific lot of hog skins sold to a third-party company that were eventually exported to Mexico, according to Keira Lombardo, Smithfield chief administrative officer. "We have conducted a thorough internal inquiry and have determined that the issue originates with the third-party company, not with Smithfield nor the facility," Lombardo said. Reuters reported that Mexico’s health safety agency Senasica was reviewing the matter.

— Sanderson Farms, the U.S. poultry giant, is reportedly weighing a sale, drawing interest from the likes of Continental Grain, the Wall Street Journal reports (link). Sanderson Farms has tapped Centerview Partners for advice on the potential sale. The U.S. chicken industry is dominated by a handful of big players including Tyson Foods Inc., which processes about one-fifth of the country’s poultry, according to research from Watt Poultry USA. A deal with Continental would merge Sanderson with Georgia-based Wayne Farms LLC, a poultry producer owned by Continental, forming a company producing about 15% of the country’s chicken meat. No. 2 player Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. produces about 16% of the national total. Sanderson in October 2020 said it rejected an unsolicited takeover approach from Durational Capital Management that the chicken producer said was too low.

— Organic Trade Association files motion to return to Obama-era Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices rule. The Organic Trade Association is asking the US District Court for the District of Columbia to immediately vacate the USDA withdrawal of the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP) final rule and order USDA to reinstate the regs put in place near the end of the Obama administration. “Organic egg farmers who are doing the right thing to give their poultry real outdoor access and raise their animals according to the highest standards are continuing to be exposed to economic harm from unfair competition every day that the Trump administration’s rescission of the organic animal welfare rule is allowed to stay in place,” said Laura Batcha, CEO and Executive Director of the Organic Trade Association. The group said that while they welcome assurances from USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack they are re-evaluating the situation, “the policy statement alone won’t guarantee a swift end to this harm,” Batcha said. The motion filed June 18 argues USDA dismissed congressional intent and failed to follow the Administrative Procedures Act and buried economic benefits from OLPP and inflated costs associated with the rule. The also argued that USDA based its action on flawed economic analysis.

— USDA announces meat inspection grant program. USDA announced that $55.2 million in competitive grant funding is being made available through the new Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grant (MPIRG) program. The effort uses funds set aside under the Fiscal Year 2021 omnibus spending and Covid-19 relief package enacted in December. “We are building capacity and increasing economic opportunity for small and midsized meat and poultry processors and producers across the country.” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said. USDA said it encourages MPIRG applications that focus on “improving meat and poultry slaughter and processing capacity and efficiency; developing new and expanding existing markets; increasing capacity and better meeting consumer and producer demand; maintaining strong inspection and food safety standards; obtaining a larger commercial presence,” and those that aim to increase access to slaughter or processing facilities “for smaller farms and ranches, new and beginning farmers and ranchers, socially disadvantaged producers, and veteran producers.”

     Eligible facilities include commercial businesses, cooperatives, and tribal enterprises. MPIRG’s Planning for a Federal Grant of Inspection (PFGI) project is available to facilities currently in operation and are working toward federal inspection, while the Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) Compliance project is for plants working towards compliance with their state’s a Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) CIS program. Currently, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin have CIS programs.

     Applications for MPIRG grants must be submitted by August 2, 2021. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will hold webinars to walk applicants through the application process.
 

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

— Summary: Global cases of Covid-19 are at 178,811,887 with 3,873,985 deaths, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. case count is at 33,554,339 with 602,092 deaths. The Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center said that there have been 318,576,441 doses administered, 150,046,006 have been fully vaccinated, or 45.7% of the total U.S. population.

— Covid-19 is raging in South America, where the death rate per capita is eight times the world’s rate. Several factors explain why: a slow rate of vaccination, the spread of new Covid-19 variants, crowded cities, weak healthcare systems, far higher rates of obesity than in Africa and Asia, and some governments that largely gave up trying to control the virus.

— Global vaccine production. The World Health Organization said on Monday it was in the early stages of establishing a “technology transfer hub” in South Africa to speed the production of Covid-19 vaccines across the African continent. The WHO said the new facility would work as a training center where “interested manufacturers from low- and middle-income countries can receive training and any necessary licenses to the technology,” while WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said it was possible for South Africa to produce vaccines “within 9 to 12 months.” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa hailed the news as “historic” but said it would still push for a waiver on intellectual property rights related to Covid-19 vaccines.
 

CONGRESS  

— Senate to decide today on whether to advance a bill that would overhaul the election system and voting rights. However, proponents do not have enough Democratic votes to clear the measure. The For the People Act would set national voting standards, change the composition of the Federal Election Commission, overhaul campaign finance, place new rules on congressional redistricting, and introduce new ethics guidelines for presidents and vice presidents. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is at least one of the potential no votes among Democrats. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democratic vote counter, said he was “hoping” the West Virginia centrist would jump on board. With the Senate split 50-50 between the two parties, 10 GOP votes would be needed to end a filibuster under Senate rules even with Manchin’s backing. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated on Sunday that they were still trying to reach a deal with the West Virginia centrist, who floated a compromise package. The proposal was received warmly by President Biden, who huddled with Manchin on Monday at the White House.

OTHER ITEMS OF NOTE     

— Shimkus joins lobbying firm. John Shimkus, who left Capitol Hill this year after not seeking re-election to the House, has joined the lobbying firm KBS Group as a principal. The former Republican congressman from Illinois served for 24 years and was a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He was the top Republican on the panel’s Environment and the Economy Subcommittee. The client roster of KBS Group, founded by former Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), includes Southwest Airlines, the National Biodiesel Board, RWE Renewables Americas, and Sixty West, an investment, development, and property management firm.

— Supreme Court backs paying student-athletes. The high court ruled unanimously that players could receive modest education-related payments, opening the door to a more expansive challenge to the NCAA’s ban on compensation for athletes whose games generate billions for their schools. The decision also came ahead of today’s meeting of the NCAA’s most powerful schools and athletic conferences to chart a course for college sports as laws in more states permit athletes to sign endorsement deals.

— Belarus sanctions. Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. imposed coordinated sanctions on Belarusian individuals and state-owned companies in the latest response to last month’s forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk to arrest a dissident on board. The European Union will consider going further on Thursday when it mulls economic sanctions on Belarus’s finance, oil, potash, and tobacco industries. EU moves could include the imposition of “Venezuela-style” curbs on trading Belarusian securities, greatly limiting foreign investment.