After more than a year of negotiations, a revised version of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is awaiting congressional ratification.

“We urge members of Congress to swiftly approve the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said after the revised version of the agreement was signed Dec. 10. “Agriculture is at a critical crossroads with the downturn in commodity prices, losses from natural disasters and the trade war. This is an opportunity for Congress not only to help U.S. farmers and ranchers turn the corner on trade, but also show that Washington can still get things done on a bipartisan basis.”

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The fog of regulatory ambiguity is fading with the rollout of official guidelines for industrial hemp growers in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has outlined provisions to approve domestic hemp production, and sets requirements for its producers. Those requirements include licensing, maintaining information on the land where hemp is grown, complying with procedures and provisions, testing updated THC amounts, and handling policy violations.

The 2018 U.S. Farm Bill directed the USDA to establish a national regulatory framework for domestic hemp production. The commodity is used in fabric, paper, construction materials, food products, cosmetics and the production of cannabidiol or CBD. Prices for hemp, driven primarily by demand for use in CBD production, have motivated increased planting. Industrial hemp is already produced in Virginia, with 1,142 registered growers and 2,244 acres planted, according to Tony Banks, senior assistant director of agriculture, development and innovation for Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.

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Before Virginia farmer Charles Hood bought 30 acres of land close to where he grew peanuts, corn, cotton and soybeans, he brought a retired Natural Resources Conservation Service soil scientist out to walk the property. With a thumbs-up from the soil scientist, Hood bought the property and consulted with NRCS to make sure the changes he was planning to make to the land, which had previously been harvested for timber and had ditches on three sides, were okay.

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Essex County cattle and grain producer J. Barry Bates of Tappahannock was elected Dec. 4 to a three-year term on the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation board of directors.

Elections of officers and directors were held at the 2019 VFBF Annual Meeting in Norfolk.

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Cumberland County cattle, forage and forestry producer William F. “Bill” Osl Jr. of Columbia was elected Dec. 4 to a third three-year term on the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation board of directors.

Elections of officers and directors were held at the VFBF 2019 Annual Meeting in Norfolk.

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Shenandoah County cattle and grain and forage producer Peter A. Truban of Woodstock was elected Dec. 4 to a fourth three-year term on the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation board of directors.

Elections of officers and directors were held at the VFBF 2019 Annual Meeting in Norfolk.

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Montgomery County cattle and hay producer Bruce N. Stanger of Christiansburg was elected Dec. 4 to a second three-year term on the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation board of directors.

Elections of officers and directors were held at the VFBF 2019 Annual Meeting in Norfolk.

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J.M. “Jerry” Jenkins of Blackstone was honored Dec. 4 with Virginia Farm Bureau Federation’s 2019 Distinguished Service to Farm Bureau Award during the VFBF Annual Meeting in Norfolk.

Jenkins, a grain producer and former tobacco grower, is serving his 16th term on the VFBF board of directors and was recognized for 45 years of service earlier this year. As a board member, he represents the interests of Farm Bureau producer members in Brunswick, Charlotte, Lunenburg and Mecklenburg counties.

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With Democrats in control of Virginia’s government for the first time in a quarter of a century, political analyst Dr. Robert Holsworth told farmers they need to educate legislators about the importance of agriculture.

“The education of legislators is going to a be a critical issue both during the General Assembly session and outside of it,” Holsworth said Dec. 4 at the 2019 Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Annual Meeting in Norfolk. “You need to impress upon them the absolute economic contributions that agriculture makes to Virginia.”

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