The biggest crop-related issue today is not what might happen in the upcoming farm bill; rather, it is what occurred yesterday at the Department of Justice. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the so-called Cole memo, issued by then Deputy Attorney General James Cole in 2013, and four other Obama-era directives dating back to 2009 that set guidelines of noninterference/nonenforcement regarding federal law within states where marijuana was legal. The chart below, detailing the 2016 per-pound crop prices in Colorado, shows why this is a big deal. The value of marijuana in this state was more than 24,000 times that of alfalfa hay.
Sessions’ memo puts recreational marijuana operations in jeopardy (e.g., the 40-acre operation that...
What You Need to Know Today: USDA reports are delayed until Tuesday due to the federal holiday on Monday. Over the weekend, President Trump announced a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Russia warmly welcomed and confirmed this ceasefire by conducting more strikes against Ukraine. Specific...
On Saturday, 10 October, at a campaign rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, President Trump said that the U.S. and Mexico would come to terms on a new trade deal, and he said Canada does not need to be part of the deal. Trump called the coming agreement with Mexico “great” but gave no d...
Key Takeaways: The United States has steadily lost global wheat export market share since the 1970s, falling from the world's leading exporter to a projected fifth place in 2026/27. The rapid expansion of Black Sea wheat exports, driven by improved productivity and export infrastructure, has r...
