California Lettuce and Cyclospora and AFBF Urges Resume Talks with Canada
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**California lettuce was not implicated in a sprawling cyclospora outbreak that’s sickened thousands of people this summer.
But farmers in the state, who produce most of the country’s lettuce, are shouldering much of the economic pain.
In the past month, sales of iceberg lettuce fell 25.4% and prepacked salads dipped 34.2%.
Growers say they were left with little choice but to destroy about a third of their lettuce crops.
**American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall is urging the U.S. and Canada to return to the negotiating table after trade talks broke down and additional tariffs were imposed.
Duvall says Canada has been one of U.S. agriculture’s most important trading partners since their first free trade agreement in 1989.
Duvall called for de-escalation of the trade dispute and renewal of the USMCA while maintaining duty-free market access for U.S. agricultural products.
**The National Milk Producers Federation and U.S. Dairy Export Council are backing the Trump administration’s latest pressure on Canada over dairy trade under USMCA.
The groups say a 50% tariff on Canadian imports should encourage Canada to return to negotiations and address long-running market access concerns.