Agribusiness Update for Tuesday 5/21/13

This is the Agribusiness Update...I’m Greg Martin...

Last week, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack responded to the action taken by the House and Senate Agriculture Committees to move toward passage of a five-year, comprehensive Food, Farm and Jobs Bill. While he is pleased with the Senate version he has concerns with the House’s significant cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

As the Senate Judiciary Committee continues its review of the immigration reform bill - it’s expected the sections of the bill regarding agricultural worker programs and E-verify requirements will come up next week. There are some 300 amendments to deal with.

Investigators have announced that the cause of the West Fertilizer Company explosion has been ruled undetermined. This ruling is made when the cause can’t be proven to an acceptable level of certainty - which may be due to insufficient information or the inability to eliminate multiple causes. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms did eliminate some possible causes for the fire. While the investigation into the fire’s cause is closed - a separate criminal investigation remains open.

That’s today’s Agribusiness Update from the Ag Information Network.