Agribusiness Update for Monday 12/16/13

The House voted Thursday on a one-month extension of the 2008 Farm Bill. The extension bill - filed by House Agriculture Chair Frank Lucas - passed easily on a voice vote. The Senate is not expected to follow suit. The principal negotiators of the farm bill were also expected to hold a conference meeting Thursday. They were not expected to announce a framework agreement on the bill.

Senators Dianne Feinstein and Tom Coburn have introduced the Corn Ethanol Mandate Elimination Act of 2013. Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis says the legislation is short-sighted and will gut the most successful energy policy enacted in the last four decades - the Renewable Fuel Standard. He says the bill is based on false, misleading information. Buis says corn ethanol is not the cause of high food prices.

Synthetic marijuana is believed to have sickened 221 people in Colorado during an outbreak earlier this year. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday is based on a joint investigation with state health officials launched after Colorado hospitals started seeing an increase in emergency room visits by people who had used synthetic pot.

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