May 27, 2025
Trump Calls for 50% Tariffs on EU Imports
President Donald Trump is recommending the implementation of a 50% tariff on imports from the European Union starting June 1, he announced Friday. The news comes days after Bloomberg reported that the EU sent new proposals to the United States in an effort to advance trade negotiations pertaining to currently paused reciprocal tariffs on the bloc. “Our discussions with them are going nowhere,” Trump said Friday, while calling out trade barriers like value-added taxes as a driver of a “totally unacceptable” trade deficit between the U.S. and the EU. In 2024, the U.S. had a trade deficit of $236 billion with the EU, per data from the United States International Trade Commission. The EU has been preparing its own countermeasures to U.S. duties but paused implementation until July 14 “to give negotiations a chance,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in early April. The planned retaliatory measures would target imports worth roughly $107 billion.
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Farm Groups React to MAHA Commission Report
On the heels of Thursday’s report released by the Make America Healthy Again Commission, industry organizations are calling for science-based agricultural policy. In a statement, the Modern Ag Alliance said the report raises the possibility that the federal government could take a position to restrict farmers’ access to crop protection tools, undermine existing science-based frameworks and ultimately jeopardize the affordability and security of the U.S. food supply. Farmers are already facing a host of challenges — uncertainty about their access to critical crop protection products shouldn’t be added to the list. Crop protection tools are not only safe, they are essential to food security, affordability and the survival of family farms all across this country. Losing access to these critical inputs would be a devastating setback to American agriculture.
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Red Meat Production Falls 1% Year Over Year
Red meat output in April fell 1% from the same month in 2024, according to a report from the Ag Department. Production in the U.S. totaled 4.6 billion pounds last month, down from 4.64 billion a year earlier, the agency said in a monthly report. Beef output was reported at 2.24 billion pounds, up 3% year over year, as cattle slaughter dropped 6% to 2.57 million head. The average live weight was up 36 pounds to 1,431 pounds. Pork production, meanwhile, rose 1% from the previous year to 2.34 billion pounds in April, USDA said. Hog slaughter also rose 1%, reaching 10.8 million head, and average weight was up a pound to 291 pounds. Veal output plunged 39% to 2.1 million pounds, while lamb and mutton production jumped 13% to 12.8 million pounds. Commercial red meat output from Jan. 1 through the end of April totaled 18.1 billion pounds, down 1% from the same timeframe last year, the agency said.
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The Alliance to End Hunger calls ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ ‘Devastating’ to SNAP
The “Big Beautiful Bill,” the name of the reconciliation package passed along party lines by the House of Representatives on May 22, includes about $267 billion in spending cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over a 10-year period. The legislation severely cuts and alters implementation of SNAP and other programs that meet people’s basic needs, including Medicaid, The Alliance to End Hunger said in a news release. SNAP is the largest federal nutrition program in the U.S., serving 42 million individuals in need of food assistance. The legislation, if passed in the Senate, would mark the largest cut to SNAP in the program’s history, according to The Alliance to End Hunger. The coalition said it is “deeply opposed to the legislation” and urges the Senate to reject the bill. The Senate is expected to make changes to the House plan, possibly on SNAP, Medicaid, and deficit savings.
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Ethanol Industry Urges Reynolds to Veto Eminent Domain Bill
Iowa ethanol advocates and farmers are urging Gov. Kim Reynolds to veto a bill restricting carbon sequestration pipelines. The advocates said in a press conference Thursday the bill is “extremely problematic” to biofuels, farming, energy and Iowa economies. The bill, House File 639, which passed the Iowa Senate May 12 and is awaiting a signature from Reynolds, would change definitions of a common carrier and increase insurance requirements for pipelines transporting liquid carbon dioxide. It would also set requirements for the Iowa Utilities Commission and expand who can intervene on dockets with the commission. Advocates and lawmakers in favor of the bill oppose the use of eminent domain by the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, which would transport captured carbon dioxide from ethanol facilities in Iowa, and neighboring states, to underground storage in North Dakota.
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Diseases Continue to Cross Species Barrier as Global Bird Flu Cases Double
Outbreaks of bird flu in mammals doubled in 2024 with other diseases spreading and putting more humans at risk, says a new report on animal health. The first assessment published by the World Organization for Animal Health revealed animal diseases were migrating into unaffected areas. Half (47 percent) of these have animal-to-human potential. In 2023, there were 459 outbreaks of bird flu recorded in mammals, but that number climbed to 1,022 across 55 countries a year later. The expanding animal trade and a five percent reduction in livestock vaccinations between 2020 and 2022 contributed to the rise. The spread, prevalence and impact of infectious animal diseases is changing, bringing new challenges for agriculture and food security, human health and development, and natural ecosystems. More than 630 million birds have been culled across two decades during bird flu outbreaks. While the risk to humans remains low, more mammalian species that become infected – such as cattle, cats and dogs – the greater the risk of transmission to humans.
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