August 12, 2025

Lawmakers in Early “Skinny Farm Bill” Discussions

Several key agriculture programs that Republicans didn’t get in the reconciliation bill will expire soon. Punchbowl says a farm bill battle is coming in the fall because Republicans will likely need Democrats’ help to construct a smaller farm bill. While the One Big Beautiful Bill took care of much of the farm bill, the deep cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will make it harder to get the legislation over the finish line. “I still think there’s hope,” said Senate Ag Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar at Farmfest in Minnesota. “There’s hope, because we still have other work to do.” In the House, Ag Chair GT Thompson wants to release some legislative text in September, but that will depend on how quickly the staff work gets done in August. Ranking Member Angie Craig said they’re in the “very early stages” of discussing what they’d like to see in the skinny farm bill. 

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World’s First SAF Plant Will Start Operations This Year

After several delays, the world’s first sustainable aviation fuel factory will start operating before the end of 2025. Bloomberg said the factory, owned by LanzaJet, Inc., will make green jet fuel from ethanol. The $200 million facility, located in rural Georgia, was scheduled to begin commercial production in 2024. Now, it’s expected to begin production by the end of September. The latest delay was the result of equipment issues. LanzaJet is being closely watched as a potential barometer for success in the ethanol-to-jet fuel industry. The company imported Brazilian sugarcane ethanol in 2024 to pilot production, but more than a year later, it has yet to sell its jet fuel onto the open market. “I hope that by the end of the third quarter, we are fully operational,” said LanzaJet Chief Executive Officer Jimmy Samartzis. “The modifications we made to the equipment hindering us should satisfy what we need to do.”

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Clean Fuels Asks EPA to Sustain Robust Biodiesel Volumes

Clean Fuels Alliance America filed comments with the Environmental Protection Agency on the “Proposed Renewable Fuel Standards for 2026 and 2027.” Clean Fuels expressed appreciation for the EPA’s intent to provide consistent RFS growth in recognition of U.S. farmers’, feedstock providers’, and biomass-based producers’ investments in new capacity. EPA proposes a robust step-change in biomass-based diesel and advanced biofuel volumes beginning in 2026. The agency projects the requirement to reach 5.61 billion gallons in 2026, which is more than two billion gallons higher than in 2025. “The proposal is a welcome signal to U.S. farmers and biofuel producers, and we are ready to meet these higher volumes with domestically-produced fuel,” Clean Fuels said in the comments. Kurt Kovarik, Clean Fuels Vice President of Federal Affairs, said, “The industry supplied over five billion gallons of biodiesel, renewable diesel, and SAF in 2024, and we’re poised to deliver more in 2026.” 

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Modernizing OJ Regulations to Benefit U.S. Growers

The USDA and the Food and Drug Administration announced plans to support American citrus growers and cut bureaucratic barriers by proposing an update to the standard of identity (SOI) for pasteurized orange juice. This action will end a 60-year-old rule hurting domestic farmers and forcing reliance on imports. Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins said it’s a big win for citrus growers. “Florida’s orange growers have faced years of hardships from hurricanes, greening, and burdensome regulations that no longer reflect the realities of today’s crop,” Rollins said. “This change is a commonsense reform that cuts red tape, strengthens our domestic supply chain, and ensures more American oranges end up in American breakfast glasses.” The proposal would reduce the minimum Brix level, a measure of dissolved sugar content, in pasteurized orange juice from 10.5 to 10 percent. That means more American oranges will meet the requirement, and fewer imports will be necessary. 

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National FFA Organization Announces New Membership Numbers

The National FFA Organization, a nationally recognized school-based student leadership development organization, announced that its new membership number reflects more than one million FFA members nationwide. Membership reached 1,042,245 this year with a total of 9,407 chapters. “It’s exciting to watch the interest in agricultural education and FFA continue to grow,” said National FFA CEO Scott Stump. “We know there are many opportunities in the field of agriculture, from being a leader in your community to filling the need in the talent pipeline in one of the more than 350 careers in agriculture.” FFA membership stats for 2024-2025 also include 802,412 alumni members and 2,060 alumni chapters. States with the largest membership numbers include Texas (181,939) and California (108,143). Michigan was the top state in the percentage of membership increase, with 14.7 percent more members than last year. Florida membership numbers are 7.7 percent higher than last year. 

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Food Price Rate of Growth Slows in 2025

In the first six months of 2025, retail prices for six food-at-home categories grew more slowly than their average rate of growth over the same months between 2005 and 2024, and prices fell in two categories. Food at home includes foods purchased at grocery stores and other retail outlets. The six categories include fresh fruit (up 1.5 percent in the first half of 2025 versus 1.6 from 2005-2024), poultry (up 1.3 percent versus 1.8 percent), fish and seafood (up one percent versus 2.2 percent), dairy products (up 0.9 percent versus 1.5 percent), other foods (up 0.6 percent versus 1.9 percent), and cereal and bakery products (up 0.5 percent versus 2.2 percent). Retail prices fell in the first six months for fats and oils and fresh vegetables. Egg prices averaged 38.5 percent higher between January and June 2025 than they did in all of 2024, primarily because of an HPAI outbreak. 

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