Trump announces temporary pause on beef import tariffs, faces opposition from ranchers

The Trump administration announced a “deal” allowing imports of up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to enter the U.S. market with relaxed tariffs. The announcement came on Aug. 21, and states that, “... foreign beef exporters will provide a 25% discount on beef exports ‘to be passed along to American consumers’ in exchange for tariff relief” for 90 days, reports Emily Chang and Benjamin Siegel for ABC News. 

Ranchers and several Republican lawmakers from farm states oppose the plan. Chang and Siegel report Republican Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy said “... this action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people.” CEO of the National Cattleman’s Beef Association Colin Woodall also advocates against Trump’s deal, saying it "sacrifices long-term stability for short-term messaging.”

Many customers have expressed concern over rising grocery prices. Beef and veal prices soared 9.4% in the last month as compared to last year. The U.S. cattle supply has reached a 75-year low, and domestic farmers are struggling with high fertilizer and diesel costs amid ongoing supply issues caused by the Iran war. 

Chang and Siegel report that the White House official who confirmed the 25% discount also told ABC News “that the president will formally sign an executive order on the matter within the next two weeks.”

The White House official told ABC News the administration is working with domestic ranchers to expand production. Trump wrote in a social media post that “This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again.” 

A rising cancer rate blamed on water quality in rural, red Iowa has become a looming midterm campaign issue

A series of issues affecting rural America is giving hope to Democrats as the midterm elections approach, including data centers that are supported by President Trump but opposed by many communities, concerns about health care access, Medicaid cuts by Republicans that threaten the future of clinics and hospitals, housing shortages and inflation. Now in heavily red rural Iowa, Politico reports that a rising cancer rate blamed on water quality is        overshadowing other issues and is “changing Iowa politics.”

Photo by Shawn Schroeder on Unsplash

From the report by Tom Philpott and Nina B. Elkadi: “Iowa’s lakes and ponds are often murky and fetid from algae blooms fed by fertilizer runoff, a byproduct of the state’s vast agricultural industry’s reliance on farming chemicals … People are angry and worried about the quality of the state’s water, the health risks it poses and its increasingly undeniable tie to the state’s signature industry: agriculture.”

Politicians in Iowa have been hesitant to criticize the industry, Politico reports, but candidates in both parties are taking shots at the big companies and their use of chemicals and fertilizer that they claim has seeped into drinking water and has the state’s cancer rate rising dramatically.

The issue not only has raised the hopes of Democrats seeking statewide office in November, but appears to have delivered victories to Republicans who are bucking the establishment wing of the party.

Perhaps the best example of the strength of the issue is in the positions of the candidates for Iowa secretary of agriculture. The Democrat, Chris Jones, accuses the large farming operations of trying to control nature, “ … and what has controlling nature done for us?,” he asks. “It’s polluted all our water. It’s really destroyed a lot of Iowa.” 

Jones’ Republican opponent is the current secretary of agriculture, Mike Naig, who Politico observes, “can’t run on water.” Naig once worked for Monsanto, the producer of Roundup, a controversial herbicide. Naig thinks farming operations can be convinced to voluntarily pollute less, which is the current approach, and rejects the need for regulation. In a June press release, Naig said, “We have made tremendous progress working with farmers and landowners and hundreds of public and private partners to incorporate responsible farming practices, but there’s no finish line when it comes to conservation.”

Angry voters want results, and the election may come down to who they believe will deliver on water quality. Jones observed that, “Cancer doesn’t care what party you belong to. Republicans don’t like drinking poisonous water any more than Democrats do.”

Finally Friday's quick hits: The art of butter; fentanyl drug lord captured; Lincoln's words; the traveling candy bar

The iconic 'Butter Lady' with one of her sculptures.
(Photo via The Daily Scoop)

Butter might be the kitchen's hero for sumptuous deserts and sauces, but it's also versatile enough to create sculptured art. The late Norma “Duffy” Lyon, also known as "The Butter Lady," was an icon at the Iowa State Fair, reports Karen Bohnert for The Daily Scoop. "Her creations included just about everything— cows, Garth Brooks, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and Elvis. Read about the life and times of Duffy Lyon here. 

It seems like no matter which tactics are used, the United States continues to lose its border battle to keep the deadly drug fentanyl from entering the country and killing more Americans. But for all those losses, here's an unusual win. "U.S. authorities fooled Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada into boarding a Texas-bound private plane. There he was taken into custody, alongside Joaquin Guzmán, who is the son of famed drug lord 'El Chapo,'" reports KFF Health News. "Zambada's Sinaloa cartel is believed to be the biggest supplier of fentanyl to the U.S., and the two men were among the top-wanted drug dealers in the world."

While landscapes form the better part of rural imagery, our oceans are just as vast -- full of plants, rock-filled sand and creatures sci-fi stories haven't even imagined. Life's origins might just be emerging from the deep. "In the total darkness of the depths of the Pacific Ocean, scientists have discovered oxygen being produced not by living organisms but by strange potato-shaped metallic lumps that give off almost as much electricity as AA batteries," reports Agence France-Presse of The Guardian. "The surprise finding has many potential implications and could even require rethinking how life first began on Earth."

With words and deeds, Lincoln kept a divided nation
together. (Photo by Caleb Fisher, Unsplash)

Somewhere in almost every politician's playbook are some quotes from Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln became president when the nation was "even more deeply divided than today," writes Donald Nieman for The Conversation. "His ability to make prose poetic resonates across the centuries – making him the obvious source for politicians in times of crisis. . . . One of Lincoln's most quoted aphorisms is his "appeal to 'the better angels of our nature'" from his 1861 inaugural address. Americans from all political walks of life have "invoked the phrase to decry the intractable partisan warfare that has escalated over the past decade and call for a return to civility."

Why do you do what you do? A lot of people might say, "Beats me. . . I'm just trying to get to Friday." Daily life can be tough, but knowing our "why," can make daily living more meaningful, writes Neil Speer for Drovers. "How many times do we find people who are just putting in their time?" Neil suggests using the ideas from Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why as an antidote to facing life just slogging along. "The book revolves around the question: What’s your why?"

Society of Biology photo

Farming advocate Deb Stroschein used the travels of an American candy bar to show elementary students how food ingredients move across the globe before landing in a neat packages on grocery store shelves.

"I broke down all the ingredients in the candy bar. . . and explained that ingredients can come from plants, nuts, and also from animals. . . .The 'food miles' concept offers a way to study how far food travels. . . . It makes you think about where the food we eat originates. All of the ingredients in this candy bar traveled a total of 30,400 miles to get to the central location. . . .The kids were impressed by that fact."