NCBA: DOD backs off on lab-based protein

According to the Hagstrom Report, the Defense Department has backed off on its proposal to consider lab-grown protein as a food source for American troops.

The Defense Department did not make an announcement, but according to NCBA, an official did make the statement in a meeting with several U.S. senators.

In June, NCBA said the Defense Department had “sponsored” a research grant that will fund the development of lab-grown meat products by manufacturing company BioMADE.

NCBA said it has worked with agriculture allies in Congress to secure the introduction of several amendments to the fiscal year 2025 Defense Appropriations bill, National Defense Authorization Act, and fiscal year 2025 Agriculture Appropriations bill, aimed at preventing lab-grown protein from ever showing up on the plates of American servicemembers.

NCBA Senior Director of Government Affairs Sigrid Johannes said, “the Department of Defense can and should be on the cutting edge of science, and we respect their work to investigate defense applications for new tools and technology” … “However, there’s a big difference between industrial or defense applications and the food we put in our bodies. U.S. farmers and ranchers are more than capable of meeting the military’s need for high-quality protein.”

UN releases state of food security and nutrition report

The Hagstrom Report announced the United Nations released its 2024 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report at an event in Rio de Janeiro last week, at which a G20 Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty was announced.

The report was released by four United Nations (U.N.) agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organization; World Food Program; International Fund for Agricultural Development; and UNICEF, the U.N.’s Children’s Fund.

The report said, “In 2023, one in 11 people globally…experienced hunger. The annual United Nations report reveals that between 713 and 757 million people faced food insecurity that year. The data show that the global prevalence of malnutrition has remained nearly unchanged for three consecutive years, following a notable rise during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The report also said the world is unlikely to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2, which seeks to eliminate global hunger and food insecurity, by the deadline of 2030 as “progress is hindered by stagnant food security levels and uneven advancements in economic access to healthy diets.”

The CEO of Action Against Hunger commented that “conflict, climate change, and chronic inequality” are the major drivers behind surging food insecurity, but reassured “that the international community has the tools and the knowledge to prevent hunger for everyone, for good” but made sure to note that “unless we close the growing gap between community needs and available funding, this preventable crisis will continue.”

According to a Brazilian government analysis of the FAO, severe food insecurity in Brazil fell dramatically in 2023 from 17.2 million to 2.5 million. When compared to 2022, the 2023 numbers have dropped from 8% to 1.2% of the population.

The director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), commended the Brazilian President for bringing food security to the center of the G20 agenda and mobilizing global support to fight hunger through the unveiling of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty.

More than 1,400 groups ask for SNAP increase

According to a letter released by the Food Research & Action Center, a total of 1,422 national, state, and local organizations representing communities across the country, urged the House and Senate to develop a farm bill “that ensures that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is protected and strengthened and that benefit adequacy, equitable access, and program administration remain core tenets of the program.”

The groups also said they “will oppose any farm bill — including the House Agriculture Committee’s Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 — which proposes cuts to SNAP including restricting future Thrifty Food Plan benefit adjustments, nearly $30 billion in cuts over 10 years according to the Congressional Budget Office, in addition to provisions outsourcing administrative functions currently required to be performed by public sector merit employees.”

Public lands coalition files lawsuit against BLM rule
https://www.ncba.org/ncba-news/news-releases/news/details/38562/what-they-are-saying-public-lands-coalition-files-lawsuit-against-blm-rule

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association announced that leaders of national organizations representing those who utilize our nation’s public lands have joined together to file a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) new public lands rule.

Under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), the BLM is responsible for balancing the multiple use of public lands for productive purposes like grazing, mining, energy development, and timber – but according to NCBA, the BLM’s “Conservation and Landscape Health Rule” upends this multiple use system by creating a brand new use for federal lands without Congressional approval and in conflict with existing federal law.

NCBA will “continue working to hold the BLM accountable in federal court” as they are “suing the BLM to stand up for America’s western ranchers and push back on this harmful rule that only serves as a stepping stone to removing livestock grazing from our nation’s public lands.”