CTAP Signup Ongoing

Dolcini to Lead FSA

NASS to Resume Consumption/Stocks Survey

Hawaii County Law on GE Crops Ruled Invalid

Activists Want Monarch Listed As Threatened

COTTON USA Reaches German Consumers

Sales Strong, Shipments Steady

Producers are reminded that the Farm Service Agency's (FSA) Cotton Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) sign-up runs through Oct. 7. CTAP, as authorized by the new farm law, will provide a payment equivalent to 5.4 cents per lb. on a farm's '13 cotton base acres and Direct Program payment yield.

If they haven't already, producers are encouraged to schedule an appointment with their local FSA office soon in order to minimize the reduction due to sequestration. CTAP applications approved before Oct. 1 will have the payment reduced by 7.2% and those approved after Oct. 1 will be reduced by 7.3%.

The reductions are required by the provisions of the Budget Control Act of 2011 which requires USDA to reduce certain payments under a process known as sequestration. CTAP was authorized as part of the '14 farm law to provide assistance to cotton producers because the new Stacked Income Protection Plan could not be made available for the '14 crop.

FSA's news release on the CTAP is available from the NCC's home page, www.cotton.org.

Val Dolcini, a fifth generation Californian, will be named the next Administrator of USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA). FSA employees were notified in an Aug. 22, '14 letter from Agriculture Secretary Vilsack.

The appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, will take effect on Sept. 8.

Dolcini, who served as the acting FSA Administrator in '11, has been serving as FSA's California State Executive Director. In that capacity, he oversaw 30 county offices with a primary mission of delivering USDA programs such as farm loans, commodity price support, disaster relief, conservation support and other available resources to California's farmers and ranchers.

Prior to his being appointed to that post, Dolcini managed all government relations activities in the western United States for Accenture LLC, a global consulting firm. He also has served in senior staff positions for California's governor and lieutenant governor and for two California members of the House of Representatives. He received a BA in History from San Francisco State U. and a JD from Golden Gate U. School of Law. He also attended the U. of Uppsala in Sweden.

According to Vilsack's letter, Oscar Gonzales, Jr., who currently serves as USDA's Deputy Chief of Staff, will return to California as FSA's California State Executive Director.

USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is preparing to resume the Consumption on the Cotton System and Stocks survey that was discontinued by the Census Bureau in '11.

The NASS monthly cotton survey is part of a broader effort to reinstate reports for several agricultural commodities that were previously part of the Current Industrial Reports series. Intentions to launch the surveys were initially detailed in a May '13 Federal Register notice to which the NCC submitted favorable comments supporting the survey. The NCC letter cited the importance of the consumption and stocks survey in providing a complete picture of the US balance sheet.

NASS has been working to finalize the survey instrument as well as the list of survey recipients. Cotton industry members are advised that NASS is planning to initiate field visits to textile mills and warehouses in the early fall with the intention of publishing the first survey results in early '15. The surveys will provide critical information regarding the consumption and stocks of US cotton.

US Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren ruled that a Kauai County law requiring companies to disclose their use of pesticides and genetically engineered crops is invalid. The federal judge ruled in favor of four seed companies seeking to stop Kauai's new law from going into effect in October.

The four plaintiffs sued for a permanent injunction against the county law, arguing the ordinance unfairly targets their industry. Kurren's ruling agrees that the ordinance is pre-empted by state law and stops the county from enforcing the ordinance.

An Earthjustice attorney who helped defend the law on behalf of intervening community groups said he'll discuss with his clients options to appeal.

The Center for Food Safety, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Xerces Society, filed a legal petition with the US Fish and Wildlife Service requesting that the monarch butterfly be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act and that critical habitat be designated for the species.Adding the monarch butterfly to the list of endangered and threatened species would offer protections to the butterfly, including protection from adverse effects of federal activities and restrictions on the taking, or incidental killing, of the species.

According to these groups, the North American monarch butterfly population has declined by more than 90% in the past 20 years, signaling a need for federal protection. One of the factors cited as a primary threat to their populations is the loss of milkweed, a sole food source for monarch caterpillars, due to the widespread planting of glyphosate-resistant corn and soybeans and the associated use of glyphosate in the Midwest.

A CBD news release noted, "The vast majority of genetically engineered crops are made to be resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, a uniquely potent killer of milkweed. The dramatic surge in Roundup use with Roundup Ready crops has virtually wiped out milkweed plants in Midwestern corn and soybean fields."

Cotton Council International (CCI) reports that its COTTON USA brand re-launch campaign in Germany earlier this year reached 157.3 million consumer contacts. The German consumer outreach activities celebrated 25 years of COTTON USA and introduced the re-designed COTTON USA brand.

The COTTON USA events involved 155 media outlets, including 88 print media, 36 radio stations and 31 websites. The consumer outreach included two new COTTON USA brand re-launch videos (reach of 1.14 million), a press release (reach of 85.1 million) and a radio airing (reach of 71.1 million) featuring an interview with CCI Global Marketing Director Rob Miller.

Net export sales for the week ending on Aug. 21 were 258,100 bales (480-lb). This brings total '14-15 sales to approximately 5.2 million bales. Total sales at the same point in the '13-14 marketing year were approximately 3.7 million bales. Total new crop ('15-16) sales are 402,500 bales.

Turkey currently sits as the largest importer of US cotton for the '14-15 marketing year with commitments of 1.1 million bales, 22% of the total. China ranks second with 950,000 bales purchased. Mexico completes the Top-3 with purchases of 780,000 bales.

Shipments for the week were 103,200 bales, bringing total exports to date to 318,500 bales, compared with the 797,500 bales at the comparable point in the '13-14 marketing year.