Now seven months into the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Ukraine farmers have grown and harvested crops while facing challenges they’ve never before experienced. And as the war continues, questions continue to be asked about Ukraine agriculture and its role as a major player in the world export market. READ MORE AUDIO EXTRA: Ukrainian farmer Gordie Siebring says the war has brought a new, concerning trend related to farmland ownership. LISTEN

American Farm Bureau Federation applauded a court ruling Wednesday that reinstates Modernized Endangered Species Act regulations. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a district court improperly vacated 2019 revisions. “This ruling doesn’t bring an end to the debate about modernizing the ESA, but it sends an important message to the 9th Circuit lower courts that their job is to rule based on the law,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said. READ MORE

U.S. House members are poised to investigate the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers on Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rulemaking authority. Fifteen Republican members have renewed calls to delay any new rulemaking, asking the heads of the agencies this week to allow the Supreme Court to issue a ruling in an upcoming Clean Water Act case. READ MORE  

To help boost decarbonization efforts, Illinois has joined with six states to create the Midwest Hydrogen Coalition. The coalition is a multi-state, multi-sector approach for leveraging each state’s unique assets to ensure a hydrogen production industry will be developed across the Midwest. “Innovative solutions to fighting climate change require collaborative efforts,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. READ MORE

“When you look at this historically, I can’t remember a time when we were this tight with grain. And any little problem anywhere in the world could send us to the moon.” — David Kohli, broker   “This just leads to the idea that we’re going to see another reduction in Ukrainian production when we’re still trying to fight back from the lost production of this past season,” Brian Splitt of AgMarket.Net told RFD Radio’s DeLoss Jahnke. And this kind of uncertainty can lead to greater price volatility. READ AND LISTEN

Connections between the grain industry and international buyers is important as ever with tight global crop stocks. The Illinois Department of Agriculture aims to help build such partnerships during its Illinois Grain Tour, which hosted 40 grain buyers from Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Peru this week. “It’s interesting for us to see how the world is connected through the farm and how everything is connected through the supply chain,” tour participant Gerardo Pallais told FarmWeek’s Daniel Grant. READ MORE