On March 31, Brazilian meatpacker JBS announced a $100 million investment plan to build two factories in Vietnam, aiming to expand its presence in the region and strengthen its position in the global market.

JBS has over 600 operations on five continents, including the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Oceania. In the United States, JBS employs over 70,000 people. The new plants in Vietnam will produce beef, pork, and poultry, primarily using raw materials imported from Brazil to supply the Vietnamese market and other Southeast Asian countries. While the investment aligns with Vietnam’s socioeconomic development goals, JBS’s expansion may spark concerns given the controversy over the company’s labor issues, suits, and environmental accusations. 

The project was formalized through a memorandum of understanding with the Vietnamese government, represented by Northern Investment Promotion, Information, and Support Centre and Sao Do Group, which oversees the Nam Dinh Vu Industrial and Non-Tariff Zone in Haiphong. This initiative aligns with Vietnam’s socioeconomic development goals, aiming to boost local production and expand its role in the international meat trade.

Renato Costa, president of Friboi, a JBS subsidiary, noted the company’s commitment to sustainable growth in the region. “The new factories in Vietnam will not just expand our production capacity but represent an investment with a purpose: to create value for the local economy, generate skilled jobs, and contribute to food security across Southeast Asia. We are investing in the future, with a focus on innovation, sustainability, and development,” he stated.

The project’s first phase will take place in Nam Dinh Vu Industrial Park, where a logistics center will be built with storage capacity and pre-processing, cutting, and packaging operations. The second phase, set to begin two years after the first unit becomes operational, will be located in southern Vietnam and include similar infrastructure, featuring a logistics center and processing plant.

“The partnership between JBS, the Vietnamese government, and our local partners represents a critical strategic step in our geographic diversification. This move not only strengthens our ability to serve the local market but also expands our global presence, creating a robust and sustainable supply chain that positions us even more competitively in the international market,” said Costa. 

With these two factories, JBS expects to create approximately 500 jobs while also launching technical training programs and technology transfers for Vietnamese workers, contributing to the development of the country’s productive sector.

Farmer sentiment declined in March as concerns over agricultural trade and farm policy weighed on producers’ outlook for the future. The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer fell 12 points to a reading of 140, down from 152 a month earlier. Contributing to the weakened sentiment in March was a 15-point drop in the Index of Future Expectations to 144 and the Current Conditions Index falling 5 points to 132.

This month’s survey was conducted between March 10 and 14.

The drop in sentiment was influenced by falling crop prices since mid-February, along with increasing uncertainty surrounding agricultural trade and farm policy. Despite the decline, producers remained more optimistic about future conditions than the present, with the Future Expectations Index remaining higher than the Current Conditions Index by 12 points.

Alongside the weakened sentiment, the Farm Capital Investment Index fell 5 points to 54 in March. Despite the dip, it is the second-highest reading since June 2021. The Farm Financial Performance Index also saw a drop, decreasing 8 points to 102. While slightly above 100, the index indicates that, on average, producers still anticipate their farm’s financial performance to improve compared to a year ago.

Farmland values hold steady despite declining sentiment

The Short-Term Farmland Value Expectations Index remained steady at 118 in March, matching the previous month’s level and only 6 points below its reading from a year ago. Except for the late summer and early fall of 2024, when sentiment was more pessimistic, the index has generally ranged between 110 and 126 since early 2023. This suggests that farmers maintain a cautious outlook for farmland values, anticipating they will either remain stable or increase modestly in the coming year.

While the overall sentiment shift in March reflects growing uncertainty, farmers remain cautiously optimistic about the future, particularly with farmland values holding steady and the outlook for strong returns in the livestock sector helping to offset weaker expectations among crop producers.

Expectations for agricultural exports hit record low

Since 2019, the barometer surveys have asked producers about their expectations for U.S. agricultural exports over the next five years. Historically, exports have been a primary driver of U.S. agricultural production demand and are closely linked to strong farm incomes. Producers reported they were optimistic about export growth in 2019 and 2020 surveys, but that optimism began to decline in 2021 and has continued to erode.

In March, expectations for U.S. exports reached a record low in the survey, with 30 percent of producers anticipating a decline in exports, nearly matching the 33 percent who expect exports to rise.

In addition to worries about exports, farmers’ focus on agricultural policy has shifted over the past year. Since late 2022, barometer surveys have regularly asked producers to identify the most important policies or programs for their farms in the next five years. Before the November 2024 election, farmers reported a higher focus on interest rate policy than trade policy.

However, since the election, trade policy has become a fast-growing concern, with 43 percent of respondents, on average, now citing it as the most critical issue impacting their farms, up sharply from an average of just 21 percent prior to the election.

Uncertainties about trade policy and its potential impact on U.S. agricultural exports are closely tied to farmers’ expectations for farm income. The March survey asked producers about the likelihood of a program similar to 2019’s Market Facilitation Program, created to compensate for lower output prices due to a trade war.

Approximately two-thirds of respondents believe a follow-up to such a program is either “likely” (52 percent) or “very likely” (13 percent) to be implemented. Additionally, 74 percent of farmers in March indicated that the passage of a new farm bill this year was either “very important” (49 percent) or “important” (25 percent) to them.

President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order on March 27, 2025, excluding numerous federal agencies and subdivisions from coverage under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, ending collective bargaining with federal labor unions. He cited national security concerns.

The executive order expands upon Executive Order 12171, originally issued in 1979, which allowed for the exclusion of certain federal agencies engaged in intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work. The new directive determines that Chapter 71 of Title 5, U.S. Code, and Subchapter X of Chapter 52, Title 22, U.S. Code, cannot be applied to specified agencies and subdivisions in a manner consistent with national security needs.

Among the newly excluded agencies and subdivisions are the Food Safety and Inspection Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. 

The Departments of State, Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and Justice, and specific components of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, the Interior, Energy, Agriculture, and Commerce are also affected. Additionally, independent agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission are included in the exclusions.

The executive order also grants the secretaries of Defense and Veterans Affairs authority to issue orders suspending these exclusions for subdivisions within their departments, provided they certify that collective bargaining can be applied without compromising national security.

Similarly, the secretary of Transportation has been given authority to exclude subdivisions within the Department of Transportation, including the Federal Aviation Administration, from labor-management relations coverage when deemed necessary for national security and operational flexibility.

“In his executive order, he outlawed collective bargaining for more than a million federal workers, stripping them of their ability to negotiate fair wages, fair workplace treatment, and fair working hours. We have unions to thank for weekends and reasonable working hours, and for decades, they have stopped employers from taking advantage of working people,” said Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee.

“So it is no surprise that Donald Trump, who has spent his career cheating and stealing his way to success at the expense of his workers, is attacking the right to organize,” Martin added.

Implementation of the order will result in the reassignment of affected employees from union-related duties to agency work and the termination of ongoing grievance and arbitration proceedings involving these employees. Agencies must also review and report any additional subdivisions that should be considered for exclusion within 30 days.

The order states that its provisions should be implemented in accordance with applicable law and available funding. It does not create any enforceable rights for individuals against the U.S. government.

This directive marks a significant shift in federal labor policy, curtailing collective bargaining rights for thousands of federal employees across multiple agencies.

A bipartisan bill aimed at addressing the shortage of rural veterinary services has been introduced in Congress.

The Rural Veterinary Workforce Act would exempt student loan repayments from taxable income for veterinarians working in underserved areas, similar to an existing provision for physicians. The goal is to encourage more veterinarians to serve in regions where they are most needed.

“By addressing the burdensome taxes on the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program, this legislation would allow more veterinarians to serve in the rural and underserved communities most in need and help ensure ranchers and farmers have access to these essential veterinary services,” said bill co-sponsor Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo.

Many rural states struggle with a shortage of veterinarians, which impacts agriculture and public health. To address this issue, Congress created the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP), which helps veterinarians repay student loans in exchange for working in underserved communities for three years.

However, the program is subject to a significant federal withholding tax, reducing its effectiveness. The proposed legislation would remove this tax burden, making it more feasible for veterinarians to practice in areas that might otherwise be unaffordable.

“This record shortage causes serious harm to the health of animals and the public,” said Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, co-sponsor of the bill. “Providing additional funding to the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program and updating the tax code to better serve veterinarians will allow more qualified vets to do vital work with our animals in underserved communities.”

The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.).

Reps. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) and John Larson (D-Conn.) have introduced a companion bill in the U.S. House.

»Related: A growing crisis: America’s shortage of large-animal veterinarians