Walmart joins cage-free egg parade
Mammoth retailer Walmart, also the largest U.S. grocer, said it will shift to cage-free eggs "based on available supply, affordability and customer demand by 2025." The transition applies to Walmart and Sam's Club stores and was the latest in a string of announcements by food chains.
Record ag imports from EU and record U.S. trade deficit, too
For nearly two decades, the United States has imported more agricultural products from Europe than it exports to the continent.
U.S. tally of organic producers grows 12 percent in a year
While a small fraction of U.S. agriculture, the number of certified organic operations is climbing at the fastest rate since 2008. The USDA says there are 21,781 organic operations, up 12 percent in a year. The United States accounts for two-thirds of the organic producers worldwide. "Organic food is one of the fastest-growing segments of American agriculture," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Winners and losers in California water allocations
In California’s Sacramento Valley, farms and cities will receive 100 percent of their contracted federal water this year, but farmers farther west in the San Joaquin Valley will only see 5 percent of their promised water, reports the Los Angeles Times.
FDA approval of GE salmon is challenged in court
Environmental and consumer groups made good on their pledge, issued last Nov. 19, to challenge in court the FDA's approval of the sale and consumption of the genetically engineered salmon developed by AquaBounty Technologies.
Study pushes food companies to remove BPA from cans
Major food companies still frequently use Bisphenol A (BPA) to coat cans, says The Guardian, but a new study is helping to change that.
Will a higher California pay rate mean more machines and fewer ag jobs?
Industry insiders say the agreement between legislators and labor unions to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022 in California "could lead to job losses throughout agriculture, escalate the push toward mechanization and send some farm operations out of state," said Capital Press.
Agricultural economy weakening, seen soft throughout 2016
A string of years featuring low crop prices and persistently elevated input costs has led to weakness in the farm sector, with the recent downturn in livestock as an additional factor, says the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank.
Chief resigns from money-losing Los Angeles County Fair
EU administrators delay decision on plant-breeding techniques
The administrative arm of the European Union "has again delayed a much-awaited legal analysis of whether new plant breeding techniques should be considered GMOs," said Euractiv.com, which covers EU policy.
Report: extreme hunger fell by half worldwide between 1990 and 2015
"Extreme poverty, child mortality, and hunger all fell by around half between 1990 and 2015," thanks to the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2000, says the International Food Policy Research Institute in its 2016 Global Food Policy Report.
Deeper snowpack, but California still short of water
Meltwater from snowfall in California's mountains provides 30 percent of the state's water needs in a normal year. The snowpack this year is vastly improved from a year ago, when it was 5 percent of average.
Cruz says: mechanization, higher pay will offset loss of illegal farmworkers
Farmers will have to pay higher wages to farmworkers and rely more on mechanization to carry out agricultural tasks when illegal immigration is ended, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told a Wisconsin dairy farmer.
When you’re the leader, you’re the spear-catcher, says Monsanto chief
Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, is also among the most controversial because of its leadership in GMO crops. Monsanto chief executive Hugh Grant said on the NPR's "Here & Now" that controversy comes with the territory. "Sometimes when you’re first out the gate, when you’re in a leadership position like that, you become the de facto spear-catcher," said Grant.
Vegetarian diet shapes human genome and risk for disease
Cornell University scientists found "tantalizing evidence" that generations of a vegetarian diet led to a mutation in the human genome that may make people "more susceptible to inflammation, and by association, increase risk of heart disease and colon cancer," says the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
‘The backbone of Southern cooking’
t's hard to find good greasy beans, says Travis Milton, who knows the problem firsthand. The chef plans to sow 10 acres of foods that populate the cookbook of central Appalachia -- greasy beans and other heirloom beans, cowpeas, creasy greens, Candy Roaster squash, goosefoot and blackberries, to name a few -- for his soon-to-open restaurant in Bristol, Tennessee, reports the Washington Post.
Freeze damage may put a dent in U.S. wheat crop
"Concerns are mounting over freeze damage to winter wheat crops in the southern Plains," says the Associated Press, pointing in particular to temperatures as low as the single digits in southern Kansas 10 days ago.
Look for smallest U.S. sorghum crop in four years, says KSU
After a three-year surge in exports that boosted the popularity of sorghum, demand is forecast to fall and the feed grain is headed for the smallest harvest since 2012, says economist Dan O'Brien of Kansas State U.
Learning the ABCs of modern farmsteading
A hub of sustainability education since its founding in 1958, Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, Vermont, will launch a program this summer "to help students not only deepen their focus on artisan food and organic agriculture but also turn them into viable businesses," says Civil Eats.
China vows to stop stockpiling corn, try other ag subsidies
Stuck with a six-month supply of corn in the warehouse, China “has pledged to end a costly corn stockpiling policy that has hit world markets,” says the Financial Times.