U.S. price-fixing investigation tags another Pilgrim’s Pride chief
A federal grand jury indicted former chief executive William Lovette of Pilgrim's Pride, one of the largest U.S. poultry processors, and five other industry executives on charges of conspiring to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products, announced the Justice Department on Wednesday.
Indictments could be a sign of increased antitrust enforcement in farm sector
After years of failed attempts to draw attention to market concentration in the meat sector, farmers are cautiously optimistic about federal investigations into alleged antitrust violations in the chicken and beef industries. And grand jury indictments of four chicken industry executives could be a sign of more antitrust action to come, says a former attorney at the Department of Justice. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Poultry execs indicted for price fixing
A federal grand jury indicted four poultry industry executives on a charge of conspiring to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chickens, announced the Justice Department on Wednesday. The charges were the first in "an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price-fixing, bid rigging, and other anticompetitive conduct in the broiler chicken industry," it said.
Grassland losses slow in Great Plains
Some 1.9 million acres of grasslands in the Great Plains were converted to cropland in 2022, said the World Wildlife Fund on Thursday in its annual Plowprint report. “While this figure’s significance cannot be downplayed, it marks an improvement from the previous 10-year average of 2.6 million acres annually,” said the group.
Flash drought hits High Plains
Drought deepened during “quite the dry week” in the High Plains, said the Drought Monitor on Thursday. “Flash drought conditions are impacting the region, especially in the Dakotas, where warm, dry, and windy conditions have provided ideal harvest conditions but have started taking a toll.”
Farmland values soar more than 20 percent in Midwest and Plains
Strong agricultural income and favorable interest rates are fueling a nonstop climb in farmland values in the Plains and Midwest, said farm bankers in quarterly surveys by the Kansas City and Chicago Federal Reserve banks. The Chicago Fed said farmland values in the opening months of this year were 23 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2021; the increase was 24 percent for non-irrigated land in the Plains.
Rapid increase in farmland values in central Plains
Fueled by strong farm income and low interest rates, farmland values soared more than 20 percent in the central Plains during 2021, according to a quarterly survey of ag bankers by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. A majority of the lenders said they expected values to increase this year, but an equally large number "also indicated that farmland values were currently over-valued, suggesting there may still be future risks of declines," said the regional Fed.
El Niño drought trims coffee crop in Asia
Coffee growers in Vietnam, Indonesia and India, three of the seven largest coffee-producing nations on earth, will harvest smaller crops — down by a combined 2.5 percent — due to drought magnified by the El Niño weather pattern, according to a USDA forecast. The semi-annual Coffee: World Markets and Trade report said a record crop of Arabica beans in Brazil, the world's largest coffee grower, would lead to a modest rise in global production.
Hot, dry weather cut Brazil coffee crop 10 percent
The world coffee crop is up marginally from last year to a total of 150 million bags weighing 60 kg apiece, boosted by record-setting harvests in Indonesia and Honduras, said the USDA's semi-annual Coffee: World Markets and Trade report.
Colombia recovers from coffee rust fungus, others struggle
Colombia, the third-largest coffee grower in the world, will harvest 13 million bags of Arabica beans in the coming season, its largest crop in two decades.
Coffee output rises in countries battling rust fungus
Coffee production is on the rise in Colombia and Central America, where growers battle the rust fungus, said USDA in its Coffee: World Markets and Trade report.
Cellulosic ethanol plant is retooled for renewable natural gas
Verbio North America says it will more than double the capacity of its plant in central Iowa to produce renewable natural gas from corn stover, and it plans to begin production of corn ethanol in the final months of the year. The facility was the first of three plants in the nation to return to biofuel production after faltering as a producer of cellulosic ethanol, made from grasses, woody plants and crop residue.
Ambitious ‘biofuel America’ plan faces overhaul in 2022
During the ethanol boom of the early 2000s, Congress set an ambitious target of quadrupling the amount of renewable fuel mixed into gasoline for America's cars and pickup trucks. But while corn ethanol has lived up to its part of the plan, cleaner-burning "advanced" biofuels have been slow to come to market — two factors for the EPA to consider as it faces a regulatory reset of the Renewable Fuel Standard in the new year.
Cellulosic ethanol continues to flow at first Iowa plant to produce it
Even as larger-scale producers of cellulosic ethanol shutter their plants, a handful of small-volume producers are staying the course. One of them, northwestern Iowa’s Quad County Corn Processors, has been using its distinctive distilling method to make cellulosic ethanol since 2014.
Shadows of twilight darken the age of cellulosic ethanol
Five years ago, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands joined Gov. Terry Branstad at a biofuels plant in northwestern Iowa to inaugurate commercial-scale production of cellulosic ethanol. This week, the owner of that facility announced it would no longer produce the so-called “second-generation” renewable fuel at the plant.
Consider alternatives to electric vehicles, say trade groups
The Biden administration should reconsider a proposed "tail pipe" rule that is projected to make electric vehicles (EVs) the best-selling new cars and pickup trucks by 2032, said an unusual alliance of 100 petroleum, ethanol, farm, and retail groups on Tuesday. The oil industry hinted at possible litigation over what one spokesman called "a de facto ban" on gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.
Farm-state lawmakers prod EPA chief on biofuels and WOTUS
The Biden administration is turning a cold shoulder to biofuels and rural America by encouraging the use of electric vehicles, said farm-state Republicans during a complaint-filled House hearing with EPA administrator Michael Regan on Wednesday. Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon pointed to the so-called WOTUS rule on wetlands protections and declared, “Any goodwill the administration has built with farmers and ranchers is gone.”
From a meat-processing ban to free school lunch, food and ag are on the ballot
In Tuesday's elections, voters will decide several ballot initiatives on food and agricultural issues, including a ban on meat processing facilities in a South Dakota city and the expansion of universal school lunch to Colorado. California voters will determine the fate of a tax on high income earners to pay for green energy and for fighting wildfires, which have cost the state’s agricultural sector tens of millions of dollars.
Ethanol producers to electric car makers: We’re greener than you are
With automakers shifting toward the production of electric cars and trucks, the ethanol industry said on Wednesday that biofuels will be an important tool against global warming, and arguably create less pollution than battery-powered vehicles. The comparison was based on life-cycle costs for the power sources, starting at power stations for electricity and corn fields for ethanol.
USDA awards $1.1 billion to seed urban forestry projects
Groups across the United States will receive a total of $1.1 billion to plant and maintain trees in cities and towns to combat extreme heat and mitigate climate change, announced the Biden administration on Thursday. “We’ve never had the opportunity to provide resources at this level,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Great Plains loses 2.5 million acres of grasslands in one year
The annual Plowprint report by the World Wildlife Fund estimates 2.5 million acres of virgin grasslands in the Great Plains were converted to cropland, or energy and urban development last year. While it's a smaller loss than the 3.7 million acres of 2015, the perennial loss of grasslands is a threat to water quality and wildlife habitat in the Plains, which stretch from Texas into the Canadian prairies.
Rural job growth is one-tenth of big-city total
The largest U.S. urban areas, with populations of 1 million or more, enjoyed a 2-percent expansion in the number of jobs since last June, while in rural counties "job growth was a bit more than a tenth of that rate, or 0.29 percent, or about 60,000 jobs," reports the Daily Yonder. In the 924 counties that are not adjacent to any metropolitan area, the number of jobs declined by just over 1,000.
Long Beach may help turn vacant lots to urban farms
City officials in Long Beach, California, are laying the framework for an Urban Agriculture Enterprise Zone program “that would encourage more urban farms to crop up in vacant lots across the city,” says the Press-Telegram.
Keeping agriculture in an urbanizing county
Weld County, just northeast of Denver, "is the epicenter of urban growth and changing land use in Colorado," says public broadcaster KUNC.
Biden re-nominates Dean and Schlanger to key USDA posts
President Biden nominated Stacy Dean, a member of his administration since its first days, for the second time to serve at Agriculture undersecretary for nutrition, a post that has been vacant since the Obama era. The president also re-nominated Margo Schlanger, a long-time civil rights activist, for assistant secretary for civil rights at USDA.
Nominee would build ‘civil rights culture’ at USDA
Declaring "there is no place at USDA for discrimination," University of Michigan law professor Margo Schlanger told senators on Wednesday that she would build "a civil rights culture" at the USDA if confirmed as assistant secretary for civil rights. At the same confirmation hearing, Chavonda Jacobs-Young said she would be an advocate for advanced technology, such as gene editing, if confirmed as undersecretary for research.
Schlanger nominated as USDA civil rights leader
President Biden selected law professor Margo Schlanger, a longtime civil rights advocate, to serve as assistant secretary for civil rights at the USDA, said the White House on Thursday.
Perdue sitting on food box details, say House Democrats
USDA final hog slaughter rules imperil consumers and plant workers, advocates say
Poultry companies subpoenaed in DOJ investigation of chicken industry
Corn losses in rainy spring will be “similar to a severe drought” in scope
Senate Ag panelist Bennet coasts towards re-election as GOP threat fades
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, viewed as one of the most vulnerable senators at the start of the electoral season, is a safe bet for re-election, says political analyst Larry Sabato, because "the GOP is just not very competitive in Colorado this year." Similarly, Roll Call newspaper said Bennet, a member of the Agriculture Committee, "is now favored to retain his seat."
Republican dog fight may boost Sen. Bennet, hurt Grassley
Democrat Michael Bennet, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, won the Senate race in Colorado in 2010 with a plurality of 48 percent in a seven-way race. Handicappers say Colorado will be one of the most competitive states this year yet Bennet's prospects are brightening - and could improve markedly due to Republican infighting.
Higher crop, flood insurance costs with climate change
The Government Accountability Office says cost of the taxpayer-subsidized crop and flood insurance programs could rise substantially in coming decades due to climate change.
Senators urge more market opening by Japan
Eighteen US senators sign letter to USTR Michael Froman saying United States should press Japan to increase market access for US farm exports.
Vermont GMO labeling contest comes to national stage
Assistant House Majority Leader Kate Webb, a sponsor of Vermont's GMO food labeling law, is scheduled to testify at a House subcommittee hearing on federal regulation of the foods on Wednesday.
Oregon GMO referendum appears on track for a recount
The voter initiative in Oregon to require special labels on food made with genetically modified organisms appears to be headed for a recount.
Oregon GMO recount begins in 19 counties
A hand recount of the vote on whether to require labels on GMO foods in Oregon began in 19 of the state's 36 counties on Tuesday, said the Salem Statesman Journal.
Recount assured, Oregon GMO labeling trails by 809 votes
Final unofficial results in Oregon show the GMO labeling initiative failied by 809 votes out of 1.5 million ballots. The split in votes "is within the margin that would trigger an automatic recount," said the Secretary of State's office. The next step is for Secretary of State Kate Brown to certify the results, which could be as early as Dec 1 and would set off a recount that could last for two weeks.
Oregon GMO labeling referendum sets spending record
The statewide referendum in Oregon over labeling foods containing genetically modified organisms is now the most expensive ballot question in state history, says the Salem Statesman Journal.