Continuing a four-year trend, land values rose during the growing season in the northern Plains, despite financial tightening in the farm sector, said ag bankers in a quarterly survey by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.

A comparison of farmland sales in Indiana indicates that land rises in value by 1.4 percent for each mile it is closer to a commercial-scale solar energy facility, said a graduate research assistant at Purdue University. The analysis gave weight to a rising belief that energy production was becoming a factor in land prices.

Grocery prices will rise a modest 1.2 percent this year and 1.1 percent in 2025, the smallest increases since 2019 but modestly higher than previously forecast, said USDA economists. Beef prices were expected to rise 5.6 percent this year, faster than its usual annual increase, but slow down in the new year.

Drought and high feed costs have driven ranchers to send cattle to slaughter instead of keeping them for breeding, Reuters reports, shrinking the U.S. beef herd to its smallest size since 1962. As a result, meatpackers are paying considerably more for the cows they turn into meat, which cuts into their profits.

Grocery prices will rise 7.8 percent this year, three times the usual pace for food inflation albeit slower than in 2022, said USDA economists in the monthly Food Price Outlook.

The corn earworm is a widespread crop pest, particularly in the U.S. South, and adept at quickly developing resistance to genetically engineered crops. Over time, researchers looking at lab-selected strains of earworm have identified 20 genes that harbor mutations conferring resistance to pest-killing proteins in so-called Bt crops, which have been genetically engineered to produce bacteria that repel the earworm.

The United States asked for technical consultations with Mexico over its agricultural biotechnology policy on Monday, the first formal step toward a challenge under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. Mexico, the leading customer for U.S. corn exports, said in mid-February that it would ban entry of GMO corn used in making tortillas but accept GMO corn intended for livestock feed and industrial processors.

Mexico has failed to satisfy the "grave concerns" of the United States over a potential ban on imports of U.S.-grown GMO corn said trade officials after negotiations in Mexico City on Monday. "We made it clear today that if this issue is not resolved, we will consider all options, including taking formal steps to enforce our rights under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.”

Farmers in the Philippine province of Antique reaped 67 tonnes of so-called golden rice from 17 fields in the first "substantial" harvest of the GMO variety that contains beta-carotene, which is used by the body to create vitamin A. Cultivation will expand to an additional 17 provinces in the next step of development and testing of the rice, said ETH Zurich, a science and technology university in Switzerland and a financial backer of golden rice, on Monday.

Exports generate an important part of U.S. farm income, yet they are jeopardized by President Trump's decision to renegotiate NAFTA and his threats to cancel the U.S.-Korea trade pact, writes former agriculture secretary Dan Glickman in an essay in The Hill newspaper. "These two threats alone have serious potential implications for the health of American agriculture, which is so dependent on agriculture exports.

Alesha Black, who spent eight years working on agricultural development at the Gates Foundation, is the new director of the global food and agriculture portfolio at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, one of the most active think tanks on the topic.

The partisan split between rural and urban America jeopardizes the future of the panoramic bills that meld farm supports, rural economic development, public nutrition and global food security programs into a single bill, says former agriculture secretary Dan Glickman.

Dan Glickman knows his time is running out as the longest-serving agriculture secretary in half a century. Tom Vilsack, who started on the job at the dawn of the Obama administration in 2009, will tie Glickman, who served in the Clinton era, at 2,123 days in office on Nov 13 and surpass him on Nov 14, according to a USDA tally.

To offset the impact of the coronavirus on farmers who market directly to consumers, the American  Farmland Trust distributed $1 million, raised from donors, in $1,000 checks to 1,000 farmers, said AFT's president John Piotti. During a webinar sponsored by The Chicago Farmers, Piotti said the donation drive was continuing so more growers could be helped.

Community supported agriculture (CSA) began as a year-long direct-marketing commitment between farmers and consumers. With local food in high demand, "on-line hubs are using sophisticated distribution technology to snap into the food chain, often using CSA to describe what they deliver," says the New York Times, some of it is neither local nor direct from the farm, such as olive oil or tropical fruit.

The internet rumor that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would kill 44,000 wild horses and burros isn't exactly true — at least not yet. As the site Snopes.com reported, the BLM still has to vote on the suggestion by its advisory committee that the animals be euthanized, and opposition to the idea from outside groups has been vigorous.

From 2008 to 2012, the Interior Department sold 1,794 wild horses for $10 apiece through a program intended to find homes for the animals and prevent overgrazing of federal rangeland. Colorado rancher Tom Davis was required by law to promise that he would not sell the horses for slaughter, says the Washington Post.

"There are now twice as many wild horses in the West as federal land managers say the land can sustain," says a New York Times story about the government's problems in managing the herd.

The committees that oversee federal spending agree on a ban on horse slaughter in the United States. House appropriators voted, 28-22, for the ban on as part of their USDA funding bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee added similar language to its USDA bill on a 18-12 vote a week ago. The prohibition was a routine part of the bills since 2006 but was omitted in fiscal 2013.

The Trump administration is imperiling access to safe and healthy food, throttling organic farmers and siding with meatpackers on livestock sales regulation, said the Food Policy Action Education Fund in a "State of the Plate" report. "This administration’s regulatory rollbacks, political appointments, and executive orders have affected everyone within our food system–from workers to producers to consumers," said Monica Mills, head of the group.

In one of USDA's biggest decisions in the Trump era, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue killed the so-called GIPSA rule on fair play in livestock marketing. Two months later, the farm group Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) filed suit in the U.S. appeals court in St. Louis for reinstatement of the rule, issued in the closing weeks of the Obama administration.

After the largest inflationary jolt in prices in a half century, “We are seeing signs that grocery prices may be turning a corner,” said White House national economic adviser Lael Brainard on Thursday. The grocery inflation rate was 1 percent over the past 12 months, Brainard said during a speech, “but corporations have to do more to bring their prices down.”

The Labor Department requirement that large companies vaccinate or test their workers for Covid-19 is a step toward greater worker safety at slaughterhouses and other food processing plants, said labor unions on Thursday. The emergency temporary standard (ETS) sets a Jan. 4 deadline for employees to be fully vaccinated but does not apply to employees who work alone, from home, or exclusively outdoors.

Just elected to a second term as senator from Kansas, Republican Jerry Moran quashed reports that President-elect Donald Trump wants him to serve as agriculture secretary. Moran told KWCH-TV in Wichita that he has not been offered the position.

Conservative Rep. Mike Pompeo, sponsor of the House-passed bill to pre-empt state GMO label laws, is declining to say if he will run for the Senate in Kansas against fellow Republican and incumbent Jerry Moran.

Tea Party-backed Milton Wolf, the radiologist who unsuccessfully challenged Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts in the Republican primary last year, is fueling speculation that he will try again for the Senate, this time against incumbent Jerry Moran, chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the USDA and FDA spending.

Members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee said FDA rules on calorie labels for restaurant and take-away foods are overly broad. The rules are scheduled to take effect on Dec. 1.

The food startup that began as Hampton Creek is now known as JUST, and its newest product is a nutrient-fortified cassava porridge named Power Gari that it says is the solution to malnutrition in western Africa, reports the Washington Post. "JUST believes that its product will increase Africans' intake of critical vitamins and minerals by including them in a product that tastes good and is sold at retail in slick branded bags, unlike the fortified foods currently offered by development organizations."

Maple Leaf Foods, Canada's largest distributor of packaged meats, says it will buy Field Roast Grain Meat Co. in an expansion of its role in the North American market for alternative proteins. Based in Seattle, Field Roast produces grain-based "meat" and vegan cheese products, such as plant-based roasts, sausages, burgers and sliced cheese. It also makes a frozen vegan mac-and-cheese.

Hampton Creek, producer of the eggless “Just Mayo,” is losing $4 million a month and could run out of money in six months absent additional funding, said Bloomberg. The company has experienced months of infighting over control of the start-up and the role of co-founder Joshua Tetrick.

The maker of a vegan mayonnaise, Hampton Creek, accused three top employees of planning a coup and fired them. The company said the employees — two vice presidents and the chief technology officer — intended to change the governance structure of the Silicon Valley company so that new investors would have a greater voice in company operations.