European opposition to lab meat: Ahead of a meeting of EU agriculture ministers, a dozen EU nations called cultivated meat a threat to “genuine food production methods that are at the very heart of the European farming model.” (Euractiv)
Bringing back African crops: With a small budget, a State Department official hopes to encourage plant breeders to work on a half-dozen traditional and indigenous crops grown in Africa, such as cassava, cowpeas, and millet, that were overlooked in the drive to boost crop productivity. (New York Times)
ADM down 24 percent: Share prices for Archer-Daniels-Midland fell by 24 percent after the agricultural trader and processor suspended its chief financial officer and delayed the release of its fourth-quarter earnings report amid questions about bookkeeping in its nutrition unit. (Bloomberg)
Five issues for NASDA: Members of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture chose five issues for the group’s primary focus this year: A “unified” farm bill, farm labor reform that addresses guestworkers and undocumented farmworkers, food safety, pesticide regulation, and strategies to address PFAS contamination. (NASDA)
Odds of 190 bushel corn: The U.S. corn crop yielded a record 177.3 bushels per acre in 2023, so a yield of 181.3 bushels per acre seems reasonable this year, said agricultural economist Scott Irwin, who estimates that there’s an 18 percent chance that per-acre yields exceed 190 bushels. (Irwin)