High-end pigs as an antidote for trade woes (Bloomberg): As trade disputes threaten their bottom lines, more hog farmers want to grow sustainably, but there’s a high standard to meet to raise hogs for a humane meat company.
History of farm aid (Wall Street Journal): Many U.S. farm support programs — which will cost more than $21 billion this year — started as temporary solutions but soon became the norm.
Meat groups favor USDA (Quartz): The biggest meat industry lobbies wrote President Trump, asking him to give sole authority to the USDA to regulate cell-cultured meat. The USDA and the FDA have been battling over which agency should oversee the growing sector.
UNF buys Supervalu (CNBC): Grocery distributor United Natural Foods is buying Supervalu, based in Minneapolis, for $2.9 billion in a deal that will expand UNF’s customer base and reduce its reliance on Whole Foods.
Disappointing spring wheat yields (DTN): Crop scouts found “a variable wheat crop with below-average yield potential” during the Wheat Quality Council’s spring and durum wheat tour, with an all-wheat yield average of 41.1 bushels an acre.
House SNAP plan hits 1 in 6 (Carsey School): Some 16 percent of SNAP recipients — or about 1 in 6 — would be affected by the broader work requirements in the House farm bill. “Given the scarcity and expense of childcare nationwide, meeting work requirements may be challenging for some” recipients, said a report.
WTO looks at BC wine rules (Reuters): The World Trade Organization set up a dispute panel to rule on a U.S. complaint that the Canadian province of British Columbia suppresses sales of U.S. wine at grocery stores through discriminatory rules.