Grocery prices to rise marginally (USDA): Retail food prices will rise 1 percent this year, half of the previously forecast 2 percent, due to downturns in meat, poultry, dairy, fruit and vegetable prices, according to the monthly Food Price Index, but prices for cereals and bakery products would rise 4.5 percent.
EPA may overrule states on dicamba (DTN/Progressive Farmer): Ending months of denials, federal regulators say they are re-evaluating a system, called special local needs labels, that states have used to set cut-off dates for spraying the weedkiller dicamba on field crops.
Shortage of seed and farm equipment (Washington Post): Venezuela’s farms can supply only one-fifth of the country’s food, but a shortage of seeds, tools and inputs has put this year’s crops in peril, with some analysts saying famine is possible.
China shuts off Canadian canola (CBC): A trade group for Canadian canola exporters says contracts with China, a major customer for the oilseed, are drying up; there is speculation that a foreign policy dispute is the reason.
Eating fewer chicken nuggets (Grub Street): Industry analytics firm NPD says chicken nugget options at U.S. restaurants fell 3 percent in the year ending in September 2018; chicken strips are up 16 percent but there’s little crossover between consumers of strips and nuggets.
Generating butterflies and solar power (Harvest Public Media): Argonne National Laboratory is starting a field trial in Minnesota of an idea that did well in a theoretical projection: Incorporating habitat for monarch butterflies onto land where solar arrays are built.