beef

Food prices will climb a modest 3 percent this year, close to the long-term average of 2.8 percent, said USDA in a monthly update.

Recurrent drought has combined with a smaller cattle inventory to begin shifting the cattle industry, centered in the southern and central Plains, to the north and east, says Meatingplace in a seven-part story, "Dry Age Beef."

A U.S. appeals court upheld USDA rules that require cuts of beef, pork and poultry to carry labels listing where the meat was born, raised and slaughtered, says the AP. Meatpackers challenged the 2013 regulation as a violation of free speech. The meat industry says the labels are bookkeeping headache and drive up costs.

Record beef and pork prices are pulling up the prices of seafood as consumers look for lower-priced protein, says the government in an update of the food price outlook. Overall, food prices are forecast to rise by 3 percent this year, roughly in line with the annual average of 2.8 percent since 1990. The Agriculture Department says pork prices are up by 12 percent since mid-2013 and it expects an increase of 6 percent for this calendar year.

Research into the grain, water and other material needed to produce food says that eating beef is 10 times more costly to the environment as other food derived from animals, such as pork or poultry, says the Weizmann Institute of Science, based in Israel. "Cattle require on average 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water, are responsible for releasing 5 times more greenhouse gases, and consume 6 times as much nitrogen, as eggs or poultry," says the Institute in a statement.

"McDonald’s has chosen Canada over Australia and Europe as the site of its first pilot project in its ambitious quest to serve only “sustainable beef” in its massive global restaurant empire," says the Alberta Farmer.

The Agriculture Department forecasts sharply higher beef, pork and egg prices this year although its overall estimate for U.S. food price inflation is unchanged at 3 percent. In its Food Price Report, USDA said it now now expects a 6 percent increase in beef prices for the year, with pork up 3.5 percent and eggs up 5.5 percent.

"Tempting Europe with Ugly Fruit" is headline of New York Times story about a cooperative in Portugal that buys fruit and vegetables rejected under EU food marketing law and sells the goods to customers by circumvention of labeling requirements.

Beef prices in the grocery store averaged a record $5.55 per lb in the first quarter of this year and are likely to remain strong through 2016, said Purdue economist Chris Hurt at farmdocdaily. The high beef prices will encourage poultry and pork output to grow rapidly during the period to offset the tight supplies of beef.

Americans are consuming 9 pct less red meat and poultry per person than a decade ago, the result of rising prices and lower production. The 2007/08 recession also was a factor. Per capita consumption is estimated for 200.6 lbs this year, compared to 222 lbs in 2004, according to the Agriculture Department.

In a monthly update, the Agriculture Department stuck to its forecast of a 3 pct annual increase in food prices this year.

The leaders of the United States and Japan say "they have made significant progress on the agriculture and auto issues that have blocked a huge Asia-Pacific trade deal following intense talks," says Politico.

Dairy farmers, short on labor, are adopting the use of robotic milking stations that allow the cows to decide when it's milking time, instead of the two or three mass sessions that have been common for decades, says the New York Times.

On Earth Day, AgSec Vilsack announced in Des Moines that USDA awarded $6 million to 10 universities to study the effects of climate change on agricultural production and to develop responses to them.

President Obama will meet the leaders of four nations - Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines - during a trip through Asia that begins on Tuesday.

A federal appeals court says it will hear arguments on May 19 before the court's full panel of judges in a challenge by the meat industry to U.S. meat-labeling rules, says Canadian Press.