dairy

Grocery shoppers will pay lower-than-expected prices for beef, poultry and dairy products, thanks to the strong dollar and larger meat production, said the monthly Food Price Outlook. For beef, the change in price would be dramatic — down by 2.5 percent this year after two years of steep increases.

Eating full-fat milk, yogurt and cheese may help protect against Type 2 diabetes, says a study of 3,333 adults published in the journal Circulation.

Three environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against 20 private dairy and beef farms in Northern California’s Point Reyes National Seashore, claiming they are destroying wildflowers, "eroding coastal bluffs and polluting creeks while the park stands littered with muddy feedlots, waste pits and trailers for ranch hands,” reports The San Francisco Chronicle.

Negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact covering 40 percent of the global economy focused on dairy and drugs in the final drive by ministers from the 12 nations for an agreement. They planned a two-day meeting last week but stayed on in Atlanta with hopes of an accord today.

The agriculture ministers of Quebec and Ontario will shadow Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast at trade talks in Atlanta as a reminder that the government promised to preserve the integrity of Canada's dairy supply management system, says Canadian Press.

Dairy farmers from Quebec brought two cows and their vocal opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc to the broadcast debate in Montreal of leaders of Canada's five major political parties, said CBC News.

Dairy farmers have until Nov. 20 to enroll in the dairy Margin Protection Program, a seven-week extension past the busy harvest season, said the USDA.

Trade ministers from the 12 nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership covering 40 percent of the global economy say they will "continue work on resolving a limited number of remaining issues" that prevented a final agreement in Hawaii.

At the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks in Hawaii, "Canada has begun discussions with the United States on allowing more foreign dairy products into the Canadian market – among the thorniest issues for Ottawa" in the negotiations, says the Toronto Globe and Mail.

Only days away from a meeting of trade ministers to try to wrap up the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, Canada and the United States are at odds over access to Canada's dairy and poultry market.

The United States is frustrated with Canada "because it believes Ottawa promised greater foreign access to its dairy and poultry markets as a condition of joining" the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks, "and yet has offered nothing," reports the Toronto Globe and Mail.

Chinese and Russian investors are collaborating to build a 100,000-cow dairy - the largest in the world - in northeast China to supply milk and cheese to the Russian market, says Farmers Weekly, based in England.

California is the No. 1 dairy state, but the popularity of Greek-style yogurt has turned New York into the top state for yogurt production, with more than 40 producers including Chobani, says the Los Angeles Times.

Consumer demand for organic milk continues to grow. Annual sales growth is "still in the high single digits," write USDA economists Catherine Greene and William McBride in Choices, the agricultural economics journal.

The Agriculture Department announced a once-a-decade review of the milk marketing-order system, to see if the system, in use for decades, "should be continued without change, amended, or rescinded."