Food inflation rate rises for 14th month; Americans pare grocery lists
More and more Americans are switching to generic brands or looking for discounts at the grocery store in response to sustained high food inflation, now running at 10.9 percent — the highest rate since the inflation-plagued late 1970s. Food prices continue to rise even though the overall U.S. inflation rate has slowed notably, said the Labor Department on Wednesday.
Finstad wins in Minnesota, will face Ettinger again in November
Voters in politically conservative southern Minnesota chose Brad Finstad, a pro-Trump Republican, over Democrat Jeff Ettinger in a closer-than-expected special election on Tuesday to complete the term of the late Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who was a member of the House Agriculture Committee.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
‘Broken promises to Black farmers’: A debt relief plan approved by the Senate would make moot an ongoing court case over loan forgiveness targeted to minority farmers and does not assure aid to the 17,000 farmers who were the intended beneficiaries of that program, said a Black farmers’ group. (Federation of Southern Cooperatives)
Well failures in California: State residents have reported 832 dry wells so far this year, a 70 percent increase over the same period in 2021. (California Department of Water Resources)
Agency overestimates progress: Although the Forest Service says it has reduced hazardous fuel on roughly 40 million acres in the past 15 years, that may be overstated by as much as 21 percent because the agency sometimes counts the same piece of land repeatedly. (NBC News)
Healthy gain in combine sales: U.S. sales of self-propelled combines climbed 9.2 percent, to 715 units, in July, and sales so far this year nearly match 2021’s numbers — a sign of farmer confidence, said a trade group. (Association of Equipment Manufacturers)
Hot autumn in Plains: Hot, dry weather was forecast to persist into autumn in the central United States, with “severe implications on the nation’s agriculture,” including additional cattle deaths from heat stress and a smaller cotton harvest. (AccuWeather)
