Brazil a stronger U.S. competitor in soybean sales
In the past decade, Brazil has improved its network of roads, railways, and ports, “significantly altering” its competitiveness with the United States in the world soybean market, said an Agriculture Department report on Thursday. Continued improvements would bolster Brazil’s standing as the world’s largest soybean producer and exporter.
Farm workforce is aging rapidly in the northern U.S.
The average age of farmworkers in the Plains and upper Midwest is rising at a much faster rate than in the rest of the country, said the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank on Thursday. Most of the farmworkers in the Minneapolis district, stretching from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Montana, were born in the United States.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Grocery deflation next year: Aided by declines in pork, eggs, dairy, and processed fruits and vegetables, grocery prices in 2024 will be 0.6 percentage points lower than this year for the first year-over-year drop in food-at-home prices since 2017, said economists. (USDA)
Wind farms and property values: When a wind farm project is announced, property values on nearby land decline by an average of 11 percent, but those values recover after a few years of operation, says a paper in the journal Energy Policy. (InsideClimate News)
Lawsuits allege illegal ranching: Officials in the state of Rondonia, in western Brazil, are suing JBS, the world’s largest meat processor, and three other meatpackers for allegedly buying cattle raised illegally in an Amazon preserve. (Associated Press)
Water limits in Nebraska: Unlike some states, Nebraska does not treat water as a property right, so farmland owners can face restrictions on water use. In some areas, that could mean limits on irrigated acreage. (Flatwater Free Press)
Maui encourages agriculture: The Maui County Council, looking to encourage the active use of fallow farmland on the Hawaiian island, passed a bill reducing property taxes on farmed land. (Maui Now)
