Formula supply will improve ‘in a matter of days,’ says FDA chief
U.S. infant formula makers are revving up production and the door is open to imported formula, so “we should see improvement in a matter of days” from shortages nationwide, FDA commissioner Robert Califf said Thursday on Capitol Hill. Califf also said he would strengthen food safety procedures at the agency, though key lawmakers argued he was not going far enough.
Farmland values rise alongside strong ag economy
Persistently strong commodity prices in the opening months of the year fueled a sharp growth in farmland values throughout the Midwest and Plains, said a Federal Reserve report on Thursday.
Baby formula industry was primed for disaster long before key factory closed down
The closure of the Similac factory may have lit the fuse for the nationwide shortage, but a combination of government policy, industry market concentration, and supply chain issues supplied the powder.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Rubber from dandelions?: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is partnering with the Department of Defense and a Cincinnati agricultural startup to develop rubber from dandelions.
(Goodyear)
Drought slashes Kansas wheat: Crop scouts estimated the Kansas hard winter wheat crop at 261 million bushels, 10 million below the USDA estimate and far below last year’s 364 million bushels. (DTN/Progressive Farmer)
‘Classic case of double counting’: California counts greenhouse gas reductions from methane digesters as progress in the livestock industry but simultaneously credits the same reductions to the transportation sector, say critics who believe the state exaggerates its climate record. (Grist)
Second-largest global crop: Although the world grain harvest will be 40 million tonnes smaller in 2022/23 than this season because of reduced wheat, corn, and sorghum crops, it will still be the second-largest harvest ever. (International Grains Council)
Twenty years of drought: In 2012, more than 21 percent of the United States experienced the largest number of weeks of extreme drought or worse in two decades, said a study based on U.S. Drought Monitor data. (NOAA)
