Meatpackers drafted Trump order on meat plants during Covid-19 Facing pressure from local health officials over conditions in their plants, meatpacking companies “drafted and pitched an executive order to the Trump White House” to keep slaughterhouses open during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, said a congressional staff report… Continue reading

U.S. cuts red tape to increase food production, fill Ukraine gap, says Biden Jeff O’Connor gave President Biden a firsthand introduction to double-cropping on his 800-acre Illinois farm on Wednesday and agreed with the president that America can help fill the gap in global food supplies created by the war… Continue reading

Biden encourages larger U.S. crops to feed world, blunt inflation President Biden will announce three steps to encourage American farmers “to boost production, lower food prices, and feed the world” during a visit to a family farm in northern Illinois on Wednesday afternoon, said the White House. Action by the… Continue reading

Public had fewer fears than leaders did of meat shortages In April 2020, when outbreaks of Covid-19 among slaughterhouse workers slowed U.S. meat production, the chairman of Tyson Foods said in full-page advertisements, “The supply chain is breaking.” Two days later, President Trump signed an executive order to keep processing… Continue reading

GMO wheat approved for consumption in Australia and New Zealand Food regulators approved a genetically modified wheat variety for human consumption in Australia and New Zealand, a victory in the rocky campaign to apply biotechnology to grains directly consumed as part of the diet. No GMO wheat is approved for… Continue reading

CNH Industrial workers strike Over 1,000 CNH Industrial workers in Racine, Wisconsin, and Burlington, Iowa, started a strike on Monday. The six-year contract agreement at both facilities expired at midnight on April 30. “Our members at CNHi strike for the ability to earn a decent living, retire with dignity and… Continue reading

‘Nobel Prize of Agriculture’ awarded to NASA climate scientist NASA climatologist Cynthia Rosenzweig, one of the first scientists to document the impact of climate change on food production, is this year’s winner of the $250,000 World Food Prize, said the Food Prize foundation on Thursday. “Dr. Rosenzweig has brought powerful… Continue reading

Biden pledges to ‘combat hunger and improve nutrition for every American’ In a White House video, President Biden said on Wednesday that the administration would “lay out our plan to combat hunger and improve nutrition for every American” at the hunger, nutrition, and health conference set for September. More than… Continue reading

High commodity prices shift conservation lands to crop fields Landowners told the USDA they will take 1.7 million acres out of the long-term Conservation Reserve and put it back into crop production, betting on profits from sky-high commodity prices. This year’s “general signup” for the reserve would also bring the… Continue reading

What’s for dinner? Highest annual food inflation rate since Reagan era. U.S. food prices will soar by an average of 6.8 percent this year, the highest annual rate since President Reagan’s first year in office — and that’s assuming price increases slow in coming months, said a University of Missouri… Continue reading