Month: July 2020

Food stamp rolls surge by 6 million people during pandemic Some 43 million people — or more than one in eight Americans — received food stamps in May, an increase of 6.2 million in three months since the coronavirus pandemic swept the country and economic recession threw millions of people… Continue reading

Farm, anti-hunger groups try to squeeze into $1-trillion pandemic bill “Everything’s on the table” as Congress sets to work on a new coronavirus relief bill, and most of it will end up in the wastebasket, said Senate Finance chairman Chuck Grassley. Farm groups are pressing for billions of dollars in… Continue reading

Poultry to account for half of world increase in meat consumption Global meat consumption will grow by 12 percent in the coming decade, with lower-cost poultry accounting for half of the increase, said the OECD and FAO on Thursday. Their jointly produced Agricultural Outlook report also said that aquaculture would… Continue reading

Cut back on sugar and alcohol, recommends U.S. diet panel Americans should halve their consumption of added sugars, and men should limit themselves to one drink a day, said a panel of experts helping the government update its advice on healthful diets. The advisory committee report, published on Wednesday, is… Continue reading

Beef fuels biggest increase in grocery prices in nearly a decade Grocery prices climbed by 5.6 percent, their largest 12-month increase since December 2011, although the U.S. inflation rate is a mild 0.6 percent, said the Labor Department on Tuesday.   Zoetis petitions to make foot-and-mouth vaccine in U.S. The… Continue reading

Pandemic could increase world hunger by one fifth — UN report The coronavirus pandemic will accelerate the five-year-old rise in world hunger and could add as many as 132 million people this year to the global tally of the hungry, an increase of 19 percent, said five UN agencies in… Continue reading

As China buys U.S. corn, Trump has ‘many other things in mind’ than trade talks President Trump declared Sino-U.S. relations “severely damaged” and said he has “many other things in mind” beyond following up on the interim agreement that de-escalated the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Trump… Continue reading

In pandemic, one in five children are not getting enough to eat, says report An unprecedented number of U.S. children — 13.9 million — are experiencing food insecurity and did not have sufficient food in late June due to the coronavirus pandemic, said an analysis from the Hamilton Project on… Continue reading

Bayer abandons key provision in glyphosate settlement plan Two weeks after agreeing to pay up to $9.6 billion to resolve thousands of cancer lawsuits against glyphosate, seed and ag-chemical giant Bayer is still looking for a way to handle future litigation against the weedkiller. A proposal to appoint a panel… Continue reading

Farmers’ sentiment rebounds from low, but worries persist   Large American farms are more confident of weathering the coronarvirus pandemic but nearly two-thirds of them say Congress should provide more assistance beyond the $16 billion already earmarked for agriculture, said Purdue University on Tuesday.   Coronavirus slowed U.S. exports of… Continue reading