Hi all, Hope you’re having a good week! I wanted to make sure that you all saw a new op-ed from FTC Chair Lina Khan in the Des Moines Register this morning on the agency’s suit with 10, bipartisan state AGs against Syngenta and Corteva, the dominant pesticide manufacturers. The suit claims Syngenta and Corteva…

Vilsack rolls out $500M in grants to lower fertilizer costs MORE MONEY: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack provided new details on how USDA plans to offer $500 million in grants to increase domestic fertilizer production which eventually he believes will lead to more competition and lower fertilizer costs for farmers. Fertilizer Production Expansion Program will…

Landowners, environmental groups ask for more ‘proactive’ state regulation Comments come as agency considers reapproval of rules governing large cattle feedlots, chicken barns and hog sites BY: PAUL HAMMEL – SEPTEMBER 30, 2022 5:45 AM Ray Avila feeds chickens on his farm on Aug. 9, 2014, near Osage, Iowa. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) LINCOLN — One…

Ag Weather Forum The Wells Dried Up This Year 9/30/2022 By Bryce Anderson , Ag Meteorologist Emeritus Connect with Bryce: @BAndersonDTN The water table at an index well in Haskell County, Kansas, dropped to almost 400 feet below the surface in late summer 2022. (Kansas Geological Survey graphic) A post on social media from Haskell…

Ag groups receive grant to transition U.S. beef to carbon neutral By Successful Farming Staff 9/16/2022 Mitch Kezar American Farmland Trust was awarded a $30 million grant from the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. The organization will partner with the Integrity Beef Alliance, Indigo Agriculture, Earth Optics, Freedman Heirs Foundation, AgriWebb, Regenified, OpenTEAM, and U.S….

Walmart Tightens Its Grip on Meat Processing With New Investment September 9, 2022 Sustainable Beef, a new beef processing plant in Nebraska, has taken the brave and commendable step to create a market opportunity for themselves, and hopefully open the door for more competition in the highly-consolidated meatpacking industry. However, we’re wary of recent news…

Howdy, Thanks to the Lincoln Journal Star and Jenna Thompson for an in depth look at Nebraska’ meatpacking industry through the eyes of meatpacking workers on this Labor Day weekend. I was unable to copy and paste two sets of graphs that dealt with worker injury rates. To get those, use the link below. Yours…

Inflation: The True Monopoly Story by Luke Gannon and Reggie Rucker | Date: 25 Aug 2022 | Listen to the Building Local Power podcast here. “For every crime, you need means, motive, and opportunity,” Rakeen Mabud explained on the Building Local Power podcast. Executives at some of the largest monopolies in our economy are using…

Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022 All hats, no cattle and little chance Alan Guebert Two groups–one of South Dakota investors, the other tied to Texas cattle ranchers and feeders–are preparing to spend a collective $1.8 billion on two meatpacking plants that they say will be so innovative each…

August 23rd, 2022 Andrew deCoriolis Farm Forward has joined a consumer class action lawsuit against Whole Foods alleging that the retail giant is deceiving shoppers about beef products in its stores. Since 1981, Whole Foods has claimed that all of the animals within its supply chain are raised without antibiotics, but an independent laboratory found…