The world will use about 30 million tonnes more corn than it grows this season, the widest gap in over 30 years

The rest of the day

11 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   Trump and Xi meet on 24 September

   US President Donald Trump will host China's leader Xi Jinping in Washington on 24 September, their second meeting this year. [5] The US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, said there would be announcements on agriculture. [5] A tariff pause agreed last October runs out on 10 November. [5] The easiest way for China to cut tariffs on $30 billion of goods would be to cut its duties on American farm products. [5]

   Why it matters — Trump wants farm sales he can announce before the US midterm elections in November. [5] American farmers have just started bringing in their corn. [1]

2. 03

   US plan to sell more ethanol abroad

   The US Department of Agriculture published a plan on 16 September to sell more American biofuels abroad. [6] Ethanol is a fuel the US makes mostly from corn, and it is mixed into petrol. American ethanol exports reached a record 2.2 billion gallons in 2025, worth $4.7 billion. [6] The department says the plan will remove limits on American biofuels abroad and find new markets for them. [6]

   Why it matters — Corn made into fuel does not feed animals or people. The plan lands in a season when the world is forecast to be short of corn. [1]

3. 04

   UK grocery prices up 2.3%

   UK grocery prices were 2.3% higher in the four weeks to 6 September than a year earlier, the market researcher Worldpanel said. [10] Shoppers spent 2.0% more, which means they bought slightly less food once higher prices are counted. [9] Marks and Spencer, Ocado and the discount chain Lidl grew fastest. [9] Tesco, the biggest chain, lost market share for the fourth report in a row. [9]

   Why it matters — Official figures showed UK food inflation at 1.3% in July, the lowest since August 2024. [11] Intense competition between supermarkets and long energy contracts have kept prices down so far. [11]

4. 05

   UK food inflation could reach 6.6% in 2027

   The Institute of Grocery Distribution, the UK grocery industry's research body, forecast food inflation of 2.9% to 3.9% for 2026. [10] It expects 5.6% to 6.6% in 2027 and 5.3% to 6.3% in 2028. [10] It blames energy prices and extreme weather, including an El Nino it calls extremely severe. [10] Fruit and vegetables are expected to rise most, because they grow fast and are hurt quickly by weather. [10]

   Why it matters — The Bank of England worries that dearer food makes people expect all prices to keep climbing. [10] The group's numbers are close to a forecast the Food and Drink Federation, which speaks for food manufacturers, published earlier this month. [10]

5. 06

   US grocery prices flat in August

   US grocery prices did not change in August, the US Labor Department said. [13] Fruit and vegetables fell 0.4%. Lettuce was 6.2% cheaper because of an outbreak of cyclospora, a stomach parasite. [13] Egg prices rose 2.9%, and dairy cost more. [13] Food prices overall were 2.7% higher than a year before. [13]

   Why it matters — Average hourly pay, once rising prices are taken off, fell 0.3% over the year to August. [13] So US households are paying 2.7% more for food with pay that buys less. [13]

6. 07

   Fuel costs keep fishing boats in port

   France will keep paying fuel help to farmers and fishermen until the end of the year, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's office said on 16 September. [14] Fishermen will get 35 cents a litre, up from 25. Farmers keep 15 cents, now folded into France's drought response. [14] In the Philippines, fishermen have docked their boats because they cannot afford fuel. [15] Oil prices have climbed towards $110 a barrel since the war with Iran began. [15]

   Why it matters — Tractors and fishing boats run on diesel. France is paying part of that fuel bill, and in the Philippines some fishermen have stopped going out. [14][15]

7. 08

   Benin turns its cotton into clothes

   Benin, in West Africa, is Africa's biggest cotton grower. [7] Until 2020 it sent almost all of its raw cotton to Bangladesh, and since then its government has pushed to make finished goods at home. [7] A factory zone near Cotonou now turns about 40,000 tons of Benin's cotton into 7 to 10 million garments a year. [7] At least 183,746 growers in 2,206 village groups supply the cotton. [7]

   Why it matters — The farmers are paid a price set by the authorities, about 300 West African francs a kilo, against 120 for corn. [7] One grower plants three acres of cotton and four of corn, and says cotton is more profitable. [7]

8. 09

   Irrigation spares land and its carbon

   Researchers at Colorado State University asked what would happen if US farms stopped irrigating. [8] Watered fields grow more, so farms without water would need more land. Clearing that land would release about 6.86 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases. [8] That is about 363 years of the emissions US irrigation makes now, mostly from pumps. [8] The study was published on 14 September in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a US science journal. [8]

   Why it matters — Farming and clearing land for food, fibre and fuel cause nearly a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases. [8] The authors say the western US also needs that water for towns and nature, and their study does not weigh those uses. [8]

9. 10

   Cow embryo cells grow into mini muscle

   Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Barcelona grew tiny pieces of tissue from cow embryo stem cells. [16] Stem cells can become many kinds of cell. [16] The pieces held muscle, nerve and blood-vessel cells, and they arranged themselves without being assembled. [16] Meat grown from cells usually starts from adult cow cells, which stop dividing sooner. [16]

   Why it matters — The pieces are tiny and the liquid the cells grow in is very expensive, so the researchers say a steak made this way is not affordable yet. [16] The method may help scientists learn how muscle forms. [16]

10. 11

    Engineered microbes to protect soybeans

    Robigo Bio, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, raised new money in a round led by Leaps by Bayer, the investment arm of the German seed and farm-chemical company. [18] Robigo engineers microbes that are coated onto seeds and make chemicals that fight plant disease all season. [18] Its first product, aimed at a soybean disease called sudden death syndrome, is due in 2028. [18] The company says its early field trials worked as well as chemical sprays and cost half as much to use. [18]

    Why it matters — The disease it targets costs US soybean farmers an estimated $200 million to $500 million a year. [18] The trial results come from the company itself. [18]

11. 12

    Gene-editing start-up raises $1.62m

    Spearhead Bio, a spin-out from a plant science centre in St. Louis, raised $1.62 million from investors. [17] CRISPR, the gene-editing tool, is good at cutting DNA but bad at adding large new pieces in the right place. [17] Spearhead pairs it with genes that move around by themselves, to insert large pieces of DNA where it wants them. [17]

    Why it matters — Its founders say this could save seed companies years of work on each new trait. [17] They say a new trait can cost an extra three years and $80 million to approve, and some of their edits may qualify for a shorter route. [17]