Food & Farming · Sunday, 20 September 2026

01 Briefing what happened

US diesel hits a record $6.44 a gallon, in the weeks farmers must bring in the corn

Food & Farming 19 sources

The American diesel price set a record on 18 September, 68% above a year ago, at the point in the year when the corn and soybean harvest has to be cut and moved. The railways that carry the grain have more than doubled their fuel charge.

$6.44

a gallon for diesel in the United States, the highest ever recorded

European diesel futures hit a record $210 a barrel the same week [3]

$1,500

a day to fuel one combine harvester in South Dakota

double last year, on Drew Peterson's corn and soybean farm [1]

48 cents

a mile per grain wagon, the fuel charge the railways add

up 153% on a year earlier, and now 11% of the cost of moving corn by rail [2]

$11

more per acre in fuel for American corn this year

and $7 more an acre for soybeans, says Michael Langemeier of Purdue University [1]

The lead story — what happened

The average price of diesel in the United States reached $6.44 a gallon on 18 September, the highest ever recorded there. [5]
Four days earlier it was $6.28, and a year ago it was about $3.75. [4]
The record has landed in the few weeks when American farmers have to cut and move the corn and soybean crop. [1]
Drew Peterson, who grows soybeans and corn and keeps cattle in south-east South Dakota, expects to spend as much as $1,500 a day fuelling one combine harvester, double last year. [1]
Addie Yoder, a farmer in north-east Missouri, runs two combines and three lorries from mid-September to late October, and says one combine alone takes 300 gallons. [1]
Wayne Gularte, who grows vegetables on about 600 acres near Gonzales in California, has put petrol tractors from the 1950s back to work and parked one of the farm's diesel pickups. [1]
A farmer quoted by Bloomberg held off buying diesel after the price jumped at the start of the war with Iran, hoping it would ease. Harvest is weeks away and it has not. [6]
Most food in the country travels by lorry and lorries run on diesel, says David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University. [1]
US food prices in August were 2.7% higher than a year earlier, and Reuters reports that further rises at the grocery store look hard to avoid. [1]
The shortage is of refining rather than crude oil. Russia banned diesel exports on 9 July and later extended the ban to the end of the year. [4]
By September half of Russia's six largest diesel refineries had cut output sharply or shut down, and diesel exports from Russia and the Gulf together are down about two-thirds from 2025 levels. [3]
American refineries ran at nearly 98% of capacity in late August, the highest since 2018, and still made less diesel than in 2025. Their stocks of diesel and heating oil were the lowest for that point in the year since 1951. [4]
Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas wrote to Brooke Rollins, the US agriculture secretary, on 11 September asking for temporary help for farmers. [1]
Brent crude futures were $103.77 a barrel on 18 September, down 1% on the day, as markets shrugged off fresh threats to supply. [8]
Cargoes for near-term delivery cost more than futures: North Sea Forties crude reached $136.75 a barrel on 15 September, after Saudi Arabia suspended loadings and Libya halted three oil fields. [7]

Sept 2025$3.75

Jan 2026$3.52

14 Sept 2026$6.28

18 Sept 2026$6.44

The average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States. The last two marks are four days apart, in the middle of the corn and soybean harvest.

Who is involved

Addie Yoder

a corn, soybean and cattle farmer in north-east Missouri; she runs two combines and three lorries through the harvest and is cutting other spending to cover the fuel
The US Energy Information Administration

the American government's energy statistics office; its figures are the national diesel price that has hit the record
BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern

four of the biggest American freight railways; they add a fuel charge on top of their freight rates and the industry collected $2.93bn from it in the second quarter
Brooke Rollins

the US agriculture secretary; Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas asked her on 11 September to give farmers temporary relief on fuel

How it unfolded

Sept 2025 American diesel averages about $3.75 a gallon
Jan 2026 it is $3.52, before the war with Iran begins in late February
9 Jul 2026 Russia bans diesel exports, later extended to the end of the year
14 Sept the national average is $6.28; the railways' fuel charge on grain hits a record 48 cents a mile
18 Sept the average reaches $6.44, in the middle of the corn and soybean harvest

Where this points

Watch whether American refineries can lift diesel output before the harvest ends in late October, because stocks of diesel and heating oil are the lowest for the time of year since 1951 and heating demand starts straight afterwards.

What is pushing on the whole day

The bar and the word are our reading of how hard each one is pushing today. The arrow is where it is heading. The evidence is in the stories below.

Fuel bills at harvest High↑

The railways charged 48 cents a mile per grain wagon in the second week of September, 153% more than a year earlier. [2] American refineries ran at almost 98% of capacity in late August and their stocks of diesel and heating oil were the lowest for the time of year since 1951. [4]

New rules for US farm payments Building↑

The US farm agency added more than 30 million base acres, the first increase in 20 years, and opened sign-up on 16 September. [9] From the 2026 crop the loan rates it offers rise for every eligible crop, and the sugar programme now runs to 2031. [11]

Big food firms securing crops Building→

Mars registered 37 disease-resistant cocoa clones with Brazil's agriculture ministry. [13] Spain's government now favours an Italian olive-oil family taking control of Deoleo, the world's largest maker of olive oil. [12]

Food costs and the November vote High↑

American food prices in August were 2.7% higher than a year earlier. [1] Poverty held at 13.1% in 2025, and food stamps kept 3.1 million people out of it before this year's cuts take hold. [19]

The rest of the day

13 more stories on this beat.

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

02
Railways more than double their fuel charge on grain

Freight railways in the United States add a fuel charge on top of their freight rates. It reached 48 cents a mile per grain wagon in the second week of September, 153% above a year earlier, on US agriculture department figures. [2] That charge is now 11% of the cost of moving corn and soybeans by rail, against 5% a year ago. [2] Gary Millershaski, a Kansas wheat farmer, says his elevator is offering 70 cents a bushel under the Chicago futures price, where 40 cents under is normal. [2]

A year ago5%
Now11%
The share of the cost of moving corn and soybeans by rail that is the fuel charge.

Why it matters — Most corn, soybean and wheat growers have no river barge nearby and must use the railways, so the charge comes back to them as a lower price at the elevator. It is the same fuel bill as the lead story, arriving one step further down the chain.
03
US farm agency adds 30 million base acres

The US Department of Agriculture has added more than 30 million base acres to the two main American farm safety-net programmes. [9] Base acres are the historical crop area a farm's payments are worked out on, so adding them widens who gets paid and by how much. This is the first increase in 20 years. [9] Because the acres that qualified exceeded the 30 million cap set nationwide, the agency is cutting every newly allocated figure by 3.69%. [9] Sign-up for the 2026 crop year opened on 16 September and closes on 11 December. [9]

Why it matters — It decides the payments on tens of millions of acres for years, and it arrives in the same autumn as a record fuel bill that no farm programme covers.
04
California has its driest year to date on record

California had 10.13 inches of precipitation between January and August, 4.47 inches below normal and the driest such stretch since records began in 1895, according to the US drought monitoring service. [18] August alone brought 0.09 inches, also a record low for the month. [18] About 2 million people in the state now live in an area classed as in drought. [18] The drought map is used by the US agriculture department to trigger disaster declarations and decide who can borrow. [18]

Why it matters — California grows a large share of America's fruit, vegetables and nuts, and Wayne Gularte, one of the growers quoted on fuel costs in the lead story, farms 600 acres of vegetables there.
05
Spain ready to let an Italian family buy Deoleo

Spain's government is open to the Italian family behind Pietro Coricelli taking control of Deoleo, the world's largest maker of olive oil, three officials told Bloomberg. [12] That is a change: Spain's government had previously signalled it wanted a Spanish buyer. [12] Deoleo's private-equity owners said last month they were considering a sale after years of weak profits. [12] Spanish officials now regard the Coricelli family as the best-placed bidder. [12]

Why it matters — Spain grows most of the world's olives, and who owns the biggest bottler decides where the profit on a Spanish crop is booked.
06
Mars registers 37 cocoa clones in Brazil

Mars, the company behind Snickers and M&Ms, says its next cocoa plan leans on cloned trees and software rather than on planting more land. [13] A clone here is a cutting from one high-yielding tree, so every new plant is a copy of it. Its research centre registered 37 disease-resistant clones with Brazil's agriculture ministry, and two clones bred with Indonesia's research agency reached up to 2.65 tonnes a hectare in trials. [13] Cocoa traded at about $5,616 a tonne on 17 September, less than half the record set in December 2024. [13]

Why it matters — Mars named climate, farmer incomes, pests and disease as the threats to its cocoa supply, so the answer it has chosen is more beans per existing hectare rather than more hectares.
07
Iceland's last whaler dismisses the ban threat

Kristjan Loftsson, who runs Hvalur, the only whaling company still operating in Iceland, told Reuters that bills to ban whaling have come before parliament several times and always come to nothing. [16] Iceland's government said last week it will put a permanent ban to parliament in February. [16] Hvalur runs two catcher boats, employs about 150 people in a season that runs from early June to late September, and has caught 85 fin whales this year against a quota of 150. [16]

Why it matters — Fin whales are listed globally as vulnerable but as of least concern in the North Atlantic, which is the gap the company and the bill are arguing over.
08
Massachusetts tries to talk diners into flounder

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has launched a campaign called Flat is Back to get people eating flounder, a flatfish its boats land in quantity and sell cheaply. [17] In August it set up a council of ten chefs from around the state to write recipes for it. [17] The problem it is aimed at is narrow taste: in 2023 more than three-quarters of all the seafood Americans ate came from just ten species, led by shrimp, salmon and canned tuna. [17] Cod stays popular even though its numbers have fallen sharply, while flounder is abundant. [17]

Why it matters — Dan McKiernan, who runs the state agency, says he wants to repeat the method for other overlooked fish, which would move demand towards what the boats already catch.
09
Kellanova joins the lawsuit against US sugar refiners

General Mills, Kellanova, Mars and McKee Foods have filed against American sugar producers, alleging they fixed the price of granulated sugar. [14] The suit says the producers had access to a clearinghouse of live competitor data on profits, prices, costs and production, and used it to hold prices up. [14] ASR Group, one of the accused, says the filing repackages allegations pending for about two years. [14] The plaintiffs say sugar prices fell sharply after the first such lawsuits began in March 2024. [14]

Why it matters — The people suing are the big companies that buy sugar by the tonne, not shoppers. They are arguing over what a factory pays for sugar, not what a bag costs in a shop.
10
US counts farm companies by their members

From the 2026 crop year the US Farm Service Agency will treat limited liability companies and S-corporations as pass-through entities, meaning each member who is actively farming helps the business qualify for payments. [10] Until now a farm set up as one of those had a single payment limit, while partnerships and joint ventures were counted member by member. [10] The agency will judge each business by how it was structured on 15 September 2026, and anyone reporting a change after that date must prove it was made by then. [10]

Why it matters — It raises how much a farm can receive from government programmes without changing a single acre, and it favours operations big enough to have several active partners.
11
A US rule settles wetland decisions made since 1990

The Natural Resources Conservation Service, the US agency that advises farmers on soil and water, has published an interim final rule treating almost every wetland decision it issued after 28 November 1990 as certified. [10] A wetland decision says which parts of a farm count as wetland, and it governs eligibility for farm loans, conservation money, crop insurance and commodity payments. [10] Under the rule a decision stands if the farmer was told about it and given the right to appeal at the time, and it cannot be reopened unless the farmer asks. [10]

Why it matters — Farmers can now drain, clear or alter land against an old ruling without risking their programme payments, which settles a long-running uncertainty and also locks in decisions made decades ago.
12
Crop loan rates rise and sugar support runs to 2031

Marketing assistance loans let American farmers borrow against a stored crop instead of selling it into a weak market, and from 2026 the rates on them rise for every eligible crop. [11] The programme and its cash alternative, the loan deficiency payment, are now authorised through the 2031 crop year. [11] Cotton growers get a higher storage credit cap and a world price calculated from the three lowest quotes instead of five, backdated to 4 July 2025. [11] The sugar programme runs to 2031 with higher loan rates for raw cane and refined beet sugar. [11]

Why it matters — These are the floors under a crop's price, so raising them changes what a farmer can afford to refuse in a bad autumn.
13
Mars picks 13 food-technology companies

Mars and the network Unreasonable have chosen 13 companies from the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, France, Portugal and India for this year's food-technology group, the third such round. [15] Lasso Labs spins ingredients into fibres in the way sugar is spun into candyfloss, to give food a meat-like texture without additives or high heat. [15] Nutrition from Water grows microalgae in fermentation tanks to make powdered protein for dairy makers. [15] Spore Bio uses light and machine learning to find bacteria in factory samples in minutes rather than days. [15]

Why it matters — The money has moved from finished products towards the machinery of making food, which is where a contamination scare or a texture problem actually starts.
14
US poverty held at 13.1% before food-aid cuts land

The poverty rate in the United States was 13.1% in 2025, unchanged from 2024, the Census Bureau said on 15 September. [19] Median household income rose to $87,460, the highest on record once inflation is taken out. [19] Food stamps kept 3.1 million people out of poverty that year and refundable tax credits kept out 6.1 million, while medical bills pushed 7.7 million into it. [19] The figures come before the cuts to Medicaid and food stamps passed in July 2025 take full effect. [19]

Why it matters — Gideon Lukens of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calls 2025 a baseline, so this is the last reading before the food-aid cuts show up in the numbers.

02 Lesson why it matters

Why a job with a deadline cannot shop around

A crop is ready when it is ready, so the farmer buying diesel this week has no choice but this week's price.

The twist

The corn is ready this week, so the farmer cannot wait for a cheaper price and buys at the record instead.

The picture

Last year$750

This year$1,500

What a day's diesel for one combine harvester costs on Drew Peterson's farm in South Dakota, in his own figures. The day's work is the same.

How it works

A crop is ready in a particular few weeks
It has to be cut and moved inside them
So the diesel has to be bought this week, at whatever the pump says
Nobody is waiting the seller out, so the price does not have to fall
The extra cost comes out of the farm's other spending, or off the price it is offered

The same force, elsewhere today

Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

Railways more than double their fuel charge on grain

the same step: the grain has to move as it comes off the field, so the higher charge is paid, and it shows up as 70 cents a bushel under the futures price instead of the usual 40
Massachusetts tries to talk diners into flounder

the same step from the seller's side: a landed fish cannot wait for a buyer, so the state is trying to build demand before the boats come in rather than after
US farm agency adds 30 million base acres

a date rather than a price: the agency froze each farm's structure at 15 September and closes sign-up on 11 December, so a better arrangement worked out in January earns nothing this year

Where you've seen this

An emergency plumber at midnight

a burst pipe cannot wait until Monday's cheaper call-out

A flight booked three days out

the meeting is on Tuesday, so you take whatever seat is left and pay what it costs

Flowers for a wedding

the date cannot move, so the florist is quoting to someone who cannot walk away

The catch

The squeeze is not total. Wayne Gularte put 1950s petrol tractors back to work and parked a diesel pickup, which cut part of his bill. What he could not change was the week his vegetables were ready.

And the whole of it

Everyone in this chain is doing the only thing open to them that week. The farmer fuels the combine, the elevator takes the railway's charge off the price it offers, the shop moves its labels, and the shopper pays a little more. None of them can see much beyond their own part of it.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

American farmers are paying a record $6.44 a gallon for diesel in the few weeks they have to bring in the corn and soybeans, and the railways that move the grain have more than doubled their fuel charge in a year. [1][2][5] What the US farm agency announced this month is base acres, payment limits and wetland decisions, all of them written before the fuel moved, and none of them pays a fuel bill. [9][10]

Why it works on us — Almost nobody buys diesel directly, so a record price for it reaches most people as groceries costing a little more, with nothing on the label to say where the increase came from.

Who gains

American oil refiners — They are running near capacity into a market where diesel stocks are the lowest for the season since 1951, and are making a great deal of money doing it. [4]
The big US freight railways — They collected $2.93bn in fuel charges in the second quarter, more than 90% up on the year, which covered about 90% of their own diesel costs. [2]
Landowners given new base acres — More than 30 million acres were added to the two main American farm payment programmes, the first increase in 20 years, and each acre carries a payment for years ahead. [9]
Farms set up as limited liability companies or S-corporations — From the 2026 crop each actively farming member counts towards the limit, so the business can collect more than the single payment it was capped at before. [10]
The Coricelli family of Italy — Spain's government has dropped its preference for a Spanish buyer and now sees them as best placed to take Deoleo, the world's biggest olive-oil maker. [12]

Who pays

Drew Peterson, a farmer in south-east South Dakota — Up to $1,500 a day to fuel one combine harvester, double last year, in the weeks he has no choice but to harvest. [1]
Gary Millershaski, a wheat and sorghum farmer in Kansas — His elevator is offering about 70 cents a bushel under the Chicago futures price, against a normal 40 cents, as the railways' fuel charge is passed back to growers. [2]
American shoppers — Food prices in August were 2.7% higher than a year earlier, and most of the country's food moves by lorry on diesel. [1]
People in the United States on food stamps — Food stamps kept 3.1 million people out of poverty in 2025, and the cuts passed in July 2025 are not yet in those figures. [19]
Growers in California — The state had its driest January-to-August on record since 1895, 4.47 inches below normal, and the drought map decides who can get disaster help and loans. [18]

What nobody knows yet

Open questions from across today’s stories — ours included.

01

Whether American refineries can make more diesel before winter.

Only one refinery has been built in the country in 50 years, refineries were already running at almost 98% of capacity in late August, and stocks of diesel and heating oil were the lowest for the time of year since 1951. [4]
02

How much of the fuel cost reaches the shelf, and when.

Reuters reports that price rises at American grocery stores look hard to avoid, but no one has published a figure for how much of a diesel rise ends up in a food price or how long it takes. [1]
03

Three different national diesel prices are in circulation for the same week.

Reuters cites $6.29 a gallon from the US energy agency, The Conversation gives $6.28 on 14 September, and NPR reports $6.44 on 18 September. All three are presented as the national average. [1][4][5]
04

Whether the US agriculture secretary will give farmers temporary fuel relief.

Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas asked Brooke Rollins for it in a letter on 11 September, and there is no answer on the record. [1]
05

Whether the railways will bring their fuel charge back down when diesel falls.

Steve Compton, a Kansas farmer, says they raise it quickly and drop it slowly. CSX and Norfolk Southern did not answer questions, and BNSF and Union Pacific declined to comment. [2]
06

How many of the 30 million new base acres will actually be enrolled.

Sign-up for the 2026 crop year runs from 16 September to 11 December and the agency has published no running total. [9]
07

Who ends up owning Deoleo, and what the buyer pays.

Spain's government now favours the Coricelli family, but the decision belongs to the private-equity owners, who have only said they are considering a sale. No price has been reported. [12]
08

Whether Mars' two Indonesian cocoa clones yield as well on a farm.

The figure of up to 2.65 tonnes a hectare comes from controlled conditions, not from growers' fields. [13]
09

What the American food-aid cuts will do to poverty.

The 13.1% poverty rate is for 2025 and predates the Medicaid and food-stamp cuts passed in July that year; one analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calls 2025 a baseline. [19]

04 Hope carry this

Massachusetts set up a council of ten chefs in August to write recipes for flounder, a flatfish its boats land in quantity and sell cheaply. In 2023 more than three-quarters of all the seafood Americans ate came from just ten species.

Also true today

Mars registered 37 disease-resistant, high-yielding cocoa clones with Brazil's agriculture ministry, and two clones it bred with Indonesia's national research agency reached yields of up to 2.65 tonnes a hectare in controlled conditions.
One of the thirteen companies Mars picked for this year's food-technology group, Spore Bio, finds bacteria in factory samples in minutes instead of days.