China has bought more than half the soybeans it promised. The rest of America's farm sales wait on one last 10% tax.

The rest of the day

20 more stories on this beat.

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

1. 02

   Brazil's beef, shut out of China, heads to America

   China's low-tax allowance for Brazilian beef filled early this year, and a 5% tax then applied to everything after it. [6] Brazil's beef sales to China fell nearly 90% in August against a year earlier, and China normally takes about half of all the beef Brazil sells abroad. [6] On 26 August the US government widened its own low-tax window: 300,000 tonnes of beef trimmings may enter in three monthly batches from 1 September to 30 November, instead of paying the 26.4% rate charged above the limit. [6] Brazil is the main country it affects. [6]

   Why it matters — Trimmings are the lean beef that becomes ground beef for canteens and fast-food kitchens, so this reaches the price of a burger rather than a steak. [6] The order also says those trimmings must be sold 25% below what the market is charging. [6]

2. 03

   Argentina's cheap-beef window is nearly used up

   The US government raised Argentina's low-tax beef allowance by 80,000 tonnes for 2026, handed out in four batches through the year. [6] Three have been used up, the third by 28 August, and the fourth and last opens on 1 October. [6] American imports of Argentine beef reached 49 million pounds in July, the largest month on record from that country and up nearly 500% on a year earlier. [6] US beef imports as a whole are forecast to run 16% above last year. [6]

   Why it matters — Argentine shipments jumped as each batch opened, which is how an allowance of this kind shows up in the trade figures: in bursts rather than a steady flow. [6]

3. 04

   US cattle prices keep sliding from May's record

   Cattle sold in America's five main marketing regions for $219.06 per hundred pounds in the first week of September, about $44 below the record set in mid-May. [6] Young animals sold on to be fattened averaged $346.69 per hundred pounds in August at the Oklahoma City stockyards, and by 31 August were 14% below their early-May peak. [6] The US agriculture department cut its forecast for next year's beef production again, to 24.835 billion pounds, and lowered its price forecasts for this year and next. [6]

   Why it matters — The department says tight cattle supplies and less slaughterhouse capacity, not the new import allowance, are still what mainly sets what a rancher is paid. [6] Feedlots are holding animals longer: 31% of cattle on feed in August had been there more than 150 days, the second-highest share on record. [6]

4. 05

   America's egg prices are down by three fifths

   A dozen large eggs sold wholesale in New York for an average of $1.11 in August, $1.65 cheaper than in August 2025. [6] Prices fell through the month, from $1.48 to $0.86 a dozen, and the last price quoted before September's forecasts was $0.83. [6] The reason is birds. On 1 August the United States had 315 million hens laying table eggs, the biggest flock since December 2024 and 4.8% more than a year before. [6] Young hens waiting to start laying are 6.4% up on last year. [6]

   Aug 2025$2.76

   Aug 2026$1.11

   Why it matters — The agriculture department raised its forecast for how many eggs America will lay this year to 7.851 billion dozen, 4.7% more than 2025. [6] Cattle, hog and chicken prices were all revised down in the same report, so eggs are not alone. [6]

5. 06

   Pork demand sags and ham prices drop a third

   Americans bought less pork in August, and a whole pig carcass at wholesale fell to $98.83 per hundred pounds, more than 14% below August 2025. [6] Hams weighing 23 to 27 pounds, the cut Mexican buyers favour, were more than 31% cheaper than the same week a year earlier, and pork bellies, which become bacon, were almost 17% cheaper. [6] Those two cuts make up about 41% of what a carcass is worth. [6] Farmers were paid $69.43 per hundred pounds for their pigs, almost 11% less than a year ago. [6]

   Hams31%

   Bellies17%

   Whole carcass14%

   Why it matters — The agriculture department links the weaker demand to people eating out less and driving less on holiday because petrol is dear. [6] Processors are squeezed too: their gross margin per pig fell from $33.69 to $25.50. [6]

6. 07

   More milk than expected, and cheaper butter

   The US agriculture department raised its forecast for how much milk American farms will produce this year to 237.2 billion pounds, and next year's to 238.6 billion. [6] There are more cows than it expected and each is giving more: it now sees 9.71 million dairy cows in 2027, averaging 24,570 pounds of milk each. [6] With more milk about, it cut its 2026 butter price forecast to $1.595 a pound and its cheddar forecast to $1.570. [6] The price farmers get for all milk is forecast at $19.90 per hundred pounds. [6]

   Why it matters — Dairy farmers are being paid about what last month's forecast said, while shops get cheaper butter and cheese. [6] The department also raised its forecast for how much dairy Americans will eat this year and next. [6]

7. 08

   The Philippines will buy more chicken, and Brazil is selling it

   American agricultural staff in Manila forecast that the Philippines will produce 5.8% more chicken meat in 2027 and eat 8.6% more, and will import more to cover the gap. [14] They expect Brazil to take a bigger share of those imports because its chicken is cheaper. [14] Chicken keeps its place partly because the country's pig farms have still not recovered from African swine fever, a disease that emptied herds across Asia. [14] In the same week the department cut its forecast for American chicken exports in 2027 to 6.5 billion pounds, blaming Brazilian competition. [6]

   Why it matters — American chicken farmers are being told they will sell less abroad next year, and the Philippines is one of the markets where it is happening. [6][14]

8. 09

   WFP halves rations in Sudan as its money halves

   The World Food Programme has $206 million for Sudan this year, against $645 million for all of last year, its deputy head Carl Skau said. [8] Almost 20 million Sudanese face hunger after two and a half years of war between the army and a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces. [8] Up to 14 million have been driven from their homes. [8] The agency now works only with the 5 million most in need, and reaches about 4 million. [8] In Tawila in North Darfur, where about a million people shelter, the monthly ration covers two weeks. [8]

   2025, full year$645m

   2026 so far$206m

   Why it matters — Skau said he does not know how people there survive the other two weeks. [8] The International Organization for Migration says its shelter and sanitation supplies for Sudan run out at the end of September, and that the aid system there is funded only to December. [8]

9. 10

   Seeds and goats for 13,000 Haitian households

   The UN's food agency has finished the first round of an emergency farming programme in Haiti, giving seed and tools to 13,000 households, about 65,000 people, across ten municipalities. [9] More than $16 million from a regional humanitarian fund pays for it, and it is meant to reach 326,000 people with 205 tonnes of seed and over 160,000 small animals. [9] The next phase, handing out the animals, targets 29,394 more households. [9] More than half of Haiti's people do not have reliable access to food, on the international scale used to rank food crises. [9]

   Why it matters — A household given seed eats from its own plot within one season and needs less help the next time, which is why the agency treats emergency planting as a way to save lives. [9]

10. 11

    Forests feed billions and go uncounted

    More than 5 billion people rely to some extent on forests and trees for their living, according to a report the UN's food agency published on 15 September. [10] More than 50,000 wild species are used for food, medicine or other purposes. [10] The report says this food barely appears in national statistics or farm policy, so it is invisible when governments plan. [10] The world lost an average of 10.9 million hectares of forest a year over the past decade. [10] About 645 million people went chronically hungry in 2025. [10]

    Why it matters — A study in Africa cited in the report found children in areas with more tree cover eat a more varied diet. [10] The agency is asking governments to write forests into their food plans. [10]

11. 12

    The UN scores itself on hunger and poverty

    Ten years ago the world's governments set 17 development goals for 2030, among them no poverty, zero hunger, clean water and gender equality, broken into 169 separate targets. [11] The UN's latest assessment finds that 15% of the targets with enough data behind them are on track. [11] Another 21% are making moderate progress and 32% marginal progress. [11] Seventeen per cent have not moved at all, and 15% have fallen below where they stood in 2015. [11]

    Why it matters — Zero hunger is one of the 17 and the deadline is four years away. [11] The count is the UN measuring itself, and it published the shortfall. [11]

12. 13

    US inspectors to swab for listeria nationwide

    America's meat inspection agency will extend listeria swabbing to all nine of its districts, after piloting it in Alameda, Chicago and Raleigh this year. [7] Inspectors will take four extra swabs, two from surfaces that touch food and two from surfaces that do not, each time they sample ready-to-eat products such as sliced meats. [7] The change came out of a review of listeriosis outbreaks in 2024 traced to products the agency regulates. [7] The agency says the swabs are meant to find where the bacterium is living on and around the processing line. [7]

    Why it matters — Testing the finished meat tells inspectors a batch is contaminated. [7] Testing the machinery tells them where it came from, which is what a factory has to fix. [7]

13. 14

    New Mexico becomes the 31st state to inspect its own meat

    New Mexico joined the American state meat and poultry inspection scheme in September, after the federal agency judged its programme at least equal to the national one. [7] Thirty-one states now inspect their own plants, and 11 of those may also send state-inspected meat across state lines. [7] The federal agency announced a $50 million fund on 16 September to help more states start or expand such programmes. [7] It has already spent $75 million and then $20 million in the past two years cutting overtime and holiday inspection fees for small plants. [7]

    Why it matters — The agency says high start-up costs have kept states out of the scheme, and that more state programmes give ranchers somewhere closer to have animals processed. [7]

14. 15

    Guernsey asks for a share of Britain's tuna quota

    Guernsey is asking for part of the UK's bluefin tuna quota so anglers there can fish for them, the BBC reported. [12] Five commercial licences were granted in Jersey this year, part of trials in Wales, Jersey and Scotland that use 26 tonnes of the UK's 2026 allowance. [12] Bluefin catches are rationed by ICCAT, the body that divides the Atlantic bluefin catch between countries. [12] Britain has been a member since 2020 and Guernsey sits outside that membership, so it would have to be extended and the island's laws changed first. [12]

    Why it matters — Nicky Harris, a marine biologist on the island, said Guernsey is badly under-resourced for monitoring and enforcement, and that a tuna fishery is not a fix for waters that are already declining. [12]

15. 16

    US Supreme Court weighs a lobsterman's GPS case

    America's Supreme Court decides on 28 September whether to hear a challenge by Frank Thompson, a Maine lobster fisherman, to a rule that he fit a GPS tracker to his boat to keep his licence. [13] Maine required the trackers in 2023 on all federally permitted lobster boats, to comply with a US data-collection rule. [13] Thompson argues the tracking is an unreasonable search; a federal appeals court rejected that last year. [13] Officials say the data matters because the lobster population in New England appears to be declining. [13]

    Why it matters — Most American commercial fishing is watched by observers or electronic devices, so a ruling for Thompson would reach well past lobster. [13] Conservation groups have opposed cutting back monitoring at sea. [13]

16. 17

    Starbucks may sell control of its 1,883 Japanese shops

    Starbucks is considering selling a majority stake in its Japanese business, two people with knowledge of the talks told Reuters, in a deal that could value it at about $3 billion. [15] Japan is the chain's biggest overseas market that it runs itself rather than through a franchise, with 1,883 shops, nearly 9% of its worldwide total as of September 2025. [15] A formal sale process could begin in the last three months of the year. [15]

    Why it matters — Starbucks buys coffee beans at one end of the chain and sells cups at the other. [15] This would hand the selling end, in one of its largest markets, to somebody else. [15]

17. 18

    Chile looks at mixing crop alcohol into petrol

    Chile's energy ministry has drafted a plan to move to E10 petrol, meaning 10% ethanol, the alcohol made from crops such as sugarcane and corn. [18] Officials calculate it would cut government fuel supply costs by about $107 million a year, according to documents seen by Reuters. [18] Chile imported 181,000 barrels of crude oil a day in 2025, and Brent crude traded above $105 a barrel on Wednesday against about $73 before the US-Israeli war on Iran. [18] Chile buys most of its ethanol from Argentina and Bolivia. [18]

    Why it matters — A country with no oil of its own would be swapping one import for another, and the second one is grown on farmland. [18]

18. 19

    A strawberry bred in two years instead of ten

    Culta, a Japanese company founded in 2017, says it has cut the time needed to breed a new strawberry variety from about ten years to two. [16] It reads plants' genetics and physical traits together to choose which to cross, and runs three breeding cycles a year indoors instead of one outdoors. [16] Its first variety, SAKURA DROPS, is built to survive hot early springs: Japanese growers used to ship strawberries from December to June and now struggle to sell past April. [16] Thirty-six contract growers grow its varieties under licence, and Culta buys the whole crop back. [16]

    Why it matters — Breeding is the slowest step in adapting a crop to hotter weather, and Japan's strawberry season has already lost about two months at the end. [16]

19. 20

    An Italian farm-data firm buys into Brazil's sugarcane

    xFarm, an Italian farm-management software company, has bought Sibium Analytics, a Brazilian firm whose tools map sugarcane fields from satellites and produce the paperwork mills need for sustainability certificates. [17] The deal takes xFarm onto 24 million hectares across more than 600,000 farms, and is its sixth acquisition and its second Brazilian one in a year. [17] Terms were not disclosed. [17] Brazil grows around half the world's sugarcane and is the largest producer of ethanol made from it, which also supplies roughly 9% of the country's electricity. [17]

    Why it matters — The same cane becomes either sugar or fuel, and these are the tools the mills use to run both sides of that choice. [17]

20. 21

    Five dollars a day at the Chennai fish dock

    About 30,000 people work around the fish auction at Kasimedu harbour in Chennai, in southern India, which starts at 4am, NPR reported on 20 September. [20] Pavadairayan, who is 60, is one of the harbour's basket men: he carries 35-pound baskets of fish a third of a mile from the boats to the auction house, 40 or 50 times between 2am and 7am. [20] He earns about $5 a day. [20] If supervisors think fish have gone missing they can dock his pay by several thousand rupees, and he says basket men have few rights. [20]

    Why it matters — This is the step between a boat and a market price, and the men doing it are paid about $5 for a five-hour shift. [20]