India's Supreme Court tells the food regulator to stop delaying red warning labels. Food companies say shoppers already read red as 'not vegetarian'

The rest of the day

12 more stories on this beat.

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

1. 02

   China cuts its tax on US farm goods, but not soybeans

   China's commerce ministry published a list on Monday of US farm goods whose tariffs it will cut, including corn, wheat, sorghum, meat, dairy, soymeal and soy oil. [4] Soybeans, the US farm product China imports most, were left off and still pay an extra 10%. [4] Traders say that tax is too high for China's private oilseed mills to absorb. [4] China's state firms have bought more than 12 million tonnes of US soybeans, nearly half the 25 million tonnes a year the US government says China promised. [4]

   US soybeans bought by China's state firms so far12 m tonnes

   The yearly amount the US government says China promised25 m tonnes

   Why it matters — China has taken about half of all US soybean exports in recent years. [5] A Chinese analyst, Feng Chucheng, says keeping soybean buying on a separate track gives China leverage before the US elections in November. [4]

2. 03

   California creates a 'not ultra-processed' badge

   California's governor, Gavin Newsom, signed a law on 28 September creating a voluntary 'Non-Ultraprocessed Certified' label for packed food. [6] Foods with added dyes, flavour enhancers, sweeteners without sugar or processing aids cannot carry it. [6] The state's public health department will approve outside firms to check products, and each product must be checked again at least every three years. [6] Last year California passed what state officials called the first US legal definition of ultra-processed food, to phase such foods out of schools. [6]

   Why it matters — Using the badge is each company's choice, so it will appear only on foods that pass. [6] Non-UPF Verified, a private group that runs its own badge, asked Newsom to veto the law because it ignores how food is processed. [6]

3. 04

   England's food watchdog plans to study big firms' data

   The board of Britain's Food Standards Agency, the body that oversees food safety, has approved the next stage of a plan to change how food is checked in England. [7] Ten national supermarket chains sell more than 97% of the food bought in shops, while more than 99.5% of food businesses are small or medium-sized. [7] So the agency wants a national team to study the biggest firms' own safety records, starting with supermarkets, alongside local council inspectors. [7] Its board will review the detail in March 2027, before a public consultation. [7]

   Why it matters — A pilot with big retailers found their own data could show safety risks across a whole company. [7] Chris McGarvey, who once led the agency's legal team, warns that data it holds could be released under freedom-of-information law. [7]

4. 05

   US weighs untaxed diesel for more buyers

   The Trump administration is considering letting more buyers use red-dyed diesel, people familiar with the talks told Reuters. [8] Dyed diesel is normally kept for off-road work such as farming, and it skips the federal tax of 24.4 cents a gallon. [8] It is one alternative to a ban on diesel exports, which Trump says he is weighing 'very seriously'. [8] Alabama, Louisiana and Nebraska have already loosened their own rules on dyed diesel. [8] The US average diesel price is above $6 a gallon. [8]

   Why it matters — Farmers already buy untaxed dyed diesel, so the change would mainly help truckers, said Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy, a fuel-price tracker. [8] He does not expect it to add any diesel or cut what drivers pay. [8]

5. 06

   UN starts vaccinating 9.8 million animals in Sudan

   The UN's food agency, FAO, has started a campaign to vaccinate 9.8 million farm animals across all 18 of Sudan's states. [9] It aims to protect 1.2 million families who keep livestock, whose milk also feeds children. [9] Sudan's war, which began in April 2023, destroyed the national laboratory that made up to 35 million animal vaccine doses a year. [9] FAO imported about 23 million doses in 2025, and vaccinated 8.4 million animals between October 2025 and July 2026. [9]

   Money FAO has for its Sudan work$44.10m

   Money FAO asked for, 2026 to 2028$193m

   Why it matters — FAO says the war has cost Sudan's herders nearly $3 billion in lost livestock. [9] It has $44.1 million for its Sudan work, against the $193 million it asked for. [9]

6. 07

   Mondelez hands its wheat badge to an outside body

   Mondelez, the company that owns Cadbury, is turning Harmony, its own scheme for greener wheat farming, into an independent badge. [10][3] Harmony began in 2008 and now covers 1,200 farmers, 18 flour mills and 57,000 hectares of wheat in Europe. [10] The ProTerra Foundation, a non-profit that runs certification schemes, will govern it, and other companies can join. [10] The change comes as a European Union rule takes effect that sets standards for green labels to be run independently. [10]

   Why it matters — Other farmers, millers and companies can now use the badge without being tied to Mondelez. [10] FoodNavigator, a food-industry news site, asks whether it could become the common standard for European wheat. [10]

7. 08

   Jersey's apples fall to a 50-year low

   Jersey, a small island between England and France, averaged 20.5C from June to August, against 17.7C over the last 30 years, its weather service says. [11] Apple and cereal growers there say their harvests are down 90% and 50%. [11] La Mare Vineyard picked three or four tonnes of apples instead of the usual 60 or 70, its smallest crop in 50 years. [11] One farm says it watered every crop several times over, buying diesel to run the pumps. [11]

   60-70 tonnesA usual apple crop

   vsvs

   3-4 tonnesThis year's crop

   Why it matters — Jersey's government says its farm support fund is fixed, but it may spend it differently. [11] Tim Crowley of La Mare says growers used to plan on 30-year weather averages and now look at five-year ones. [11]

8. 09

   China's private mills buy Australian canola again

   A private Chinese company that presses oilseeds has bought 68,000 tonnes of Australia's new canola crop for March, trade sources told Reuters. [12] Another private buyer's cargo arrived earlier in September. [12] They are the first private purchases since 2020, when China shut out Australian canola over fears of a fungal plant disease. [12] China reopened the trade in mid-2025 through COFCO, a state company, and let private firms back in July. [12]

   Why it matters — Canola, also called rapeseed, is pressed into cooking oil and animal feed, and China imports more of it than any other country. [12] Canada, the biggest exporter, is in a trade dispute with China, and Australia is the second-biggest. [12]

9. 10

   Farm robot makers grow to 400

   The Mixing Bowl, a group that tracks farm and food technology, counted 400 companies making robots for crop farms this year, 25% more than in 2024. [13] About a fifth of the companies it listed before are gone, and more than a third are new. [13] Half are in Europe, and more than 40% of the US firms are in California. [13] Together they have raised about $600 million. [13] Spraying and weeding robots are the most popular with investors. [13]

   Why it matters — Big machine makers are buying in: Deere bought GUSS, a maker of self-driving sprayers, in 2025, and Kubota led an investment in Kilter. [13] Better-funded startups are buying smaller ones too, as Bonsai Robotics did with Farm-ng. [13]

10. 11

    Cold snaps cut China's rice more than models said

    A study in Communications Earth & Environment, a journal from the publisher of Nature, looked at 4,193 extreme cold days at 218 sites in China from 1991 to 2012. [14] Extreme cold days became twice as common over two decades, even as the world warmed. [14] The cold cut China's national rice yields by about 5%, mostly while plants were growing and forming grain. [14] The authors project a further 3% loss by 2100, three times what climate models alone suggest. [14]

    Why it matters — Research on climate and crops has mostly studied heat, the authors say, so the risk from cold has been underestimated. [14] They offer their method as a test for rice areas elsewhere that face cold. [14]

11. 12

    A tenth of the world's land is worn out

    The UN's food agency, FAO, says in its new State of the World's Forests report that more than 460 million hectares of forest are degraded. [15] More than 10% of all land, 1.56 billion hectares, is degraded, about 53 times the size of Italy. [15] Countries have pledged to restore more than a billion hectares over two decades. [15] FAO says at least 470 million hectares must be under restoration by 2030 to meet global goals. [15]

    Why it matters — FAO puts the cost of doing nothing about worn-out land at $878 billion to $6.3 trillion a year. [15] It says restoring land also helps food supplies and rural families. [15]

12. 13

    Chemical found in blood near an English plant

    Forty-nine people living near a chemical factory in Thornton-Cleveleys, in north-west England, volunteered for blood tests, and 70% had raised levels of PFOA. [16] PFOA is a 'forever chemical', one that barely breaks down; the factory, now run by AGC Chemicals, used it until 2012. [16] England's Environment Agency has spent years investigating it in local soil and home-grown food. [16] Residents were advised to stop eating eggs from their own hens and ducks. [16]

    Why it matters — Hens scratch in the soil and eat worms, so the chemical can pass into their eggs, one resident said. [16] The UK Health Security Agency does not recommend blood tests, saying they give individuals little clear information. [16]