Food, in brief

France's farm ministry gave makers of comte, beaufort and abondance a temporary break from the grazing rules their protected label requires. [1]

They may now supplement their cows' diets with fodder and grain brought in from outside their own protected area, which the label normally forbids. [1]

Comte is France's top-selling traditional cheese, with more than 62,000 tonnes made last year from raw milk in the Jura mountains. [1]

Drought covered 95% of mainland France in July, and grass on permanent pasture was growing a third below its 1989-2018 average on 10 August. [1]

INAO, the agency that writes and polices the labels, called the drought historic and is preparing the same relief for reblochon, cantal and two blue cheeses. [1]

About 70% of the makers of salers, another protected cheese, stopped production this summer rather than break the rule. [1]

One Normandy dairy is turning out 400 to 450 neufchatel cheeses a day instead of the usual 600 to 700, because the cows give less milk. [1]

It is not only cheese: French potato growers expect a 23% smaller crop after five heatwaves, and the grape harvest has started early. [1]

No European food crop escaped this drought, and Rabobank puts global farm productivity 21% below where it would be without climate change. [2]

Forecasters say El Nino is strengthening, and that Pacific warming is part of what made this European drought one of the worst in living memory. [2][28]

Satellites show heat and drought push plants to peak their water use up to two hours earlier in the day. [7] A second study puts the spread of combined drought-and-heat zones at an extra 10 million square kilometres since 1982. [6]

American cheese is meanwhile getting cheaper, not scarcer: down 4.2% on a year earlier in July, while all food was up 3.0%. [3]

Why it matters. The test is whether the waivers stop at this summer: the agency has more cheeses queued, and roquefort's sheep graziers have already asked. [1]

The Pro Farmer tour forecast 15.344 billion bushels of US corn, below the USDA's own estimate of 16.013 billion. [10] The USDA's 12 August report also cut Michigan's yield to 174 bushels an acre and Wisconsin's to 184. [12][13]

Why it matters. Scouts found strong crops in eastern Iowa but drought damage west of them, and Indiana took 7 to 17 inches of rain. [11][14]

The EPA is reviewing 34 small-refinery exemptions from the biofuel blending mandate, which could free 1.2 to 1.8 billion compliance credits. [15] The American Soybean Association says that would erase about 500 million gallons of biodiesel demand. [15]

Why it matters. A mandate with a hardship clause is only as firm as the hardship clause, which is the same shape as the cheese waiver. [15]

Attacks on ports and vessels have shut terminals and cancelled cargoes in peak export season, pushing Chicago wheat up more than 17% since early July. [16] Australian wheat is quoted at $315 to $320 a tonne into Asia. [16]

Why it matters. Egypt and Indonesia lean on Black Sea wheat for much of their second-half supply and must now buy dearer grain. [16]

Sulfur has gone from under $100 a tonne in 2024 to over $1,000 now, dragging phosphate fertiliser up with it. [17] Making a tonne of DAP takes about 0.4 tonnes of sulfur, most of it a by-product of oil and gas. [17]

Why it matters. Farmers buy fertiliser months before they plant, so the 2027 crop's costs are being set now. [17]

A Belgian farm's eggs infected at least 306 people, the country's biggest salmonella cluster, and up to 2 million eggs were recalled. [18] In Britain, imported eggs eaten in cafes infected 207 people, killed one and put 34 in hospital. [19]

Why it matters. Nothing in the reporting links the two, and the shared fact is simply that eggs cross borders before anyone counts them. [19]

Late frosts, brown rot after heavy rain, and an invasive fruit fly have hit northern Michigan's cherry growers, and some will not harvest at all this year. [20]

Why it matters. An economist at Michigan State says the outlook is worse than the numbers show. [20]

Pennsylvania will open applications for $10 million of state aid to fruit farmers hit by an April freeze that cost the state $150 to $200 million. [21] One orchard cut its seasonal worker visas from 15 to four. [21]

Why it matters. The money arrives four months after the frost, and the crop it was meant to save is about a quarter of normal. [21]

USDA announced up to $70 million for school kitchen equipment and up to $25 million more in Farm to School grants for this financial year. [22]

Why it matters. It is aimed at buying more American-grown food for school meals, which makes schools a guaranteed market for nearby farms. [22]

A study of southern Sweden, Denmark and the Baltics projects the growing season starting earlier while the last spring frost barely moves. [23] The result is more frost days at the crop's most sensitive stage. [23]

Why it matters. Warming's one advertised gift to northern farming can only be collected by planting into a risk that did not shrink. [23]