Food, in brief

Canada published a 99-page list of counter-tariffs on American goods this week. They start on 8 September. [1][2]

About 250 fish and shellfish products are taxed at 25%, including live lobsters, crabs, oysters and scallops. [1][2]

Milk, cream and whey from American dairies are taxed at 50%. Cheese and curd, including Gouda, Havarti and Parmesan, are on the 25% list. [1][2]

Canada is the third biggest buyer of American seafood, taking about a billion dollars' worth in 2025. [1]

Nearly half of Maine's autumn lobster catch is sent to Canada to be picked and packed. Some of it is then shipped home. [1]

Senator Angus King of Maine says that lobster can therefore be taxed in both directions. Nobody moved the boats. The line hardened. [1]

The list is deliberately matched to the American one, dollar for dollar, at roughly twenty billion dollars. [2][3]

It answers 50% American tariffs on a long list of Canadian goods that took effect on 22 August, after talks collapsed. [4]

Canada has put no export charge on its potash or its energy. Asked why not, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the response had been proportionate. [2]

Washington left potash off its own list too, because taxing it would raise the cost of every American harvest. [3]

American mines produce under 1% of the world's potash, and US farms import more than 80% of their potassium from one basin in Saskatchewan. [3]

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Canada charges American dairy sometimes 200% or 300%. Those rates apply to milk sent above Canada's quota. She told dairy farmers: we are battling for you. [2]

Canada bought about $28bn of American farm produce last year, and has set aside several billion in aid for its own farmers. [3]

When China retaliated in 2018, American farm exports there fell by $7bn to $10bn a year and the buyers moved to Brazil. [3]

American food prices are already forecast to rise 3.1% this year, on the government's July estimate. [5]

Why it matters. Watch whether potash joins either list. It is the one item that would change what American farmers plant next spring, and it is the reason both governments have so far walked around it.

A federal judge in California struck down the Labor Department's new way of setting the minimum wage for farm workers on H-2A visas. The old method had cut hourly rates by $3 to $7 and let farms deduct housing costs. [6]

Why it matters. The judge left the rule running and gave the department two weeks to propose a new one, so the lower wages carry on while the replacement is written.

The cyclospora outbreak traced to imported iceberg lettuce has reached more than 17,000 confirmed cases, against 1,180 last summer. Trump has nominated White House aide Heidi Overton to run the Food and Drug Administration. [7][8]

Why it matters. The agency has had no commissioner for nearly three and a half months, and the rule meant to make food traceable has been put back to July 2028. [7][9]

Nevada is suing the Interior Department over a federal plan that could cut the Las Vegas area's river water by up to 70% over the next decade. Lake Mead and Lake Powell both hit record lows this month. [10]

Why it matters. Forty million people and a large share of America's winter vegetables drink from that river, and farmers are already choosing which crops are worth planting.

Hungary says heat and water shortages dried out 1,588 hectares of fish ponds and killed nearly 280 tonnes of fish at 20 farms, a loss of about $4.2m. Slovenian crews pumped 8 million litres into one lake to keep fish alive. [11]

Why it matters. Carp take three or four years to grow, so a Romanian producer says the losses of 2023 are still being felt every year since.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service has lost more than 2,700 workers, nearly a quarter of its staff. One Navajo family waiting on a held-up federal farm loan borrowed privately instead and absorbed more than $200,000 in interest. [14][15]

Why it matters. Some counties now have nobody at all, so farmers miss contract deadlines and pay private consultants for advice the government used to give.

India cut its own crop estimate by 11%, to 30.6 million tonnes. For three months from 1 September, refineries near its ports may sell duty-free sugar at home. A kilo that cost 40 to 45 rupees in May and June was fetching 58 to 60 in August. [13]

Why it matters. The country had already exported nearly 800,000 tonnes before it discovered the shortfall, and the festival and wedding season is the year's biggest for sweets.

Attacks on Black Sea shipping have stalled exports from the world's biggest wheat seller. Grain is piling up at home and pushing domestic prices down, and some farmers are asking to plant less this winter. [16]

Why it matters. Rerouting through the Baltic adds $30 to $50 a tonne, and the government says sowing less would breach its own food-security rules.

Record heat and heavy rain since mid-July have hit China's main corn, soybean and cotton regions. China imported 2.98 million tonnes of American sorghum in the first seven months of the year, close to four times its whole 2025 purchase. [17]

Why it matters. Beijing has promised $17bn a year of American farm buying through 2028 and has not yet made the large non-soybean orders.

The USDA expects Oklahoma to average 95 bushels an acre, South Carolina 100 and Colorado 107, against a national forecast of 180.7. Colorado's crop is rated 31% very poor. Iowa, meanwhile, is 78% good to excellent. [18][40]

Why it matters. Colorado has 31% of its crop rated very poor while Iowa has 78% rated good to excellent, so one healthy national number is covering two completely different years.

Most American farmers are expected to lose money this year, and owners increasingly treat farmland as an investment rather than something to grow on. One buyer paid $1.13m for 36 acres in northwest Iowa. [19]

Why it matters. He said plainly that buying that land to crop farm does not add up, which is a strange thing to be true of farmland.

Recent rules and the 2025 Farm Bill raised the federal subsidy on area add-on crop insurance to 80%. Insured acres across nine crops rose by 146 million between the 2024 and 2026 crop years, and subsidies rose by close to $3bn. [42]

Why it matters. It arrived through rule changes rather than a named programme, so a large increase in public spending on farm risk happened with almost no announcement.

Britain's bluetongue outbreak has passed 630 confirmed cases since July, with 2,459 more under investigation. Gloucestershire recorded its first case on 23 August, and Wiltshire has two. [20][21]

Why it matters. The virus rides in midges that breed faster in heat, and farmers cannot get enough vaccine to protect their animals before the peak.

Mexico has cleared the commercial sale of Oifirax, a spray that silences a gene the powdery mildew fungus needs to survive. Grape growers get it first, after a nine-month review. [22]

Why it matters. It kills by switching off one gene rather than by poisoning cells, so the risk shifts from toxicity to whether other fungi share that gene.

Researchers at Parma and Cranfield tested 212 plant-based meats and drinks bought in UK shops. Every one contained at least one of 19 mould toxins, and all were below EU guideline levels. [23]

Why it matters. The researchers' point is not the dose in one burger but that new foods enter the market with no rules requiring anyone to check.

In more than 17,000 American men, the heaviest eaters of ultra-processed food had a 24% to 31% higher risk of prostate cancer. The federal definition of ultra-processed food, expected this month, was sent to the budget office instead. [24][25]

Why it matters. A review of 42 front-of-pack scoring systems found little agreement on how to rank a food at all, which is the same problem one layer down. [29]

At UN talks in Mongolia, officials said about $355bn a year is needed to meet land restoration promises, against roughly $77bn being spent. A new fund aims to raise up to $400m. [12]

Why it matters. Grasslands cover 54% of the world's land and hold twice the carbon in the atmosphere, and are being cleared about four times faster than forests.

Icelanders voted on Saturday on whether to reopen European Union membership talks. Fishing waters, farm prices and the cost of living dominated the campaign, and polls had the two sides level. [30][31][41]

Why it matters. Icelandic farmers have finally been earning a living, and a young dairy farmer told the Guardian he is voting no to protect that.

Most of England and all of Wales were declared in drought, then storms brought 40 flood alerts and up to 75mm of rain in 12 hours. A Lincolnshire farmer says his stony soil no longer pays, so he is planning a solar farm. [26][39]

Why it matters. France has already relaxed the grazing rules behind comte and beaufort because the grass failed, and one Gloucestershire farm now floods every year instead of every five. [37][38]

USDA filed a complaint against a South Carolina livestock market that was short $182,286 and $69,131 in its sellers' trust account on two dates in 2022. A Boston firm recalled 24,900 pounds of frozen chicken made without inspection. And USDA said it will buy no surplus sugar this crop year. [33][34][35]

Why it matters. None is a headline on its own, but each is the machinery that decides whether a farmer gets paid and whether a food is checked.

North Dakota added $2m for livestock water after 220 drought applications arrived in the first week and emptied the first $2m. USDA opened disaster help for Hawaii's farms after Hurricane Lala. [27][36]

Why it matters. Both arrive after the damage is counted, and North Dakota's first $2m was claimed in seven days.

Alveo Technologies and AgriNerds are pairing a portable on-farm test with a model that predicts where wild-bird risk is highest. Lab results normally take two or three days. [28]

Why it matters. By the time a lab confirms, the virus has usually already moved within the shed and sometimes beyond the farm.

South African farmers are expected to harvest 1.76 million tonnes of wheat this year, its crop committee said in its first forecast, down from 1.91 million tonnes in 2025. [32]

Why it matters. South Africa already imports about half the wheat it eats, so a smaller home crop is bought back on a world market that has been jumpy all month.