Food, in brief

The European Commission, which runs the EU's day-to-day business, published a plan on Tuesday to prepare the EU for new members. [3]

It proposes special rules to "significantly limit financial support and market access" for sensitive Ukrainian farm products. [1][3]

The limits would stay after Ukraine becomes a full member, and would keep Ukrainian wheat and grain out of the EU's normal farm rules. [2]

Marta Kos, the EU commissioner in charge of new members, said the size and structure of Ukraine's farming are "really unique". [2]

Farming is one of the few areas where most spending is paid from the EU's shared budget, not by each country. [3]

That is why EU members worry about how the budget would cope with Ukraine's vast farm sector. [3]

Ukraine's farm minister, Taras Vysotskyi, told Politico that his country "cannot agree" to limits with no end date. [1]

He said Ukraine would accept a transition with temporary quotas and safeguards, as long as it ends. [1]

Ukraine already sells food to the EU under strict quotas, and Poland has blocked its grain to protect Polish farmers. [1][2]

The Commission says it wants to help Ukraine win back its old buyers in North Africa and the Middle East, which the war made hard to reach. [1][2]

It argues those countries' food supply would suffer if Ukrainian grain went to Europe instead. [2]

EU leaders meet next week, and Ukraine gets a roadmap with a rough timetable for joining later this month. [2][3]

Why it matters. Watch next week's EU summit: the Commission wants the farm limits written into the EU's starting position in Ukraine's joining talks, and member governments must agree to that. [2][3]

Sea and air drones hit two Turkish-owned cargo ships off Bulgaria at about 3am on Tuesday. [5][7] The Alfa Watan sank, and rescuers found only an overturned lifeboat and life jackets. [6][7] The second ship, the Able, was carrying wheat, and a Bulgarian ferry rescued all 18 of its crew. [5][6] It was the first attack on shipping in the sea zone of Bulgaria, a NATO member, a day after a ship carrying Ukrainian grain sank off Romania. [5][7] A separate attack near Odesa, a Ukrainian port city, killed a sailor on a third ship. [6]

Why it matters. Bulgaria's prime minister, Rumen Radev, said the attacks are pushing up insurance costs and making shipping in the Black Sea extremely difficult. [5] Bulgaria has not said who sent the drones. [5]

The Joint Research Centre, the European Commission's science service, has confirmed how much this summer's heat and drought cut Europe's crops. [8] Against an average year, soya bean yields fell 15%, fresh forage maize 14%, sugar beet 11%, grain maize 8% and potatoes 7%. [8] Wheat and other winter crops had mostly finished growing before the worst heat, so their yields stayed close to the five-year average. [8] In the worst areas maize ripened up to three weeks early, and some fields were abandoned. [8]

Why it matters. Total losses will be bigger than the yield figures show, because abandoned fields were not harvested at all. [8] Livestock farmers lost grass and feed maize at the same time, and some cut their herds. [8] The European Dairy Association said the heat briefly lowered the fat and protein in milk. [9]

Phosphate fertiliser makers around the world, including in the US, are cutting output because they cannot get enough sulfur, said Veronica Nigh of The Fertilizer Institute, a US industry group. [10] Sulfur is the main raw material for phosphate fertiliser. [10] Supply is short because the Strait of Hormuz is closed and Russia is selling less. [10] In August, Illinois farmers paid about $916 a ton for a nitrogen fertiliser, 16% more than in 2025, and $912 for a phosphate one, 7% more. [10]

Why it matters. President Trump has promised cheaper potash from Belarus, but potash is the fertiliser farmers worry about least, Nigh said. [10] A new phosphate mine takes about ten years to build, so the shortage cannot be fixed quickly. [10]

A monthly survey of 400 US farmers by Purdue University and CME Group, a big futures exchange, fell 12 points in September, from 135 to 123. [11] A record 52% named the cost of things like fuel, seed and fertiliser as their biggest worry. [11] Only 22% expect their farm to be better off in a year, and 35% expect to be worse off. [11] For the first time since Purdue began asking, fewer than half said the US is heading in the right direction. [11]

Why it matters. Joana Colussi, a Purdue economist, said the growing gloom about the next 12 months is very clear. [12] Farmers still expect their land to hold its value: that measure reached a record 168. [11]

President Trump's order of Monday lets anyone run road vehicles on red-dyed diesel, the untaxed fuel kept for tractors, until 31 December. [13][14] It does not abolish the federal tax of 24.4 cents a gallon. [13] It postpones paying it, without interest or penalty, and asks the US Treasury to find a way to cancel it. [13][14] Unless it does, the tax is still owed after 31 December. [13] US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the order would save about $640 million. [15]

Why it matters. Prices for live cattle on the futures market, where traders agree prices for later delivery, jumped $4.12 on Tuesday partly because of the order. [16] Trump signed it at a rally in Nebraska, weeks before the US midterm elections. [13]

The European Union said on Monday it has stopped imports of fresh beef, sheep and goat meat from Namibia. [17] Last month Namibia found foot-and-mouth disease, a fast-spreading illness of cattle and sheep, in its main commercial cattle area, the first case there in 60 years. [17] The EU takes more than 80% of Namibia's beef exports, about 10 million kilograms a year. [17] Meat treated hard enough to kill the virus may still enter. [17]

Why it matters. The EU's ambassador said about a quarter of the 40,000 jobs tied to exports to Europe would be affected. [17] Europe culled more than six million animals in its own outbreak in 2001. [17]

The World Food Programme, the UN's food aid agency, says more than a million people in South Sudan could lose food aid unless more money arrives. [18] Its store in Malakal held 10,000 tonnes of food at this time last year and holds less than 300 tonnes now. [18] About 3,000 refugees and returnees cross from war-torn Sudan every week. [18] The agency says it is short of $86 million now, and $416 million over the next six months. [18]

Why it matters. The WFP says 7.8 million people, more than half the country, face high levels of hunger, and 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished. [18] It has already cut rations. [18]

Benjamin Davis, who ran a division of the FAO, the UN's food and farming agency, says it refused to renew his contract because of his work on hunger in Gaza. [19] His team published a paper on hunger in Gaza in 2025, and he joined weekly silent vigils at the agency in Rome. [19] The FAO's head, Qu Dongyu, said last week that he fires senior staff who play political games. [19] The FAO did not answer the Guardian's questions. [19]

Why it matters. Qu said he would use his last year in office to fire more people who break the rules. [19] Davis, who worked there for 26 years, has appealed and wants his job back. [19]

The United Arab Emirates approved limits on Tuesday on how much salt, sugar and fat packaged foods may contain, whether made there or imported. [20] Leavened bread, for example, may hold at most 6 grams of sugar per 100 grams at first, falling to 5 grams later. [20] Firms that break the rules face fines of up to 500,000 dirhams, about $136,000, or closure for up to six months. [20] All products must meet the final limits by the end of 2030. [20]

Why it matters. The health ministry says the aim is to tackle obesity and illnesses linked to poor diets. [20] Food firms selling there must change recipes, and can ask for more time if a cut would be bigger than 20%. [20]

Sainsbury's, a big British supermarket chain, walked away from merger talks with its rival Morrisons, the Financial Times reported. [21] Sainsbury's holds 15.2% of the UK grocery market and Morrisons 8.4%, against 27.8% for Tesco, the biggest. [21] Morrisons has been owned for five years by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, a private investment firm that paid 7 billion pounds for it. [21] Guardian columnist Nils Pratley argued that Sainsbury's does not need the deal. [21]

Why it matters. Pratley expects Britain's competition regulator to demand that the pair sell some shops before any merger. [21] Morrisons also owns 18 food factories, which the two firms could use to argue the deal helps Britain's food supply. [21]

Taylor Bang, a cattle broker from North Dakota, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud over Agridime, a Texas cattle investment firm. [22] Agridime sold investors cattle on paper, at $2,000 a head, and a federal judge ruled in 2024 that it was a Ponzi scheme, paying earlier investors with newer investors' money. [22] It owed investors about $220 million when it was shut down in 2023. [22] North Dakota has now ordered Bang's business to stop buying and selling livestock. [22]

Why it matters. Investors in North Dakota alone were owed about $40 million. [22] Bang is due to be sentenced on 7 January and faces up to five years in prison. [22]

A claim that US food recalls are up 400% this year spread on social media without a source, writes Roger Hancock, head of Recall InfoLink, a recall-data company. [23] The number of recalls barely changed: 1,634 in the first half of 2026, against 1,636 a year earlier. [23] What grew was their size, with the number of items recalled rising from 211.2 million to 941.2 million. [23] He says that is because a few large suppliers now serve many brands. [23]

Why it matters. So one contaminated batch can now reach many shops at once, as this summer's lettuce parasite reached Taco Bell and several grocery brands. [23] Getting it off shelves fast then depends on tracing where each product came from. [23]

The FDA, the US agency that checks most food, published its 2025 report on its outbreak teams this week. [24] They looked at 69 possible outbreaks or incidents, started 26 responses and issued 11 public warnings. [24] The report did not mention that the teams looked at 137 incidents in 2013, the highest year. [24] Its cases included Salmonella in cucumbers and botulism, a rare poisoning, in powdered baby formula. [24]

Why it matters. For mangoes, cilantro, parsley, salad mix and sprouts, the FDA linked a food to illnesses but issued no public warning. [24] It says that usually happens when it lacks enough information while people are still at risk. [24]

Sixteen people in Sweden fell ill with Salmonella Napoli, a rare type of the bacteria, in an outbreak linked to rocket, the salad leaf also called arugula. [25] Eleven of the twelve people questioned had bought rocket from the same supermarket chain. [25] One patient had kept the empty bag, and Sweden's food agency traced it to Italy. [25] Sweden recorded only eight cases of this type in all of 2025. [25]

Why it matters. The batch could not be tested, because none of it was left. [25] In Uppsala, meals for 400 home-care users were recalled over Listeria, and deliveries have now started again. [25]

The USDA's food safety service issued a public warning about tinned chicken Vienna sausages from Jamaica, sold under the Grace brand. [26] Jamaica is not allowed to export meat or poultry to the US, so the tins came in illegally. [26] They reached shops in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland and Texas. [26] Inspectors found them during routine checks of imported food. [26]

Why it matters. No one has reported falling ill. [26] The agency is still working out how the tins got into the country. [26]

A study published this week in a Nature journal gave 57 healthy-weight adults two meals with the same nutrients, one ultra-processed and one not. [27] Ultra-processed foods are factory-made products with additives not used in home cooking. [27] After the ultra-processed meal, people's bodies released more insulin, the hormone that moves sugar out of the blood. [27] Their brains also responded differently to pictures of food. [27]

Why it matters. The authors say processing may change how the body handles food in ways that calories and nutrients alone do not explain. [27] The study measured how bodies responded to a meal, not long-term health. [27]

Ferrero, the Luxembourg-based maker of Nutella and Kinder, says it wants to become the biggest sweet-food company in the US. [28] Its US sales grew from $300 million in 2017 to more than $11 billion last year, after it spent over $8 billion buying brands such as Keebler cookies. [28] It aims for $20 billion within ten years. [28] It will spend $50 million on US sports advertising in 2027, double last year's figure. [28]

Why it matters. That makes it about as big in the US as Hershey, the maker of Reese's. [28] It is also moving into protein snacks, and has relaunched Power Crunch bars, which it bought in 2025. [29]

Verley, a French start-up, makes beta-lactoglobulin, one of the proteins in whey, using microbes in tanks instead of cows. [30] This is called precision fermentation. [30] It is moving to 200,000-litre tanks at a contract maker and plans to start selling next year. [30] Its boss, Stephane Mac Millan, says it already matches the price of more than $40 a kilo that Arla, a Danish dairy group, charges for the same protein taken from milk. [30]

Why it matters. The protein can pack 25 grams into a 100ml drink, he says, which other proteins cannot. [30] Verley has clearance in the US and hopes for EU approval in two to three years. [30]

A survey of 1,400 sheep farmers by the UK's National Sheep Association found 65% plan to vaccinate their flocks against bluetongue next year, after a season when far more flocks were hit. [31] That would need about 350,000 doses. [31] This season 40% of farmers could not get a vaccine at all. [31] Confirmed cases reached 2,408 by the end of September, against 348 the season before. [31] Making the vaccine takes several months, the association said. [31]

Why it matters. Seventy-three per cent of farmers said they would rather buy sheep that are already vaccinated. [31] The association wants vaccine ordered early through vets, and 74% of farmers said they were open to that. [31]

The average farmer in England is 59, more than a third are over 65, and only 5% are under 35, says the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs. [32] Its new paper, Proud to Farm, wants that share tripled to 15% by 2036. [32] It asks for help with renting farms, rural housing, grants for equipment and better farm education. [32]

Why it matters. The federation says British farming faces a "significant demographic cliff edge" unless action is taken. [32] It wants both the UK government and the farm industry to act. [32]

Criminals dumped about 2,000 tonnes of shredded rubbish on a rented field farmed by the Sell family near Grays in Essex, between 20 August and 3 September. [33] Clearing it will cost about 350,000 pounds. [33] In England the landowner must pay to remove waste dumped on private land, unless the dumpers are caught and a court orders them to pay. [33] About 200 tonnes of maize grown to feed the family's cattle may be ruined. [33]

Why it matters. In a survey of 515 members of the NFU, the farmers' union, 49% said fly-tipping had got worse in their area in five years. [33] The National Audit Office found that higher landfill taxes made dumping more profitable for criminal gangs. [33]

The CLA, which represents rural landowners in England and Wales, asked 47 fire services about wildfires, and 29 replied. [34] Over half said they have no protective clothing made for wildfires, and a third have no drones to track fires. [34] In West Yorkshire only 15% of firefighters hold a current wildfire certificate. [34] On-call fire engines were out of action for 32% of the year on average. [34]

Why it matters. Councils are seeing more fires: 77% recorded more in the first half of 2026 than in all of 2024. [34] The CLA wants the ban on controlled burning of moorland lifted, and the UK government says it will hold a summit with fire services. [34]

Wisconsin has confirmed highly pathogenic bird flu in a backyard flock in Racine County. [35] It is the state's second case this autumn, after one on a commercial farm in Barron County last month. [35]

Why it matters. Two cases in two months show the virus is active in Wisconsin again as winter approaches. [35]

The US exported 211.8 million gallons of ethanol in August, the most in five months and 6% more than in July, the Renewable Fuels Association says. [36] Ethanol is a fuel mixed into petrol, and in the US it is made mostly from corn. [36] Canada stayed the biggest buyer. [36] The trade group credits strong demand abroad for lower-carbon fuels. [36]

Why it matters. Those sales support a large share of the corn US farmers grow, at a time when a record share of them name costs as their biggest worry. [36][11]

Enko Chem, a US company, says its AI system has found new ways for fungicides and insecticides to work, known as modes of action. [37] It says the system finds them 75% faster and at 90% lower cost than usual research. [37] Its fungicide targets are processes that fungi need but animals lack. [37] Its insecticide targets avoid the nervous system, which many current sprays attack. [37]

Why it matters. Pests and fungi are becoming resistant to many current products, and a changing climate is moving where they appear, the company says. [37] What it has announced are discoveries, not products for sale. [37]