Food, in brief

US dealers sold 15,024 farm tractors in September, 16.4% fewer than the 17,979 sold a year earlier, says the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), the trade body for machine makers. [1]

Sales of combines, the big machines that cut and thresh grain, fell 10.9%, from 414 to 369. [1]

Every size of tractor sold less. The biggest four-wheel-drive tractors fell furthest, by 20.2%, to just 233. [1]

Over the first nine months of 2026, tractor sales are down 12.6%, to 135,325, and combine sales are down 9.4%, to 2,432. [1]

The fall is not only in the US. Canadian dealers sold 15.1% fewer tractors in September, 1,626 against 1,916. [1]

AEM's Curt Blades said the figures show the difficulty in the farm market today, and hoped the harvest would bring a recovery. [1]

Grain farms in Illinois, a top US corn and soybean state, have had three years of lower incomes since their record years of 2021 and 2022. [2]

Their working cash, the money kept to pay running costs, has fallen almost 40% since 2022, back to 2020 levels, University of Illinois economists found. [2]

2025 was a little better than 2024. The average return on farm assets across 2,018 Illinois farms rose from -0.5% to 1.0%. [2]

The economists expect lower incomes for the rest of 2026 and in 2027, so farmers will need to cut costs. [2]

Costs are rising at the same time. US producer prices jumped in September by the most since 2022, with diesel prices still at historic highs. [4]

Why it matters. Watch whether sales keep falling through the last three months of the year, when AEM hopes the harvest will bring more certainty to farm money. [1]

Sheep farmers told the US International Trade Commission (ITC), the body that judges whether imports harm US industries, on Friday that cheap lamb from Australia and New Zealand is hurting them. [5] The ITC opened the case at the request of Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative. [5] Lamb imports rose from 184 million pounds in 2021 to 236 million in 2025, while US output fell to 86 million. [5] US farms now supply about 21% of the lamb sold in the US. [5] The ITC must report to President Trump by 11 January. [5]

Why it matters. Australia's ambassador said imports filled a gap left by shrinking US flocks, after drought and the end of wool subsidies. [5] New Zealand's ambassador said its share has stayed at 13-15% for five years. [5] In 1999 the ITC found a threat of harm, and President Bill Clinton limited imports until 2001. [5]

India, the world's biggest sugar user and second-biggest producer, has had its worst monsoon in 11 years. [8] Fears of a poor sugarcane harvest have pushed up prices during its Hindu festival season, a time full of sweets. [8] India usually sells sugar abroad, but this year it opened its doors to imports, and its government warned traders against hoarding. [8] A tender for ethanol, a fuel made from crops, says no sugar may be turned into ethanol in 2026-27. [9]

Why it matters. World sugar prices have already soared after a hot, dry summer across much of the sugar-growing world. [8] India grows cane partly to make fuel and import less oil, so keeping all its sugar for food leaves less for its fuel plans. [8][9]

People in Metapa de Dominguez, a town in Chiapas in southern Mexico, marched on Thursday to demand the closure of a plant that breeds sterile flies. [6] They say a smell like rotting meat has spread through the town and into schools, disrupting classes. [6][7] The flies fight the New World screwworm, a fly whose maggots eat the living flesh of cattle. [6] Sterile males mate with wild females, so no young are born and the wild flies dwindle. [6] The US paid $21 million of the $51 million plant, which opened on 27 June. [6]

Why it matters. The plant is meant to make 100 million sterile flies a week, and it is central to the joint US and Mexican fight against the pest. [6] Mexico has logged nearly 48,000 cases, and the US has kept out Mexican cattle for more than a year. [6] Mexico's farm ministry had not answered the protesters. [6]

Action Against Hunger, an international aid charity, published a report on Friday, World Food Day, naming the ten countries where hunger is most concentrated. [10] They are Nigeria, Congo, Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Sudan and Syria, home to about 177 million people. [10] The report says acute hunger, meaning too little food to stay safe and healthy, has doubled in a decade. [10] It now affects 266 million people in 47 countries. [10]

Why it matters. In Pakistan the charity expects 10.6 million people to need aid in 2026, because of high food prices, floods, drought and falling incomes. [10] It says needs are now bigger than the money aid groups have, as funding shrinks. [10]

Pakistan's weekly price index, which tracks 51 everyday items in 17 cities, was 11.38% higher than a year earlier in the week to 15 October, its statistics bureau said on Friday. [12] It has stayed above 10% for several weeks. [12] Pakistan's government keeps raising petrol and diesel prices day by day instead of cutting its fuel tax. [12] Over the year wheat flour rose 35% and chicken 21%, while tomatoes fell 64% and sugar 23%. [12]

Why it matters. Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper, calls it cost-push inflation: energy costs rise first, and food prices follow. [12] It is the same squeeze the aid charity names in Pakistan: high food prices and shrinking incomes. [10][12]

The World Food Forum, a yearly meeting run by the FAO, the UN's food agency, closed in Rome on Friday after nine days. [11] More than 90,000 people from 189 countries took part, and 32,000 came in person, twice as many as last year. [11] It held more than 200 sessions on how to farm and feed people better. [11] The FAO's head, Qu Dongyu, told young people at the close that a world without hunger is possible. [11]

Why it matters. One of its three parts is an investment forum, where countries show farm projects to people who might pay for them. [11] It closed on the same day the aid charity named the ten worst food crises. [10][11]

England's Environment Agency, which runs rivers and water permits, declared a severe drought on 15 October in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and East and West Sussex. [13] The south-east and south-west had their driest April to September in more than a century. [13] The agency says it will check that farms and firms taking water from rivers take only what their permits allow. [13] Ardingly reservoir in West Sussex is 20% full, and Wimbleball in Devon 18%. [13]

Why it matters. It could take 120% of a normal winter's rain to bring water back to normal, the National Drought Group says. [13] The NFU, England's main farmers' union, wants tax relief for farm reservoirs and fewer planning barriers to building them. [13]

The Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU), Northern Ireland's main farm union, published a survey on Friday about inheritance tax, the tax paid on what a person leaves when they die. [14] Since April 2026, only half of a farm's value above £2.5m per person is free of the tax, where before all of it was. [14] In the survey 89% reported more family stress, and 42% have cut, delayed or cancelled spending, or are taking steps to. [14] 37% expect a bill of at least £100,000. [14]

Why it matters. The UK government says 85% of estates claiming the farm relief in 2026-27 will pay no more tax. [14] The union wants the chancellor to rethink the change in the UK Budget on 28 October. [14]

The Countryside Alliance, a group that campaigns for rural Britain, wrote to the chancellor, John Healey, asking him to make a 5p a litre cut in fuel duty permanent. [15] Fuel duty is the tax charged on each litre of petrol and diesel. [15] The cut began in March 2022 and now runs to 31 December 2026. [15] The group also wants the VAT on fuel cut for a while. [15]

Why it matters. Red diesel, the cheaply taxed fuel for farm machines, now costs farmers 113.4p a litre, against 66.9p a year ago. [15] Its own extra tax cut, made in June, also ends on 31 December. [15]

Defra, England's farm ministry, will let more farmers whose applications hit computer faults back into the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), which pays farmers for work that helps nature. [16] Its second window, in September, was open for less than six hours before its £233m ran out. [16] Farmers who reported a fault within a week of the close may now apply, or add what the system wrongly blocked. [16] About 12,200 applied, and about 2,500 have been offered a deal. [16]

Why it matters. Applications are dealt with in the order they arrived, so a fault in the first hours could cost a farmer a place. [16] Defra says the change sets no rule for future windows. [16]

Devon County Council approved up to £180,000 over three years to support farmers hit by bluetongue, a virus spread by biting midges that harms sheep and cattle. [17] Devon has the largest cluster of cases this season, with 1,075 farms testing positive. [17] From January the help will link families to advice, grants and mental health support. [17] It renews a scheme that ran from 2022 to 2025. [17]

Why it matters. A farm charity's adviser said the disease came on top of a dry summer and a shortage of animal feed. [17] It can make rams and bulls less fertile, so fewer lambs and calves may follow. [17]

The Manx National Farmers' Union, on the Isle of Man, a self-governing island between Britain and Ireland, says it has lost confidence in the island's farm department. [18] In an open letter it lists rising costs, falling profits and fewer places to sell. [18] Bluetongue rules stop farmers bringing breeding animals from Britain, and the ferry now on the Northern Ireland route will not carry livestock. [18] The island's government promised to meet the union within 10 working days. [18]

Why it matters. The union says the island's meat plant, creamery and mill get more and more government money without giving farmers any certainty. [18] A new farm minister is being appointed, and the island's government says the minister will listen before deciding on changes. [18]

Thefts of food and drink loads in the US and Canada jumped 47% in 2025, to 708, says CargoNet, a firm that tracks cargo crime. [19] This year they are falling. [19] Overhaul, another tracking firm, counts food and drink thefts from April to June down 45% on a year earlier. [19] CargoNet found seafood thefts went up even as drinks and mixed groceries went down. [19]

Why it matters. Overhaul says cargo theft overall is still near its highest level in a decade, so the fall is not a sign the risk has gone. [19] Thieves now often steal part of a load, or use hacked email accounts to send goods to fake drivers. [19]

More people in the UK now take GLP-1 drugs, weight-loss medicines like Ozempic, than are vegan or vegetarian: 6.1% against 5.7%, says Lumina Intelligence, a market research firm. [20] Its report finds users go out for dinner less and snack less when out. [20] Beer has dropped 10 points, to 42% of their drinking occasions, while wine and cocktails have gained. [20] Only 21% of US users take the drugs on a doctor's advice. [20]

Why it matters. Dinner is the meal on which restaurants earn the most, so fewer dinners out hit them hardest. [20] The report expects use to speed up from 2031, when patents on the drugs start to expire. [20]

A new EU law against greenwashing, the Empowering Consumers directive, has applied since September. [21] It bans vague green claims such as 'eco-friendly' unless the firm explains or proves them in the same place. [21] PepsiCo, Nestle and Mars all use the phrase 'regenerative agriculture', which no law defines. [21] Lawyers told FoodNavigator the phrase can still be used if a firm says exactly what it did, such as the share of its wheat grown with cover crops. [21]

Why it matters. Firms selling food in the EU now have to say which farming methods they use, and on how much of their supply. [21] An industry definition helps, the lawyers say, but cannot stand in for a legal one. [21]

Vandemoortele, a Belgian family food company, began running Delifrance as one business after the UK's competition regulator, the CMA, accepted its final promises on 6 October. [22] Together they have 41 factories and sales near 2.2 billion euros. [22] Before the deal they made 30-40% of the frozen layered dough for croissants and puff pastry sold in the UK. [22] The CMA made Vandemoortele sell its dough plant in Worcester. [22]

Why it matters. Supermarkets and cafes that buy frozen pastries now have one fewer big supplier competing for their orders. [22] The sale is meant to create a new rival, but a factory alone does not make one, the trade site notes. [22]

Nebraska's law giving farmers ownership of the data their land and machines produce took effect in July, the first such law in the US, Civil Eats reports. [23] Firms may not sell that data without a farmer's written consent, and must change their contracts by 1 January 2027. [23] One John Deere combine collected 36,000 data points on a single Nebraska farm last autumn. [23] Similar bills failed this year in Iowa, Colorado and Missouri. [23]

Why it matters. Deere, the biggest US tractor maker, says it is writing a full data policy because of the law. [23] Farmers still cannot sue a firm that breaks it, and must rely on the state's attorney general. [23]

The publisher of Food Safety News, a lawyer whose firm Marler Clark sues food companies after outbreaks, says he is filing seven petitions to the FDA, the US food regulator, and the USDA's meat inspectors. [24] One asks for powdered baby formula to be tested for botulism, after 52 babies were taken to hospital since 2023. [24] Others ask for warnings on raw-milk cheese and raw sprouts. [24] Another asks the FDA to name firms linked to outbreaks. [24]

Why it matters. This month US food safety officials described the food in a 50-person E. coli outbreak only as chicken wraps, and named no maker. [24] He says the FDA has named firms at least eight times since 2006, but has no written rule for when it does. [24]

Teagasc, Ireland's farm advice agency, projects that winter wheat grown for 2027 must yield 3.5 tonnes an acre just to cover its costs, at a price of 220 euros a tonne. [28] That leaves out subsidies and the rent on hired land. [28] It points to growing pressure on all farm incomes and costs. [28] European grain prices barely moved this week, says the AHDB, Britain's farm levy board. [28]

Why it matters. Trouble shipping from the Black Sea keeps European prices up, and Ukraine's farm minister is looking for routes through Germany and the Baltic states. [28] Those routes cost more, which makes Ukrainian grain harder to sell abroad. [28]

Drones treated about 16.4 million acres of US farmland in 2025, against 3.7 million in 2023, says the American Farm Bureau Federation, the biggest US farm group. [3] About 5,500 spray drones were registered. [3] Hiring a drone costs $12-18 an acre for field crops, against $6-12 for a ground sprayer. [3] Farmers pay more because drones reach wet, steep or oddly shaped fields that heavy machines cannot. [3]

Why it matters. The Farm Bureau says drones are taking jobs other machines cannot do, not replacing tractors or crop-spraying planes. [3] So their rise and the fall in tractor sales are two separate changes. [1][3]

Two political groups linked to Make America Healthy Again, or Maha, a US movement that campaigns on food and health, are giving $1.65 million to Zach Lahn. [4] Lahn is the Republican candidate for governor of Iowa, a big farm state, and runs on 'Make Iowa Healthy Again'. [4] A Marist poll taken on 8-11 October had him seven points behind Rob Sand, the Democrat. [4] The election is on 3 November. [4]

Why it matters. Maha says Iowa could give it its first governor. [4] The groups are also spending $250,000 on six candidates for the US House of Representatives. [4]

AFBI, Northern Ireland's government farm science institute, has named DLF, a seed company, as its new partner for selling the grasses it breeds. [25] It replaces Barenbrug, another seed firm, after many years. [25] AFBI says it owns the rights to its grass breeding, so it keeps the plant material from the old partnership. [25] Grasses already sold through Barenbrug stay on sale. [25]

Why it matters. AFBI has bred grass at Loughgall, in County Armagh, for more than 70 years, and its grasses are sown across the UK and Ireland. [25] It wants varieties that give more feed, last longer and resist disease. [25]

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, in Scotland, picked three farms to lead the next stage of its four-year Resilient Farm Network. [26] Glen Finglas, Shemore and Portnellan will get checks of their carbon and wildlife, free money advice and yearly reviews. [26] Two will test grazing that helps wild habitats recover. [26] Portnellan, a small organic farm raising grass-fed beef, will show its own nature-friendly methods. [26]

Why it matters. The park wants farms that can stand harder weather and still earn a living. [26] Portnellan's manager says she will use years of records on her animals to see how the farm can adapt. [26]

Mars, the US maker of M&Ms and pet food, is giving $3 million over three years to the National 4-H Council, a US youth club network for farming and science. [27] It aims to reach up to 200,000 young people. [27] Six universities will run the work, including a mobile vet lab in California and farm science workshops in Florida. [27] Each year 20 teenagers will also get full scholarships to a 4-H summit. [27]

Why it matters. Mars says demand for skilled people in food science, farming and animal medicine keeps growing. [27] The work runs through university extension services, which already reach farm towns. [27]

Ghirardelli, a 174-year-old US chocolate brand owned by Lindt, has launched Dubai-style chocolate squares filled with pistachio and crisp pastry, at $10.99 a bag. [29][30] Dubai chocolate began in 2021 and spread on TikTok three years later. [29] PepsiCo's Flamin' Hot spice, a brand with more than $3 billion in shop sales, is going into Pilgrim's frozen chicken, its first time in the freezer aisle. [29] California Pizza Kitchen will sell packaged salads from 2027. [29]

Why it matters. Each firm is putting a name shoppers already know on a different kind of food. [29] Earlier this month Ghirardelli also moved into packaged cookies. [29]