Food, in brief

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the US farm department, said on Monday it will pay farmers $8 billion to help with high prices for diesel and other farm supplies. [1]

The money comes from the Commodity Credit Corporation, the same farm fund that paid for an earlier $12 billion aid programme called Farmer Bridge Assistance. [1]

Each payment will come from a formula: the acres a farmer planted, the department's own estimates of what crops cost to grow, and its forecasts of yields and prices. [1]

It is a one-time payment for losses expected in the 2026 crop year, and farmers do not need crop insurance to qualify. [1]

Rates for the main crops the US farm law supports are due in November. Fruit and vegetable growers and fishermen were asked to send in their fuel costs, and their method comes later. [1]

Diesel is the reason. A truck driver filling up at a farm co-operative in South Dakota says he paid $3.50 a gallon before and pays $5.89 now. [2]

Earlier this month President Trump signed an order at a campaign rally in Nebraska letting drivers use red-dyed diesel on highways until the end of the year. [2]

Red diesel is the same fuel as ordinary diesel, but it skips the 24.4-cent federal road tax, so until now it was allowed only off the road, in machines such as tractors. [2]

The order only puts the tax off. Molly Nixon of the Cato Institute, a US research group, says a president cannot tell the US tax agency not to collect it. [2]

So some drivers still buy the taxed fuel. One driver's employer told him to, and South Dakota's truckers' association advised its members not to change. [2]

Last Wednesday the US tax agency said it will not inspect vehicles or fine anyone using red diesel on highways this year. [2]

Fertilizer prices are climbing too. Joseph Glauber, a former chief economist at the USDA, names them as one of the two biggest problems for farming worldwide in 2027. [4]

The payments come weeks before the US midterm elections in November. [3]

Why it matters. Watch the rates due in November: they will show how much each acre is worth, and whether farms that burn a lot of diesel get more than farms that burn little. [1]

US exporters announced soybean sales for a fourth business day in a row on Monday, including 114,000 tonnes to China, and Brownfield, a US farm news service, put the running total at about 2.25 million tonnes. [5] State-owned trading firms made their first deals last week, the first since the September summit between President Trump and China's leader, Xi Jinping. [10] One report counted at least 20 cargoes, loading from December to March. [9] Soybeans leaving US ports almost doubled in the week to 15 October, to about 2 million tonnes, mostly bound for China and Mexico. [11]

Why it matters. China is the world's biggest soybean buyer, and it has bought more from Brazil in recent years. [11][9] Its orders matter for how much of this year's US harvest finds buyers abroad. [9] Only state firms are buying. Soybeans were left off a list of tariff cuts, so traders doubt private Chinese processors will return. [10]

The USDA's weekly crop report on Monday put the US corn harvest at 44% done, against 52% in an average year. [5] Iowa, the biggest corn state, was further back: 26% of its corn was in, against 50% in an average year, and 57% of its soybeans, against 74%. [6] Rain and hail have held up fields in Nebraska too, where one farmer said he had not cut any corn since mid-September. [8] In Illinois the harvest is ahead: 63% of its corn is in, five points more than usual. [7]

Why it matters. Farmers with corn still standing in wet fields expect some of it to sprout, as one Nebraska grower put it. [8] Winter wheat, which is sown in autumn, is also being planted later than in most recent years. [5]

New Mexico confirmed New World screwworm in a calf and a horse in Grant County on 15 October, near the Columbus crossing on the Mexican border. [15] The screwworm is a fly whose maggots eat the living flesh of animals. [15] Columbus was expected to be the next crossing to reopen to Mexican cattle, after Douglas, Arizona, in August and Santa Teresa, New Mexico, in September. [15] The US has counted 56 infested animals since June, 52 of them in Texas. [15]

Why it matters. Feedlots in the US Southwest rely on young cattle from Mexico, and the USDA has announced no date for Columbus. [15]

About 11,000 tonnes of soybeans declared as grown in Niger and bound for India were turned round at sea and sold in Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh, four traders told Reuters last Thursday. [12] Indian customs suspect the beans came from Nigeria and were labelled Niger to avoid a 45% duty, because India lets goods from the poorest countries in free. [12] India's imports labelled from Niger went from zero to 404,429 tonnes in eight months, though Niger grows almost no soybeans. [12] The cargoes fetched $470 to $510 a tonne, against more than $650 agreed with Indian buyers. [12]

Why it matters. India bought a record 1 million tonnes of soybeans this year after a poor harvest at home. [12] It takes only beans that are not genetically modified, which only a few countries can sell it. [12]

Three environmental groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, sued the US Environmental Protection Agency in a federal court in California on 14 October. [16] They say it broke the US Clean Water Act by never finishing safe limits for atrazine in rivers and lakes, work it began in 1999. [16] Atrazine is a weedkiller used mostly on corn and sorghum, and the suit says about 70 million pounds of it are used in the US each year. [16] The suit does not ask for a ban, and nothing changes for farmers yet. [16]

Why it matters. Limits from the agency would guide how US states police weedkiller washing off farms into streams. [16] Corn growers who rely on atrazine could then face new rules or higher weed-control costs. [16]

Salmonella linked to oysters from Virginia's Little Wicomico River has now been found in 27 people in 12 US states. [17] The Little Wicomico Oyster Company recalled oysters harvested from 18 September to 8 October and stopped harvesting there. [17] Virginia closed the river to shellfish harvesting on 9 October. [17] The oysters went to restaurants and shops in 16 states and Washington, D.C., and the US Food and Drug Administration says they may have gone further. [17]

Why it matters. The FDA has told restaurants and shops not to serve or sell the recalled oysters. [17] Older adults, children, pregnant women and people with weak immune systems are the most likely to fall badly ill. [17]

Farmers in Pakistan's Punjab province are switching their water pumps from diesel to solar power, NPR reported on Monday. [19] At one fish farm, solar pumps run about 11 hours a day in summer and cut the energy bill by about half. [19] A study by the researcher Khalid Jamil found that in 77% of cases surveyed, farms with solar pumps took out more groundwater than farms paying for diesel. [19] Nobody checks how much is drawn, one fish farmer said. [19]

Why it matters. Pakistan already takes too much water out of the ground. [19] Bashir Ahmad, a director of Pakistan's farm research council, warns that solar pumping on land that is poor for farming could make that worse. [19]

Lindt & Spruengli, the Swiss maker of Lindt truffles and Excellence chocolate bars, said on Monday that its chief executive, Adalbert Lechner, is leaving. [14] Its board said the company needs new leadership to return to consistent, strong growth. [14] Dieter Weisskopf, who ran Lindt until 2022, takes over for now, and a permanent chief is expected in the second quarter of 2027. [14] Trade reporters linked the exit to a recent slowdown in sales, at a time of high cocoa costs. [13]

Why it matters. Weisskopf says his first job is to make Lindt's European business grow again. [14] Its sales in North America and in Asian markets such as China and Japan are still gaining ground. [14]

A monthly survey of about 400 US farmers by Purdue University and CME Group, which runs futures markets, stood at 123 in September. [24] But the average hides a wide split. [24] Among corn and soybean growers, those below the average scored 48 and those above it 191, an analysis on farmdoc daily, a University of Illinois site, found. [24] About 12% gave the most negative answer to every question. [24] Both groups named high input costs as their biggest worry, and their comments pointed at fuel and fertilizer. [24]

Why it matters. Only 24% of the gloomier growers thought the US was heading in the right direction. [24] Among the more cheerful growers, 69% did. [24]

The USDA will let cotton growers combine several kinds of area-wide crop insurance from the 2027 crop, the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, announced on a Texas farm on Friday. [25] The National Cotton Council, which speaks for US cotton growers, welcomed the change. [25] The department also said a new import-quota scheme starting in 2027 will reward some countries for buying US cotton. [25] Final details go to insurers by 30 November. [25]

Why it matters. Both steps are part of a plan launched in May to make more use of US-grown cotton and protect the farmers who grow it. [25]

Feeding America, a network of more than 250 US food banks, asked the USDA to buy at least $21 million of US-grown long-grain rice. [25] It wants the money to come from Section 32, a fund built from import duties that also pays for child nutrition programmes. [25] The rice would reach families through a federal programme that hands food to food banks. [25] It would add to about $730 million of food the department bought from US farmers in 2026. [25]

Why it matters. Rice farmers would gain a buyer. [25] Families who use food banks would get the rice. [25]

Krasnyi Oktyabr, a wholesale food distributor in Brooklyn, New York, recalled frozen cold-smoked salmon sold under the Starfish Seafood name. [18] A test by New York State's agriculture department found Listeria, a germ that can cause serious and sometimes deadly infections. [18] The fish came from Latvia and was sold on in six US states. [18] No one has been reported ill, but the packs are marked best before November 2027, so some may still be in home freezers. [18]

Why it matters. The distributor did not make the fish. [18] A state test of the product on sale is what found the germ. [18]

The National Sheep Association, which speaks for UK sheep farmers, wants any new UK-EU deal to fit how British sheep are moved. [23] The UK and the EU are negotiating a reset of their ties, and a farm arrangement is expected in 2027. [23] That could make it easier to trade live animals across the border. [23] But the association worries about EU rules on journey times, temperature and trailer height. [23] The group says sheep often travel far because there are few slaughterhouses. [23]

Why it matters. Its chief executive, Phil Stocker, says the deal works only if the rules are read in a way that fits how the trade moves animals. [23]

Several insect protein businesses, including Ynsect, an insect-farming company, and Yum Bug, a London restaurant, have closed, FoodNavigator, a food trade site, reported on Monday. [20] Experts told it that factories were built before enough buyers existed. [20] Many shoppers tried an insect snack once and did not buy it again. [20] The EU has approved four insects as food, including the house cricket and the yellow mealworm, but rules on what farmed insects may eat kept the cheapest feed off limits. [20]

Why it matters. Analysts now expect any growth to come from animal feed, pet food and fish farming rather than food for people. [20] One research firm forecasts 34% growth a year to 2036, which is a projection, not a result. [20]

Mondelez, the US maker of Oreo, says sales of its smaller, decades-old cookie brands rose 4% this year to 12 September, while the wider cookie market is flat. [21] These brands, which include Nutter Butter, Nilla Wafers and Honey Maid, sell more than $1 billion a year and had two years of falling sales before this one. [21] Nilla has about five versions on sale, while Oreo has about 120 in the US. [21] Mondelez links the rise to nostalgia and to America's 250th birthday. [21]

Why it matters. Brands with almost no new flavours are now growing faster than Oreo's core range, which depends on a dozen new flavours a year. [21]

A study of 1,192 fish recipes in Good Housekeeping, a British home magazine, from 1923 to 2025 found that recipes once spread across many kinds of fish and now lean on a few. [26] Recipes in the 1920s called for sole, oysters, halibut and herring, and almost a third suggested another fish to swap in. [26] Since the 1970s, cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns have led. [26] Today about 80% of the seafood eaten in Britain comes from those five groups, and most of it is imported. [26]

Why it matters. The researcher, Ruth Thurstan of the University of Exeter, says much of what British boats land is sold abroad. [26] She argues that habits shaped by trade and shops could change again. [26]

Primo Brands, which sells Poland Spring and Pure Life bottled water, opened a 200,000-square-foot factory in Hot Springs, Arkansas. [22] It is the company's first new plant since its 2024 merger with BlueTriton, the water business Nestle sold in 2021 for $4.3 billion. [22] The plant will make more Mountain Valley, a spring and sparkling water the company says is in strong demand. [22] Water is the biggest packaged drink in the US by volume. [22]

Why it matters. Primo's sales rose 3.8% to about $1.8 billion in its last reported quarter, helped by its dearer waters. [22]

Carl Skau, acting head of the World Food Programme, the UN agency that hands out food in emergencies, warned the European Union against cutting its aid budget, in an interview published on Monday. [27] A compromise put forward by Ireland, which is chairing talks between EU governments, would cut 38 billion euros, about 17%, from the EU fund for development and foreign aid. [27] The agency's funding has fallen 40% in two years, after the US halved its money in 2025. [27] It projects that up to 363 million people could face severe hunger this year. [27]

Why it matters. Skau says the cuts already mean ending food for women and children in South Sudan, Afghanistan and Somalia. [27] He hands the agency to Luke Lindberg at the end of October. [27]

In Pointe-Noire, the business capital of the Republic of Congo, farmers are raising catfish in tanks and ponds inside the city, Africanews reported on Monday. [28] Many of the area's rivers are too polluted to fish, and overfishing has left both sea and river fish in short supply. [28] A giant catfish can cost more than 7,000 CFA francs, in a country where the minimum wage is 50,000. [28] The FAO, the UN's food agency, puts the country's farmed fish at about 1,500 tonnes a year. [28]

Why it matters. Feed makes up about three-quarters of a fish farm's costs, so farmers want more fish feed made in Congo. [28] People there eat about 25 kilograms of fish each a year, the FAO says. [28]