Food, in brief

Panama's rainy season usually runs from May to December, and this year it has brought little rain, the Guardian reported on 20 October. [1]

In Azuero, a farming region in what Panamanians call the Dry Arc, pastures have not grown back, and the streams and watering holes farmers use have not refilled. [1]

Robert Delgado, a farmer there, says his cows now give half as much milk. [1]

He says he and other farmers have sold or slaughtered breeding animals of high value rather than watch them die of thirst or hunger. [1]

Grass that grows in the rainy months is what cattle eat in the dry months, which begin in December. Delgado asks how the animals will be fed without it. [1]

Panama's government declared a national state of emergency in August that lasts until June 2027. It forecasts more than 50% less rain than normal in some regions until December. [1]

Juan Navarro, Panama's environment minister, says El Nino, a warming of the Pacific Ocean that moves where rain falls, is already being felt. He says climate change has made it stronger and more frequent. [1]

Heifer International, a charity that works with small farmers, calls this El Nino the most powerful yet recorded. [2]

Two man-made lakes, Gatun and Alajuela, fill the locks of the Panama Canal and give drinking water to about 2 million people, nearly half the country. [1]

In September, low water twice forced limits on how many ships could cross the canal each day. [1]

Panama's government has an emergency package of $8.2m that includes money for livestock feed and irrigation equipment. [1]

Its long-term plan is a $1.5bn reservoir on the Indio River to top up the canal's main lake. It would flood the land of 550 families in 38 rural communities. [1]

Rice growers in Cocle province are also struggling, and the long-term projects will do little for this dry season. [1]

Why it matters. Watch the start of Panama's dry season in December: the lakes and pastures go into it already low, and officials expect worse than September. [1]

China brought in 360,878 tonnes of US soybeans in September, its customs office said on Tuesday, against none a year earlier. [3] China is the world's biggest soybean buyer. [3] Trade tensions last year made Chinese buyers hold off on US soybeans until the two countries' leaders met in October. [3] Brazil still sent China 10.7 million tonnes in September, about 30 times as much. [3] From January to September, China's soybeans from the US were 34% lower than a year before. [3]

Why it matters. Brazil still supplied most of China's soybeans this year, 65.84 million tonnes from January to September. [3] Traders told Reuters that China has already bought more than 60% of a 25-million-tonne US target for the new season. [3]

US soybean and corn futures, prices traders agree for later delivery, fell again on Tuesday as the harvest sped up, Brownfield, a US farm radio network, reported. [4] China announced US soybean purchases for a fifth working day in a row, 2.86 million tonnes in all. [4] Sinograin, China's state grain store, sold about 297,000 tonnes of soybeans from its reserves the same week. [4] Wheat also fell, and Europe is buying more corn after drought hit its own crop. [4]

Why it matters. Recent rain is soaking dry soil in parts of the US Plains, which helps the winter wheat now being sown. [4] US wheat is getting cheaper against other sellers, while exports from the Black Sea stay slow because of Russia's war on Ukraine. [4]

Farm diesel in Illinois averaged $5.63 a gallon on 16 October, the highest since records there began in 2008. [8] University of Illinois economists expect fuel to cost central Illinois corn growers $28 an acre this year, $6 more than in 2025. [8] President Trump announced the $8 billion Harvest Fuel Relief payments at a campaign rally in Kansas on Monday. [5] The US Department of Agriculture will publish the rate for each crop in November. [6]

Why it matters. The money comes from the Commodity Credit Corporation, the department's own bank, and goes first to growers of crops such as corn and soybeans. [5] The National Farmers Union, a farm group, said repeated emergency aid shows the farm safety net is failing family farms. [5]

Heifer International will help more than 16,000 farming families in Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras prepare for El Nino. [2] It announced the plan at the Borlaug Dialogue, a food meeting held by the World Food Prize Foundation in Des Moines, Iowa. [2] The work includes protecting water supplies, moving planting dates, better storage and shelter for livestock, before the drought or floods arrive. [2] Drought has already hit coffee in Honduras and Guatemala, where output may fall 7% and 10%. [2]

Why it matters. The three countries sell coffee, cocoa and cardamom around the world. [2] In 2023, during the last El Nino, some areas of Guatemala lost 75% of their crops. [2]

Nestle, the world's biggest food company, will close its factory in Solon, Ohio, by the end of 2027. [9] It makes pouches of food for restaurants and canteens, and that work moves to Nestle's plant in Gaffney, South Carolina. [9] Nestle has not said how many jobs will go. [9] In 2024 the factory employed 780 people, and Nestle said then it would lay off 216 of them. [9] Its finance chief says frozen food is growing more slowly in North America. [9]

Why it matters. Nestle employs nearly 3,000 people at seven sites in Ohio, and its research offices in Solon stay open. [9] PepsiCo, Tyson Foods, JBS, Danone and Mars have all announced US plant closures this year. [9]

PepsiCo, which makes Pepsi and Mountain Dew, closed a bottling plant in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Monday, and 112 workers lost their jobs. [10] The plant shut at once, but staff will be paid until 1 January. [10] PepsiCo's sales volume in North America fell 2% last quarter. [10] Its chief executive, Ramon Laguarta, said this month that the company did not feel good about its soft drinks. [10]

Why it matters. PepsiCo plans to raise prices and bring out new drinks to win buyers back. [10] Its sales and delivery teams stay in Knoxville, and it says it is trying to place workers at nearby sites. [10]

H5N1 bird flu, the severe kind, was confirmed on a commercial poultry farm in England on 19 October. [11] Another severe strain, H5N5, was found in Scotland at the start of October. [11] Northern Ireland's chief vet, Brian Dooher, urged every bird keeper to tighten hygiene now. [11] Wild ducks and geese arriving for the winter can bring the virus to farm birds. [11]

Why it matters. The UK's Food Standards Agency says properly cooked poultry and eggs are safe to eat. [11] The case comes just before winter, the season of highest risk. [11]

Austria's food safety agency told people not to eat raw cherry tomatoes from Ragusa and Caltanissetta, two areas of Sicily. [12] Austria has 29 confirmed or likely cases of Salmonella Strathcona, a germ that causes food poisoning, and seven people went to hospital. [12] Across 10 European countries more than 160 infections have been confirmed since July. [12] The same strain has been found in the irrigation water of a Sicilian tomato grower. [12]

Why it matters. Europe's disease agency, the ECDC, expects new outbreaks each season until the cause is found and fixed. [12] From 2023 to 2026, 800 people fell ill in 17 countries. [12]

The Columbus Stockyards in New Mexico will reopen to cattle from Mexico on 26 October, Agri-Pulse, a US farm news service, reported. [7] The US stopped live cattle imports from Mexico in May 2025 after finding New World screwworm, a fly whose maggots eat living flesh. [7] Crossings have reopened in stages since late August, first at Douglas, Arizona. [7] Santa Teresa, also in New Mexico, reopened on 24 September. [7]

Why it matters. US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was due to visit the yard on Tuesday with ranchers and officials. [7] Each crossing that reopens gives Mexican cattle another way into the US. [7]

The US Department of Agriculture chose nine countries for Food for Peace programmes that help farming grow rather than hand out emergency food. [7] They are Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya and Mozambique. [7] Food for Peace began in 1954 and has about $1.6 billion to award for 2025 and 2026. [7] The farm department took it over from the US State Department in late 2025. [7]

Why it matters. All the food the programme supplies must be grown in the US, so it also buys from US farmers. [7] Guatemala and Honduras are two of the countries Heifer says El Nino now threatens. [2][7]

Cary Fowler, a former US envoy for global food security, told Brownfield the world needs to grow about 2% more food each year to feed 9.1 billion people in 2050. [21] He says farm output is now rising by about three-quarters of 1% a year. [21] He also said China spends twice as much as the US on farm research. [21] Separately, German farmer Jana Gabert won a Global Farmer Network award for leadership at the Borlaug Dialogue in Iowa this week. [22]

Why it matters. Fowler says the extra food cannot come from cutting down forests, so it must come from growing more on land already farmed. [21] Gabert, a first-generation farmer, says small farms in Germany are disappearing as farms get bigger. [22]

BASF, the German chemical maker, won registration from the US Environmental Protection Agency for Ridivex, a weedkiller sprayed on young corn. [14] It mixes three chemicals, including dicamba, and BASF says it controls more than 200 broadleaf weeds. [14] It is BASF's first new product of this kind for corn in more than ten years. [14] It goes on sale in 2027, and BASF is not yet taking orders. [14]

Why it matters. BASF aims it at weeds that older sprays no longer kill, which keep spreading across the corn-growing regions. [14] Its claims about how well it works are the company's own. [14]

Whey protein concentrate, a powder made from the liquid left over when cheese is made, cost about $12.25 a pound in the US at the end of August. [15] That was 7.5% less than at the start of August but 134% more than a year before, says Expana, a price research firm. [15] In Europe it was about 122% higher. [15] ADM, a big US crop processor, says 66% of people worldwide want more protein, up from 57% in 2023. [15]

Why it matters. Food makers are blending soy and pea proteins in to stretch whey supplies. [15] US dairy foods sold with a protein claim are now worth $10.4 billion of a $104 billion market. [16]

Better Dairy, a London start-up, says an independent panel of experts found its lactopontin safe for adult supplements and foods in the US. [17] Lactopontin is a protein found in human and cow's milk, and Better Dairy makes it with microbes in tanks. [17] This route, called self-affirmed GRAS, is not an approval by the FDA, the US food regulator. [17] Companies do not now have to tell the FDA they have used it. [17]

Why it matters. The FDA is reviewing whether firms must tell it in future. [17] Use in baby formula needs a separate approval, which this does not cover. [17]

Amy's Kitchen, a US maker of frozen and canned meals, is running a five-week national advertising campaign against ultra-processed food, meaning factory foods with many added ingredients. [18] Nearly 90% of its range carries a Non-UPF Verified label from the Non-GMO Project, a private labelling group. [18] A study the company paid for says a diet high in such food adds $359,836 in costs over a lifetime. [18]

Why it matters. The study was done by a health economist at Northwestern University, and it was commissioned by a company that sells the alternative. [18] The campaign runs to 15 November, including inside Whole Foods shops. [18]

Mars, the maker of M&M's, measured the greenhouse gases from getting its food through shops to buyers. [19] Shoppers driving to and from stores made 72.8% of them, and online delivery only 0.3%. [19] This last part of the journey is 8% of Mars's total greenhouse gases, while ingredients are 55%. [19] Mars built the calculator with Quantis, a consultancy. [19]

Why it matters. Mars says selling online is at least three times less polluting per item, because deliveries share routes. [19] It plans to cover 85% of the power used by the shops and warehouses that sell its goods with renewable energy, cutting about 1% of its total. [19]

Angela Gubser works for Barry Callebaut, the world's biggest supplier of cocoa and chocolate to food makers. [20] After a cocoa meeting in Singapore, she said she feels the worst is past for the cocoa trade. [20] She added that El Nino is still happening. [20] High cocoa prices have not always raised what farmers earn, she said. [20] In Indonesia, Asia's biggest cocoa grower, many farmers moved to oil palm and other crops that paid better. [20]

Why it matters. New cocoa plants that resist disease could make the crop worth growing in Indonesia again, Gubser said. [20] The industry also struggles to find young people to take over cocoa farms. [20]

The FDA has called a public meeting on draft guidance that would excuse some restaurants and small food firms from its Food Traceability Rule. [13] The exemption would cover firms with $250,000 to $1 million in yearly sales. [13] The rule makes food businesses keep records so investigators can trace the food behind an outbreak. [13] The US Congress has pushed its start back to 2028. [13]

Why it matters. The law that ordered the rule was signed in January 2011, so it will have taken 17 years to start. [13] Anyone may comment on the exemption at the meeting. [13]

UK pensioners who still work pay no national insurance, a tax on earnings, and the UK government may end that in its autumn budget, says NFU Mutual, a farm insurer. [23] About 899,000 pensioners get the exemption, which now costs 1.2 billion pounds. [23] Many are farmers: 40% of farm holders in England are over 65, by government figures. [23] A pensioner with 25,000 pounds of profit could pay 745 pounds more a year. [23]

Why it matters. NFU Mutual notes that many farmers keep working well past pension age, through need or choice. [23] NFU Mutual says the UK's finance minister could soften it with a lower rate for pensioners. [23]

Ag.Impact, a UK research group, studied 1.2 billion pounds of public money spent on farm research from 2022 to 2026. [24] It compared that with what 600 people, more than half of them farmers, said they need. [24] Only about 7% of the money went to projects that join up several fields of study. [24] Farmers want research that tackles real farm problems and includes them from the start. [24]

Why it matters. The report points to ADOPT, a UK fund that pays farmers to test their own ideas with research help, as a model. [24] It asks for steadier long-term funding. [24]

Smithfield Tractors, a dealer in Builth Wells in mid-Wales, will stop selling John Deere machines on 31 October after 30 years. [25] Two other dealers, Charlies Ag and Turf and Tallis Amos Group, will take over its customers. [25] Smithfield has 12 staff and mostly serves farms within about 30 miles, many of them small family or hill farms. [25]

Why it matters. Its owner, Tim Hughes, says even small hill farms now pay for features such as GPS steering. [25] Three of his staff have worked there for the whole 30 years. [25]

Reservoir, a US company that runs farms where start-ups test farm robots, will open a site in Washington state's Yakima Valley in spring 2027. [26] It will test machines for tree fruit and blueberries, and joins its sites in California and Arizona. [26] John Deere has pledged $10 million over three years. [26] More than 30 start-ups are members, including one that kills weeds with electricity. [26]

Why it matters. Research groups for tree fruit growers in Washington state and for North America's blueberry growers are partners. [26] A local development council is also putting money in. [26]

IMIO, a US start-up, raised $12 million for microbes that are sprayed on crop leftovers. [27] The microbes break down the stalks and leaves left after harvest, releasing nutrients the next crop can use. [27] IMIO says this can raise yields and cut fertiliser use. [27] Investors include Chipotle's venture fund, and IMIO will build a factory and lab in Chicago. [27]

Why it matters. Products made from microbes have often not worked reliably on farms, a problem IMIO says its method avoids. [27] Its total funding is now $16.5 million. [27]

Tractor Supply, a US chain of farm stores, raised more than $1 million this year for FFA Future Leaders scholarships. [28] The fund has raised $5 million in five years and backed more than 500 students. [28] It gives $5,000 to students at trade schools and $10,000 to farming students at four-year colleges. [28]

Why it matters. The students train for work in farming, welding, animal care and farm policy. [28] Tractor Supply has given more than $27 million to the FFA, a US youth farming group, since 1985. [28]

Arata Takebe, Japan's new agriculture minister, told parliament on 16 October that Japan will not lift its ban on fresh US potatoes until both sides agree after talks on 21 kinds of pests and diseases. [29] Japan now lets fresh US potatoes in only for making crisps. [29] The US sold Japan more than $565 million of potatoes and potato products last year. [29] Takebe's district is in Hokkaido, which grows about 80% of Japan's own potatoes. [29]

Why it matters. US lawmakers say opening the fresh market would add about $150 million a year in US potato sales. [29] JA Group Hokkaido, the island's farm co-operative, oppose more imports, and at least 50 of its 179 towns have voiced opposition or concern, fearing pests such as the pale potato cyst nematode, a tiny roundworm. [29]

Drought linked to El Nino is hitting Central America's Dry Corridor, a strip of land that runs from Mexico to Panama, Euronews reported on 20 October. [30] In El Salvador, August was 4.3C hotter than normal. [30] At a livestock market in Sensuntepeque, rancher Antonio Aguilar showed a cow reduced to skin and bone for lack of grass. [30] In Sudan, drought linked to El Nino has caused local crop failures across more than half the country, where war is already causing famine. [30]

Why it matters. Japan's weather agency calls this El Nino the strongest ever observed, though US forecasters have not declared a record. [30] It is expected to peak around the end of the year. [30]