Food, in brief

On 22 October, US Vice-President JD Vance and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins picked eight fertilizer projects to receive about $573m in proposed US government funding. [1]

The eight projects add up to more than $1.34bn. USDA says it favoured projects with private money already committed, so the companies and their backers find the rest. [1]

The money goes to firms in 16 states, including TalusAg, Intrepid Potash, AdvanSix and PCI Nitrogen. USDA expects the plants to be finished in 2027-2028. [2]

Fertilizer prices jumped after the US war with Iran began in late February. About half of the fertilizer used in the US is imported, Rollins said. [2]

Fertilizer can be more than 40% of what a corn or wheat farmer spends to run the farm each year. [2]

Four companies hold about 77% of North America's capacity to make nitrogen fertilizer. Two make more than 90% of its phosphate, and two make about 90% of its potash. [1]

USDA's own estimate is that the plants could cut nitrogen prices by 4.4% and potash prices by 5.3%, and raise US potash output by nearly 40%. [1]

Part of the money was taken back from fertilizer projects of the Biden years that USDA says failed. It says earlier federal fertilizer projects struggled to get built. [1]

Vance said 1.87 million farmers on 8.74 million acres would get cheaper American-made fertilizer. The release does not say how either number was counted. [1]

The money comes through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a USDA account that can borrow up to $30bn a year. [2]

In Iowa, The New York Times reports fertilizer prices are still rising, and one farmer's diesel costs almost double what it did early this year. [4]

Rollins took reporters' questions on a call after the announcement, and used it to say USDA's reorganization is going ahead. [3]

Why it matters. USDA expects the eight plants to be finished in 2027-2028, and whether each one breaks ground will show if this round does better than the earlier projects it replaced. [1][2]

A Cook Political Report poll taken on 9-13 October put Democrat Josh Turek ahead of Republican Ashley Hinson in Iowa's race for the US Senate, 46% to 44%. [6] Iowa has not elected a Democratic senator since 2008. [6] On one 3,000-acre Iowa farm, diesel costs almost double what it did early this year because of the war with Iran, and its owner spent $16,000 filling his tanks this autumn. [4] Hinson broke with the Trump administration over cheaper beef imports, which helped push cattle prices down. [5]

Why it matters. A Minnesota farmer told Reuters that President Trump's order allowing tax-free farm diesel on roads saves him only $1,500 to $2,000. [7] Texas, Nebraska, Montana and Kansas also have close races and raise many cattle, NPR reports. [5]

New World screwworm, a fly whose maggots eat the living flesh of animals, has been confirmed in a beef cow in Otero County, New Mexico. [8] It was also found in a female elk a hunter shot in Pecos County, Texas, confirmed on 21 October. [8] New Mexico drew a zone reaching at least 12.4 miles around the cow, where animals must be inspected before they move. [8] The US has now confirmed 58 cases in animals since June 2026. [8]

Why it matters. Earlier cases in south-western New Mexico had already raised doubts about the US plan to reopen its border to cattle from Mexico. [8] New Mexico's farm secretary, Jeff Witte, says cold days slow the fly but do not end the risk. [8]

Brooke Rollins, the US agriculture secretary, said on 22 October that USDA is going 'full-bore ahead' with its reorganization. [3] Judge Vince Chhabria, a US federal judge in California, halted the plan on 13 October, and the Trump administration has appealed. [3] The plan would move the Forest Service's headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, and shut 23 of its research stations. [3] The judge wrote that it would likely make thousands of USDA staff choose between moving far away and losing their jobs. [3]

Why it matters. Food Safety News reports the shake-up had already stopped USDA research on Cyclospora, a gut parasite, just before the biggest US outbreak of the illness on record, this summer. [9] A union survey found most Forest Service workers do not want to move. [3]

The European Commission has proposed letting pesticide ingredients stay approved with no end date, instead of the current limit of up to 15 years. [10] That would include glyphosate, a widely used weedkiller, and safety reviews would happen only in exceptional cases. [10] EU member states want open-ended approval only for low-risk substances, and renewals of up to 25 years for the rest. [10] Herbert Dorfmann, an Italian MEP who helps lead the European Parliament's talks, wants a vote before the end of the year. [10]

Why it matters. Regular reviews have led to 56 substances being banned in the EU since 2011, Pesticide Action Network Europe says, including chlorpyrifos, an insecticide tied to harm to children's brains. [10] More than 500 experts asked the Parliament in September to stop and study the health effects first. [10]

US food producers announced 29,693 job cuts in the first nine months of 2026, says Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a firm that tracks layoffs. [11] That is 76% more than the 16,835 announced in the same months of 2025. [11] Tyson Foods closing three plants made up a large part of August's 7,982 cuts. [11] Nestle, Guinness and PepsiCo announced closures or layoffs this month. [11]

Why it matters. Food Dive puts it down to falling consumer spending and a change in what people eat. [11] Companies say the closures let them focus on the parts of their business that are growing. [11]

US Halloween candy prices are up more than 15% this year, four times overall inflation, say Groundwork Collaborative and the Century Foundation, two policy research groups. [12] Cocoa, sugar and corn syrup make up about 65% of what sweet makers spend on ingredients, and the price of all three has jumped. [12] Mondelez's sour gummy packs cost 39% more than last year, and Hershey's seasonal Reese's over 23% more. [12] Hershey has added salty snacks such as SkinnyPop to its Halloween range for the first time. [12]

Why it matters. A LendingTree survey found 35% of holiday shoppers plan to skip sweets. [12] Hershey's Dot's pretzels sold $626 million in the past year, and Hershey wants the brand to reach $1 billion. [13]

The NFU, the farmers' union for England and Wales, asked the UK farm ministry for a national wildfire strategy on 22 October. [14] Fire services in England and Wales have answered more than 1,300 wildfires so far in 2026, more than in all of 2025, a committee of MPs reports. [14] In 2025 nearly 48,000 hectares burned across the UK, seven times the yearly average from 2006 to 2024. [14] The NFU was due to meet government officials on 23 October. [14]

Why it matters. The MPs' report says farmers are often first at a fire, ploughing firebreaks and rescuing livestock. [14] The NFU also wants a review of England's 2025 rules on burning heather and grass, which it says limit the controlled burns that cut wildfire risk. [14]

An investigation by DeSmog, published by Euronews, traced algae blooms in Spain, France, Northern Ireland and the Baltic Sea largely to fertiliser and manure washing off farms, along with sewage. [15] Studies put farming's share of the nutrients entering Spain's Mar Menor lagoon at about 85%. [15] Brittany, 5% of France's land, holds 58% of its pigs, and sea-lettuce algae there has been linked to up to six deaths since the 1980s. [15] Spain is spending more than 11.5 million euros on eight projects to cut livestock pollution. [15]

Why it matters. Algae blooms use up the oxygen fish need, and a fisher on Lough Neagh, the UK's biggest lake, says fishing there is no longer a living. [15] The nitrogen and phosphorus that farms buy as fertilizer are what the algae feed on. [15]

Yelloway, a research venture of Chiquita, the world's biggest banana company, and KeyGene, a crop-breeding firm, says it has bred a fully fertile Cavendish banana. [16] Cavendish plants are normally sterile and grown from offshoots of other plants, so they are almost identical and catch the same diseases. [16] A soil disease called Tropical Race 4 has spread to Latin America, and was reported in Ecuador, the biggest banana exporter, in December 2025. [16] In Australia and New Zealand, a Cavendish given a gene from a wild banana is already approved to eat. [16]

Why it matters. A fertile Cavendish may be crossed with bananas that resist the disease, which a sterile one never could. [16] Outside scientists say Yelloway has not shown how it made the plant, and any new variety from it will differ from the Cavendish. [16]

Former winners of the World Food Prize, a top award for work against hunger, said in Des Moines, Iowa, that the US is losing its lead in farm research to China. [6] Mariangela Hungria, a Brazilian scientist who won in 2025, said China made the investment over the last two to three years and now leads. [6] Howarth Bouis, the 2016 winner, said the best US students may want to study farming in China within ten years. [6]

Why it matters. Robb Fraley, the 2013 winner and a former technology chief at Monsanto, said tools such as gene editing now work at small scale anywhere. [6] At home, USDA plans to shut 23 Forest Service research stations in its reorganization. [3]

Senator Peter Welch and Representative Mark Pocan, two US Democrats, asked USDA to drop a new rule in its Dairy Business Innovation programme. [6] The rule makes applicants pay 25% of a project's cost themselves. [6] The programme, set up by the 2018 farm law, has given more than $106 million to 911 dairy businesses, and about $12.65 million is available now. [6] Fourteen other lawmakers signed their letter. [6]

Why it matters. The letter says the four universities and agencies that run the programme have no spare money to cover a 25% share. [6] It asks USDA to explain the rule by 27 October. [6]

An unnamed buyer has sent a letter of intent to buy Believer Meats' plant in Wilson, North Carolina, court filings show. [17] Believer grew meat from animal cells, raised almost $400m from backers including the investment arms of ADM and Tyson, and stopped work in December 2025. [17] The court-appointed manager is selling the $150 million plant and its equipment. [17] Gray Construction, a building firm Believer owes money to, has also sent a draft offer. [17]

Why it matters. Any sale goes to a North Carolina court, with about 21 days for rival bids and then an auction if more come in. [17] UPSIDE Foods, which dropped a $50m offer in August, has not said whether it is the new bidder. [17]

Liberation Bioindustries got 'no acceptable offers' after a four-month search for a buyer or partner, says Agronomics, a large shareholder. [18] Liberation is building a 600,000-litre plant in Richmond, Indiana, where microbes in tanks would make food proteins for other companies. [18] It was due to open by the end of 2024 and has already used $125 million. [18] It needs $25 million more, because some funding it expected never arrived and delays raised its costs. [18]

Why it matters. Building is paused, with most of the remaining work in pipes, welding and wiring. [18] Agronomics hopes to gather the money from shareholders, loans, public grants and customers' advance payments by the first half of 2027. [18]

The food and farm sector suffered 227 ransomware attacks in the first seven months of 2026, up 62% from 140 a year earlier. [19] The count comes from the Food and Ag-ISAC, an industry group that shares warnings about hackers. [19] Ransomware, which locks a firm's computers until it pays, is the group's biggest worry. [19] Food and farming is the eighth most attacked sector, with 5% of all attacks. [19]

Why it matters. The group's director, Jonathan Braley, says attackers are not singling out food firms; they hit whatever exposed system they find. [19] Self-driving tractors, smart shop fridges and pig barns with online climate controls all count. [19]

A study for the Welsh government, published on 20 October, found farmers changing how they graze, building livestock sheds, planting hedges and storing water to cope with wilder weather. [20] The researchers, from the firm Mentera, spoke to 63 farmers and eight industry figures. [20] Many said grants and rules do not fit their farms, such as the fixed seed mixes in one grant scheme. [20] One farmer spent 36,000 pounds on a manure store that stood empty much of the year. [20]

Why it matters. The findings may shape the next parts of Wales's Sustainable Farming Scheme, which pays farmers for work that helps nature. [20] CLA Cymru, a landowners' group, wants payments for results rather than fixed rules. [20]

Texas votes on 3 November for a new agriculture commissioner, its first new one in more than ten years. [21] Republican Nate Sheets, who built the honey company Nature Nate's, faces Democrat Clayton Tucker, a rancher from Lampasas, in a race closer than expected. [21] The department has a $1.8 billion two-year budget and runs school lunches and oversees the SNAP and WIC food-aid programmes in the state. [21] Sid Miller, the outgoing commissioner, held the job for 12 years. [21]

Why it matters. Tucker wants to break up big firms such as Tyson Foods and John Deere, and to stop data centres using up the state's resources. [21] Sheets wants farming to pay again and harsh chemicals taken out of food. [21]

The FFA, a US school farming club, named winners in seven of its 45 national proficiency award categories at its convention in Indianapolis on Thursday. [22] The awards honour students for skills learned in farm jobs and small firms they ran themselves. [22] Wyatt Parker of Oklahoma started a baling business with his brother that works for up to 17 farmers. [22] Madilyn Bishop, also from Oklahoma, studied ways to check an egg's freshness and fertility without opening it. [22]

Why it matters. The other 38 categories are still to be named. [22] The winners so far range from farm writing and flower sales to livestock feed. [22]

Wild West Seed, a company in Albany, Oregon, is recalling 9,476 pounds of broccoli seeds sold for sprouting, because of Salmonella. [23] The seeds went out in 50-pound bags to 11 US states, including California and Texas, and to the United Kingdom. [23] The company told its customers by letter and did not publish a recall notice. [23]

Why it matters. Sprouts are usually eaten raw, so Salmonella on the seed is not killed by cooking before it reaches a plate.

General Mills, the cereal maker, is launching meat sticks under Epic, a meat-snack brand it bought about ten years ago. [24] They come in beef, Wagyu beef and two chicken flavours, with up to 10 grams of protein each. [24] They are on sale at Amazon and Sprouts now, and reach shops across the US in 2027. [24]

Why it matters. PepsiCo says 86% of Americans are adding protein to what they eat, and food makers are chasing that with snacks. [24] Epic will compete with Chomps and PepsiCo's Good Warrior. [24]

Some farms in Britain now spray part of their nitrogen fertiliser onto crop leaves late in the season instead of onto the soil, to use less of it, Farmers Weekly reports. [25] Rhys Jones, who manages a farm in Cambridgeshire, grew wheat for Wildfarmed, a flour brand that capped nitrogen at 80kg a hectare. [25] He still got 6 tonnes a hectare at 13% protein. [25] He now makes his own spray by dissolving 800kg of urea, a common nitrogen fertiliser, in rainwater. [25]

Why it matters. Jones started making his own spray because the ready-made products were expensive. [25] The method has spread on some farms in the four seasons since an online course taught it in 2023. [25]

The Ulster Farmers' Union, Northern Ireland's main farm union, urged potato growers not to accept prices that fail to cover their costs. [26] Its deputy president, Clement Lynch, said growers pay for seed, fertiliser, energy, machinery, labour and storage long before they sell a potato. [26] The union pointed to drought and heat hitting potato crops in major growing regions of Europe. [26]

Why it matters. The union says Europe's tighter supply is a reason for growers to bargain hard rather than take the first price offered. [26]

A survey of 15,000 seafood buyers for the Marine Stewardship Council, which runs an eco-label for wild-caught fish, found 72% want green claims labelled by an independent body. [27] GlobeScan, a research firm, ran it. [27] 63% said they do not trust most environmental claims on products. [27] In the US, 40% of buyers now notice eco-labels, up from 25% in 2018. [27]

Why it matters. Most seafood labels are paid for by fees from the fisheries and firms they certify, and watchdog groups say that raises doubts about how independent they are. [27] The MSC, which ran this survey, is paid for its own label in the same way. [27]

National Agricultural Development Co., a food company in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, best known for its Nadec dairy brand, said its net profit fell 72.5% from a year earlier. [28] It blamed higher prices for animal feed, dearer shipping, and extra charges on goods moved by sea. [28] Its sales still rose 7.8%, helped by its protein products, whose sales doubled for a second quarter in a row. [28] The company expects the pressure to ease once the region settles. [28]

Why it matters. Gulf food producers face higher costs because of the war, Semafor reports, so selling more has not turned into profit. [28] Even firms that produce at home and have strong local demand are struggling with the war's disruption to shipping. [28]