Food, in brief

On Friday President Donald Trump launched what the US government calls an America First Seafood Strategy. [1]

With it, the USDA, the US farm department, offered to back at least $5 billion of loans to meat, poultry and seafood plants. [1]

The scheme is called SPUR. If a borrower cannot repay, the USDA pays the bank 90% of the loss, so the bank risks only a tenth. [1][2]

One borrower can get up to $175 million, and may be allowed to wait two years before paying anything back, interest included. [1]

Banks, credit unions and farm credit banks do the lending, and businesses, co-operatives, tribes and local governments can borrow. [1][2]

Any firm with a market share as big as the fourth-largest firm's is shut out, so the four biggest firms in a market cannot use it. [2]

Owners must be mostly US citizens, and nobody from a country the US lists as a foreign adversary may hold control of a firm that borrows. [2]

The USDA's own page for the scheme says the guarantee is pending money approved by the US Congress. [2]

Seafood plants can join because the USDA opened an Office of Seafood earlier this year. [1]

From Monday 26 October the USDA will also publish an extra cash price report for cattle in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas. [3]

Cattle sold for cash, at a price bargained over for each sale, fell from over half of all US sales in 2005 to under 18% in 2025. [3]

The US beef herd is at a 75-year low, an Iowa State University economist told NPR, and ground beef costs about $6.80 a pound. [4]

Why it matters. The first scheduled step is Monday 26 October, when the USDA's new regional cash cattle price report comes out; the loan guarantees themselves still wait on money from the US Congress. [3][2]

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran's president, said on Saturday that many Iranians are struggling to put food on the table because of the war. [7] The US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February, and a ceasefire agreed in June soon collapsed. [7] The US now blocks Iran's ports, which restricts Iran's oil exports and its trade. [7] Pezeshkian called for an end to what he called a state of neither war nor peace, but did not say how. [7]

Why it matters. He spoke as fears of new fighting grew: a US envoy said on Friday that US strikes on Iran could start again as soon as this weekend. [7] Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they were ready to answer any attack. [7]

Ishaq Dar, Pakistan's deputy prime minister, told federal and provincial governments on Saturday to bring rising wheat prices under control, including by putting more wheat on the market. [8] A cabinet committee was told that home-grown and imported stocks will last until the next harvest. [8] Dar ordered zero tolerance for hoarding and market speculation. [8] A day earlier the prime minister set the 2027 wheat support price at Rs4,500 per 40kg, the amount the state promises to pay growers. [8]

Why it matters. Officials say stocks are enough, so the order is aimed at how wheat reaches shops: more supply on the market and no hoarding. [8] The farmers' wing of PTI, an opposition party, says the support price helps only if the state really buys at it, because middlemen have paid growers less before. [8]

Pakistan reopened its Gabd-Rimdan crossing with Iran, near the port of Gwadar, on Saturday morning. [9] Its commerce ministry had stopped trade there and at Taftan, the other main crossing, on 17 October without giving a reason. [9] On Thursday gunmen set dozens of stranded lorries on fire near the closed crossing. [9] Lorries carrying cooking gas and food are moving again, with extra guards on the convoys. [9]

Why it matters. The head of Gwadar's chamber of commerce expects the reopening to ease a nationwide cooking gas shortage and high food prices. [9] Officials cleared lorries whose papers were dated 16 October or earlier. [9]

Focus: Hope, a Detroit charity, now delivers 1,300 food boxes a month to older people on low incomes, up from 800 at the start of the year. [10] Many can no longer afford the petrol to collect food themselves. [10] The Central California Food Bank spent 61% more on diesel from July to September than a year earlier. [10] It says that money could have bought about a quarter of a million meals. [10] More than 4.7 million people have lost SNAP, the US food-aid scheme, since a 2025 tax and spending law took effect. [10]

Why it matters. Higher fuel prices push more people to food banks. They also make each delivery dearer, and the food banks' small donors are paying more at the pump too. [10]

US government payments to farmers are on course for a record $55.4 billion this year, Reuters reported. [6] That beats the previous high of $45 billion in 2020, during the pandemic. [6] Payments were already expected to top $47 billion, including $12 billion for losses from tariffs, and the $8 billion of fuel aid announced this month adds the rest. [6] A USDA official said the fuel money will arrive after the 3 November elections, probably at the end of the year. [6]

Why it matters. US diesel rose again last week, to $6.28 a gallon, despite the money and the rule changes. [6] The National Farmers Union, a US farm group, called the losses largely foreseeable and said one-time payments give farmers nothing to plan on. [6]

FSIS, the USDA's meat and poultry safety service, confirmed on 23 October that Trader Joe's Tarragon Chicken Salad Wraps caused an E. coli outbreak that has made at least 50 people ill. [11] It said so in an email to USA Today, not in a public notice. [11] The FDA had listed the outbreak on 23 September without naming any brand. [11] The name first became public on 15 October, in a lawsuit filed by Marler Clark, a food-safety law firm. [11]

Why it matters. The wraps' maker, the nine states where Trader Joe's pulled them and the hospital count are still not public. [11] The publisher of Food Safety News, whose law firm filed the case, is drafting a petition asking the FDA to name firms in outbreaks as a rule. [11]

Tim and Geli Harris, who farm 460 acres in the Norfolk Broads in England, won their third legal fight this month, this time in the High Court. [12] A High Court judge found that Natural England, the English government's nature agency, failed its legal duty to protect Catfield Fen, a rare wetland, from pollution. [12] Nitrates and phosphates from ploughed fields have washed into the fen, which is home to 2,500 species. [12] The couple have spent 15 years and 1.5 million pounds of their own money on cases. [12]

Why it matters. The judge will still rule on what Natural England must now do. [12] The couple want arable farmers paid to plant strips of grass beside the ditches that drain into the Broads. [12]

The Netherlands will make vaccinating poultry against Salmonella compulsory from the start of 2027, and will check flocks more often. [13] Salmonella is a gut germ that causes food poisoning. [13] It was found in 5% of Dutch laying hens, against an EU target of 2%. [13] In Sweden, a report found the risk from eggs has risen slightly but stays below the European average. [14] The Swedish Food Agency credits a national programme of regular testing for its long-low rates. [14]

Why it matters. Sweden keeps its rate low with regular sampling and strict action when a flock tests positive, and the Dutch are now making checks of that kind compulsory. [14][13]

Sante publique France, the French public health agency, counted 2,096 food poisoning outbreaks in 2024. [15] They made 20,045 people ill, sent 630 to hospital and killed six. [15] Salmonella was the germ most often confirmed, in 176 outbreaks. [15] Almost half the outbreaks came from food served by businesses such as restaurants, and a quarter from family meals. [15]

Why it matters. The illness falls most on people eating out: almost half the outbreaks started with food from restaurants and other businesses. [15]

Ranchers in Harney County, Oregon, are paying near-record diesel prices after a summer of drought and record wildfires, NPR reported. [16] Katie Baltzor had to bring her cattle down from burned mountain grazing in July instead of September. [16] Filling one tractor with diesel now costs her about $300, and that was one reason she raked her thin hay into piles instead of baling it. [16] She says calf prices have risen but not kept up with inflation. [16]

Why it matters. Without rain next year she may have to buy hay and pay to truck it in, burning more diesel. [16] Ranchers with loans on land, cattle or trucks reach their breaking point sooner. [16]

Euronews priced 18 grocery items across Europe in October, using Numbeo, a website where users report prices. [17] The basket cost 69.84 euros on average in the EU, 137.90 euros in Switzerland and 41.10 euros in Moldova. [17] France was the dearest of the five biggest economies, at 87.40 euros, and Spain the cheapest, at 63. [17] A loaf of white bread cost 3.18 euros in Denmark and 1.02 in Bulgaria. [17]

Why it matters. Cheap is not the same as easy to afford: households in Romania, the cheapest EU country, spend 23.1% of their budget on food and soft drinks, against 13.6% across the EU. [17] Diesel in the EU hit 2.24 euros a litre in September, the highest since records began in 2005. [17]

Inspectors in Jersey, a self-governing island off the coast of France, have checked 295 homes for farm workers since 1 May and found 315 hazards needing repair. [18] Most homes had at least one, mainly cold, unsafe wiring, damp and mould, falls and water supply. [18] The checks followed an inquest which found that living conditions contributed to the death of George Castrudes, a farm worker from the Philippines. [18] Jersey Farmers Union says farms put a strong emphasis on good housing. [18]

Why it matters. Jersey's farms rely heavily on workers, and some live in housing the farm provides, so the farm is both employer and landlord. [18] The planning minister says most hazards have since been dealt with, but gave no number. [18]

Fallow, a London restaurant serving 1,000 people a day, has signed a deal to open in the Gulf, its co-owner James Robson told the Guardian. [19] Scott's, Gymkhana and Park Chinois have already opened in Dubai, and so has the bakery Bread Ahead. [19] Restaurant owners blame the UK's VAT, a sales tax, of 20% on restaurant meals, against about 12% on average in Europe and 10% in Italy. [19] Chefs want next week's UK budget to cut it. [19]

Why it matters. Amnesty International UK warned that migrant workers in the UAE are tied to their employers and cannot form unions. [19] Some Dubai restaurants have struggled since the war, and Dinner by Heston has been closed since then. [19]

Brooke Rollins, the US agriculture secretary, and Jared Isaacman, the head of NASA, signed an agreement on Saturday to work together on farm data. [20] It covers satellite images of the Earth, mapping, statistics and machine learning. [20] Rollins said it should improve the USDA's estimates of acreage and yield, the official figures on how much land is planted and how much it grows. [20] It supports a data plan Rollins launched last month. [20]

Why it matters. Rollins said better estimates should help US farms make money. [20] The announcement gave no cost for the work. [20]

Tom Finn, who runs the meat division of Kepak, a meat processor, told farmers visiting its plant in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, that cheaper imported beef is the sector's biggest challenge. [21] British farmers may need 6 to 6.50 pounds a kilo to make a lasting profit, he said. [21] Beef from Australia and New Zealand can reach the UK at about 4 pounds a kilo. [21] Shoppers mostly choose meat on price and look, said the head of Hybu Cig Cymru, the Welsh meat levy body. [21]

Why it matters. A Kepak supplier warned that falling cattle and sheep numbers could close processors, and Wales has three main ones, so farmers would have fewer places to sell. [21]

Imperio Distribution, a firm in Elgin, Illinois, is recalling 946 pounds of beef jerky made without federal inspection. [22][23] The bags carried another plant's USDA inspection mark, number 1885, without permission. [22] They were packed between January and October 2026 and sold in seven US states, from Illinois to Wisconsin. [22] FSIS, which announced it on Saturday, rated it Class I, its highest risk level. [23] Its own checks found the problem, and no illness has been reported. [22][23]

Why it matters. The USDA mark is how a shopper knows meat was inspected, so a borrowed mark hides whether anyone checked. [22]

A study in a Nature journal measured how heat stops photosynthesis, the way plants make food from sunlight, in 177 plant species. [24] It found that heat breaks down proteins first, not the thin oily layers, called membranes, inside the cell. [24] The authors' theory puts the most heat plants can adjust to at about 60C. [24] Data from 826 species supported it. [24]

Why it matters. Knowing which part fails first helps scientists predict how plants will cope with hotter weather they have not met before. [24]

Earth Rover, a UK start-up, has sold 10 of its weeding robots and is building 15 more. [25] The robot spots weeds with cameras and kills them with a focused pulse of light, running up to 16 hours on battery and solar power. [25] It costs about 150,000 pounds and was built for vegetable and salad farms. [25] Its chief executive says it pays for itself in one to three years. [25]

Why it matters. Organic growers can only weed by hand or by machine, and other farmers are losing weedkillers to bans and to weeds that resist them. [25]

Researchers including Joe Collins of Harper Adams University, an English farming university, are using earthquake science to map farm soil. [26] Sensors pick up tiny vibrations, such as a hammer tap, and the speed they travel shows how tightly packed the soil is. [26] Packed soil, called compaction, quietly costs farmers money. [26] A version fixed to a tractor and a phone app are being developed. [26]

Why it matters. A field map lets a farmer skip ploughing where the soil is fine and work only where it is packed, which saves money. [26]