Author: staff

The Institute of Food Technologists has announced the recipients of 95 undergraduate and graduate scholarships totaling over $200,000. The scholarships are courtesy of IFT’s Feeding Tomorrow Fund, which encourages, promotes, and rewards the excellence of students pursuing careers in food science. Since 1985, IFT’s Feeding Tomorrow Fund has awarded more than 2,800 scholarships and over $3 million to food science students across the globe. The Feeding Tomorrow Fund scholarship program, which is one of the largest in the nation for food science students, provides undergraduate and graduate academic scholarships in various areas, including financial need, community college transfer, first-generation college…

DAILY Bites FDA launches Elsa AI tool to improve efficiency and support scientific reviews. Runs in secure GovCloud, protecting internal and industry data. First step in broader AI plans, with future expansions already underway. DAILY Discussion The machines are moving into federal food policy. Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched Elsa, a generative Artificial Intelligence tool designed to help employees work more efficiently. This agency claims that the tool will modernize agency functions and leverages AI capabilities to better serve the American people. “Following a very successful pilot program with FDA’s scientific reviewers, I set an aggressive timeline…

What Happened On Tuesday, May 27, the first trading day after a three-day Memorial Day weekend, cattle futures plunged more than $4 on a story that New World screwworm (NWS) had been found in Missouri cattle. As it appeared this was fake news, the market quickly reversed course. However, the damage was done. Cattle imports from Mexico are currently banned, on recent reports of NWS in the country. While the market reacted to news that turned out to be untrue, it also provided a glimpse as to how quickly prices can deteriorate on unexpected negative news.  Why This Is Important…

What’s Happened With 2024-25 old crop corn ending stocks now at a significantly tight 1.415 billion bushels, old crop corn futures prices have maintained their upward price trend established in late August of 2024.  However, in recent weeks, July 2025 corn futures have had a hard time rallying higher than $4.70 despite the friendly old crop ending stock data. That’s due to the large corn crop being planted in the U.S. this spring.  The potential of a large 2025-26 crop is keeping the December 2025 futures prices in check for the moment, but history suggests a summer corn price rally…

A new lab study has found that the H5N1 avian influenza virus can remain infectious in raw milk for more than a day at room temperature and over a week when refrigerated, raising significant concerns about the potential for zoonotic transmission through unpasteurized dairy products. Published May 28 on the preprint server medRxiv, the non-peer-reviewed research was conducted by a team of UK scientists who studied the stability of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus in raw cow and sheep milk. The study’s findings come amid growing concern about the virus’s spread in U.S. dairy herds since late 2023. “High…

When you run into the grocery store to grab a gallon of milk, some chicken, strawberries, and cookies for supper, it’s easy to just grab and not think. That food has gone on an incredible journey from its start on a farm, through processing, packaging, transportation, and finally arriving at a grocery store ready for you to take home! This entire process takes a lot of work, care, and hands to make it happen. But how long does it take? I’m going to talk about a few common grocery store items — and as a bonus, check out this video that…

Farmers in six of the top 18 winter-wheat growing states have begun to harvest the crop, according to USDA’s latest Crop Progress report. As of June 1, 3% of the harvest was complete nationwide, on track with the five-year average.  Here’s a closer look at which states have kicked off harvest. Texas Winter wheat harvest is most complete in Texas. Growers in the Lone Star State had completed 25% of harvest by June 1, which was a jump of 8 percentage points in a week. That’s just behind the five-year average of 27%. Texas may be at the top when…

1. Wheat Drops Overnight on Improved Ratings Wheat futures were lower in overnight trading on improved winter-crop conditions in the U.S.  About 52% of winter wheat was in good or excellent condition as of Sunday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a weekly report. That’s up from 50% a week earlier.  Fifty-one percent of wheat in Kansas, the biggest producer of winter varieties, earned top ratings, in increase from 48% the week prior, the agency said.  Three percent of the crop was harvested at the start of the week, on par with the average for this time of year.…

By Cami Koons A federal judge has ruled in favor of intervening environmental groups and dismissed a lawsuit against a decades-old rule that connects wetland protections to federal farm benefits.  The lawsuit, filed by CTM Holdings LLC against the USDA, alleged the law, commonly known as “swampbuster,” is unconstitutional. In March, federal representatives and intervening environmental groups argued in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa that CTM Holdings had no standing in the case.  The lawsuit arose when CTM Holdings sought to farm a nine-acre portion of property that had previously been designated a wetland. The company, which rents the property…

By Ryan Hanrahan Bloomberg’s Kim Chipman, Alicia Diaz, Erin Ailworth, and Ilena Peng reported late last week that “after losing their biggest export market due to Donald Trump’s trade wars, U.S. farmers are now counting on the president’s support for biofuels to prevent their next crop from piling up in storage.” “The administration is set to soon unveil a plan for how much crop-based biofuels will be blended into fossil fuels starting next year,” Chipman, Diaz, Ailworth, and Peng reported. “A higher mandate, still opposed by some in the oil industry, would create a much needed outlet for crops after…