Author: staff

David Friedberg, the founder of The Climate Corporation and a lifelong vegetarian, is drawing ire from the agricultural advocates for his “charity” of choice going into tonight’s final round of Celebrity Jeopardy!: Humane World for Animals, the anti-livestock activist group formerly known as the Humane Society of the United States. The Center for the Environment and Welfare said it is pleading with the producers of the Jeopardy! series to more rigorously vet the nonprofits eligible to receive the $1 million grand prize money from the game show. While Charity Navigator shows that HWA currently has a high charitable rating, the…

What Happened Marketing decisions are often made with little certainty as to what lies ahead for price movement. In most years, if good crops are produced, it is likely prices will be lower by late summer or early fall, as bigger supplies are anticipated. Knowing when to sell (especially if making only a few sales) can be challenging and often requires acute attention to market signals. Even with that, the fewer sales one makes increases the potential for extreme results, good and bad. To avoid the potential imbalance of making a few large sales, make smaller and more frequent sales.…

“This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.” In 2010, United States lawmakers passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which aimed to tackle both childhood obesity and hunger by making school meals more nutritious. Two years later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture updated its guidance for schools participating in the National School Lunch Program, or NSLP, in accordance with the law. Whereas schools could previously serve fat-free, 1 percent, 2 percent, or whole milk and be eligible for federal reimbursement, now they could only recoup meal costs if they ditched 2 percent and whole…

Ahead of 9 a.m. CT, July corn was down 4¾¢ at $4.78½ per bushel. Naomi Blohm, senior market advisor at Total Farm Marketing, said a lack of new bullish news contributed to July corn falling below the $4.85 support level yesterday. She said the next level of support is $4.80 and then $4.75 is a significant support level. July soybeans were up 4¼¢ at $10.50¼ per bushel ahead of 9 a.m. CT. July wheat contracts were lower. CBOT wheat was down 4¢ at $5.46¼ per bushel. KC wheat was down 6¢ at $5.52¼. Minneapolis wheat was down 3¢ at $6.07¼.…

Ever imagined your toilet flush could fertilize a tomato? A new life cycle assessment from a research team in Barcelona makes a surprisingly strong case that our urine could someday replace a significant portion of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer in urban agricultural methods. In a world contending with fertilizer scarcity, resource-heavy production methods, and the environmental toll of fertilizer overapplication, the idea of pee-powered produce isn’t just ecological poetry, it might actually be a practical pathway forward. The global demand for nitrogen fertilizers is growing steadily, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and conventional production via…

AI-driven agricultural technology company Aigen has debuted its Element gen2 robot, designed for daily weed control in cotton, soy, and sugar beet fields. The machine features a wider and taller design than its predecessor, which was designed by a former Tesla engineer and has been on the market since last year. The company says that the update is based on more than 10,000 hours of real-world farm experience and expands the brand’s reach by millions of acres worldwide. The solar-powered Elements use onboard AI vision to identify and eliminate weeds with precise ground strikes. They are available for purchase now,…

By Ryan Hanrahan Politico’s Meredith Lee Hill reported that “House Republicans are eyeing May 8 for the Agriculture Committee to advance its portion of the mega bill to enact President Donald Trump’s vast domestic agenda, according to two people granted anonymity to share private scheduling details.” “This target date, while weeks away, is still an ambitious timeline as Republicans are trying to resolve the massive gap between the House’s instruction for the committee to accomplish $230 billion in spending cuts as compared with the Senate Agriculture Committee’s $1 billion minimum goal to offset the massive package of tax cuts, beefed…

Logan Lyon is a farmer from eastern Iowa, an ag risk manager and crop insurance agent, and a district director with the Iowa Corn Growers Association. He joined me for a conversation at Commodity Classic, where we talked about his travels on behalf of Iowa farmers and his famous butter-cow-sculpting grandmother, Norma “Duffy” Lyon. Listen to the Podcast Subscribe to 15 Minutes With a Farmer on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please rate and review us! Meet Logan Lyon Growing up on a dairy farm gave Lyon an appreciation for hard work. Although he isn’t involved in the…

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will distribute $340.6 million in disaster assistance to farmers, ranchers, and rural communities impacted by natural disasters across the country. The funding comes through the USDA Disaster Assistance Fund and is intended to help communities repair homes, businesses, infrastructure, and restore essential services following severe storms, hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters. The announcement follows a January executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at accelerating disaster relief to communities that had experienced delays in receiving federal assistance. The order directed agencies to prioritize regions that…

By Carl Zulauf, Gary Schnitkey, Nick Paulson, and Jonathan Coppess The April 11, 2025 Farmdoc Daily found the U.S. crop safety net is no longer countercyclical. The April 16, 2025 Farmdoc Daily found this is mainly due to changes in ad hoc and emergency and crop insurance payments. Safety net payments are now high, even when private market returns are high. Implications of the demise of the countercyclical crop safety net are explored for the period since the 2014 Farm Bill authorized the current set of commodity programs. Total commodity and ad hoc and emergency payments, plus net insurance payments, notably exceeded economic losses from producing the nine crops for…