CHICAGO (Reuters) – Tom Giessel is cutting back on plantings this year on his farm in central Kansas as he reckons with a drought, a glut in global grains supply and trade tensions between the United States and China. About 200 miles away in the northwestern part of the state, farmer Janet Bear swapped the […] Read more
Stories by Tom Polansek
Trade tensions crimp U.S. soybean sales to China – Bunge CEO
(Reuters) – U.S. soybean sales to China have ground to a halt after Beijing threatened tariffs on imports, the CEO of agricultural trader Bunge Ltd said on Wednesday, the latest sign of mounting trade tensions upsetting the global flow of commodities. Countries such as Brazil and Canada are increasing soybean sales to China after Beijing […] Read more
Battle of the beans
WINNIPEG/CHICAGO — Monsanto is facing major threats to its historic dominance of seed and herbicide technology for the $40 billion U.S. soybean market. Rivals BASF and DowDuPont are preparing to push their own varieties of genetically modified soybeans. At stake is control over seed supply for the next generation of farmers producing the most valuable […] Read more
U.S. food distributors allege Tyson Foods, rivals fixed chicken prices
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Top U.S. food distributors Sysco Corp and U.S. Foods Inc have sued the country’s biggest chicken processors for allegedly conspiring to inflate prices. The distributors sued companies including Tyson Foods Inc., Pilgrim’s Pride Corp, Sanderson Farms and Perdue Farms in separate complaints filed in federal court on Tuesday. The U.S. chicken sector, […] Read more
U.S. grain companies fear harm from new tax law
CHICAGO, Jan 9 (Reuters) – The new U.S. tax law is poised to drive more control over the nation’s grain supply to farmer-owned cooperatives, provoking concern among ethanol producers and privately run grain handlers that they could be squeezed out of the competition to buy crops. Until now, the cooperatives, private companies and publicly traded […] Read more
Monsanto, U.S. farm groups sue California over glyphosate warnings
CHICAGO, Nov 15 (Reuters) – Monsanto Co. and U.S. farm groups sued California on Wednesday to stop the state from requiring cancer warnings on products containing the widely used weed killer glyphosate, which the company sells to farmers to apply to its genetically engineered crops. The government of the most populous U.S. state added glyphosate, […] Read more
Monsanto halts launch of U.S. seed treatment after users complain of rashes
CHICAGO, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Monsanto Co. has put on hold the launch of a new seed treatment following reports it causes rashes on people. It is the latest instance of complaints about a company product that was approved by U.S. environmental regulators. Monsanto froze plans for commercial sales of the product called NemaStrike, which […] Read more
Dicamba drift complaints strain U.S. state agriculture departments
CHICAGO, Nov 1 (Reuters) – U.S. farmers have overwhelmed state governments with thousands of complaints about crop damage linked to new versions of weed killers, threatening future sales by manufacturers Monsanto Co and BASF SE. Monsanto is banking on herbicides using the chemical dicamba — and seeds engineered to resist it — to dominate soybean […] Read more
U.S. chicken, egg companies heighten security after bird flu case
By Tom Polansek CHICAGO, March 6 (Reuters) – Top U.S. chicken and egg companies ramped up procedures to protect birds from avian flu on Monday, a day after the federal government confirmed the nation’s first case of the virus at a commercial operation in more than a year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on […] Read more
As Trump meets biotech CEOs, farm advisers fret over empty USDA spot
CHICAGO, Jan 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has left the agriculture secretary as the last department head to be named to his Cabinet, while a meeting with the chief executives of two agribusiness giants gave a hint at a roster of farm issues the incoming president will face. Trump met on Wednesday with […] Read more
