May 6, 2020
America’s meat-processing plants are starting to reopen but not all workers are showing up. Some still fear they’ll get sick after coronavirus outbreaks shut more than a dozen facilities last month. Employees are taking leave, paid and unpaid — or …
October 2, 2019
Two traditional U.S. Midwest brokerages serving the dairy market are combining their businesses as the industry consolidates. Chicago-based Rice Dairy LLC and Commodity Risk Management Group of Platteville, Wisconsin, are partnering to form a company with about 1,700 clients, the …
April 16, 2019
When surprise hailstorms hit the 6,000 acres Trevor Scherman plants each year with peas, wheat, canola and lentils, his first move isn’t to his truck to assess the damage. These days, it’s to his iPad. Nine mini-weather stations from the …
August 21, 2018
Some Bayer AG investors were surprised to learn about the thousands of farmers lining up before U.S. courts to argue that Roundup — the blockbuster weedkiller the German company recently acquired when it bought Monsanto Co. — had given them …
October 11, 2017
The fires ravaging Northern California stand to leave the area’s renowned wine industry with damage that will be felt long after the final flames burn out. At least four Napa Valley vineyards have been destroyed or significantly damaged, and the …
March 16, 2017
The Environmental Protection Agency official who was in charge of evaluating the cancer risk of Monsanto Co.’s Roundup allegedly bragged to a company executive that he deserved a medal if he could kill another agency’s investigation into the herbicide’s key …
January 19, 2016
The U.S. government confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic H7N8 avian influenza in a commercial turkey flock in Indiana, the country’s first case since the end of last year’s outbreak that led to the destruction of 50 million animals. The …
December 30, 2015
Cargill Inc. agreed to sell its crop insurance unit, the latest move by the giant U.S. agricultural commodity trader and producer to reshape its business amid low crop prices. The insurance operation will be sold to Silveus Insurance Group, Minneapolis-based …
October 2, 2015
In Iowa, one of the largest U.S. egg processors has started to buy foreign supplies for the first time. Elsewhere in the Midwest, a free-range egg producer says it may build automatic car washes to scour vehicles accessing its 60 …