Articles by Jen Skerritt and Lydia Mulvany

Meat Workers Taking Leave, Quitting as Plants Reopen Amid Coronavirus Scare

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 …

New Firm’s Services for Consolidated Dairy Industry Include Crop Insurance

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 …

Farmers Grow to Like Crop of Technologies Helping Them Manage Weather Risk

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 …

Monsanto Has Another Legally Risky Chemical Product

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 …

California’s $58B Wine Industry Hit by Wildfires

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 …

EPA Official Allegedly Aided Monsanto in Fight Against Roundup Cancer Study

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 …

Bird Flu Found in Indiana Turkey Flock

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 …

Cargill to Sell Crop Insurance Business to Silveus

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 …

Bird Flu Has Midwest Farmers Building Fences, Hosing Down Visitors

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 …