Latest Agribusiness Headlines
All the headlines from our Agribusiness Topic Page, ordered by recency.
AM Best Revises Under Review Status to Positive for Farm Bureau of Arkansas
Feb 19 2025 // AM Best has revised the implications of the under review status to positive from developing for the Financial Strength Rating of B (Fair) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “bb” (Fair) of Farm Bureau...
Farmers Estimates $600M in Losses from LA Wildfires
Feb 19 2025 // Farmers said on Wednesday that it expects losses from the Los Angeles wildfires last month to reach an estimated $600 million. Insurance companies have so far paid out more than $6.9 billion for losses from the biggest two...
In $17M Suit, Cannabis Grower Claims Nearby Farm’s Pesticides Contaminated Its Crops
Feb 19 2025 // A Massachusetts cannabis grower is suing a neighboring berry and vegetable farm for allegedly rendering its entire cannabis harvest unusable by incorrectly spraying chemicals in a way that caused them to drift onto its...
Drought Leaves Canadian Farmers Unpaid, Reveals Holes in Safety Net
Feb 12 2025 // Canadian farmer Bill Prybylski planned to buy a new tractor with proceeds from crops sold to two grain companies in early 2024. He delivered the grain before both companies declared bankruptcy, leaving him short C$165,000...
Police Scramble to Learn Who Stole 100,000 Eggs Worth $40K From Farm Trailer
Feb 10 2025 // Police are trying to crack a whodunit over the heist of 100,000 eggs from the back of a trailer in Antrim Township, Pennsylvania. Regarding the theft that law enforcement officials say could be tied to the sky-high cost of...
Farmers Turn to Airbnb, Corn Mazes to Outlast Agricultural Downturn
Feb 10 2025 // A dead-end dirt road cutting through rural Wisconsin leads to a pasture dotted with shaggy-coated Highland cattle, fluffy Icelandic sheep and a vintage Airstream trailer that farmer Brit Thompson turned into an Airbnb to...
Farmers Ruined by PFAS Face Key Moment in Fight Against Pentagon
Feb 6 2025 // Neither Art nor Renee Schaap could bear to stay on their dairy farm in Curry County, New Mexico, in April 2022 as employees put down the last of their cattle, shooting 1,000 in the head one by one with .22 caliber...
Texas Dairy, Poultry Producers Grapple With Bird Flu
Jan 31 2025 // Just as quickly as the bird flu is spreading, the virus is changing. Nearly three years ago, a flock of pheasants in Erath County became the first case of the bird flu in Texas. Since then, the bird flu has mutated across...
Avian Flu Could Shutter Long Island’s Last Duck Farm
Jan 29 2025 // New York’s Long Island was once synonymous with “duck” in the culinary world. Now it may lose its last commercial farm. The avian flu outbreak that has led to the slaughter of millions of birds at U.S....
Kansas Cattle Farms Fined for Clean Water Act Violations
Jan 27 2025 // Cattle feedlot operators Wickstrum Farms Inc. and Wickstrum Cattle LLC of Pottawatomie County, Kansas, will pay a combined $70,000 in civil penalties to resolve alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act. According...
Crop Trader Declares Force Majeure Along US Gulf During Rare Southern Snow
Jan 24 2025 // One of the world’s biggest crop traders has halted loading of grain vessels at US Gulf terminals as the region’s worst snowstorm in 130 years slams the region. Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. declared force majeure...
Descartes Launches Parametric Tornado Coverage for Solar Farms
Jan 23 2025 // Descartes Underwriting has announced the launch of a parametric insurance product to protect utility-scale solar farms against tornado damage. According to a press release, the coverage uses satellite data and analytics to...
South Dakota Bill to Protect Farms From Spying Could Limit Access to Data
Jan 22 2025 // Proposed legislation aimed at protecting South Dakota farmers from potential “agro-terrorism” activities could have a secondary effect of limiting access to some information about the state’s largest...
Deere & Co. Accused of Forcing Farmers to Use Authorized Dealers for Equipment Repair
Jan 17 2025 // Deere & Co. unfairly forces farmers to visit authorized dealers to repair their equipment, resulting in higher prices than if they could fix it themselves or get help from independent shops, the Federal Trade...
Damaging Megadroughts Are Spreading Around the World
Jan 17 2025 // Severe drought conditions have helped fuel the Los Angeles wildfires. But a new study, released Thursday in the journal Nature comes with a warning: Climate change is making catastrophic, multiyear...
France Steps Up Checks After Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak in Germany
Jan 17 2025 // France has reinforced checks for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and issued alerts to veterinarians after an outbreak of the highly contagious virus was detected in cattle in Germany last week, prompting trade bans from...
Perdue Farms to Pay $4 Million For Letting Children Work Hazardous Jobs
Jan 17 2025 // Perdue Farms will pay $4 million in restitution after it employed children in hazardous occupations at a Virginia plant and let them work past 7 p.m. during the regular school week, the U.S. Department of Labor announced...
A Los Angeles Actuary on Lessons From the Palisades Fire
Jan 16 2025 // I watched as the skies over my home in Los Angeles turned an apocalyptic orange on January 7, 2025, as wildfires raged across the state. Among the most devastating, the Palisades Fire consumed thousands of acres, leaving a...
USDA Halts Mexican Cattle Imports, Impacting Millions in Texas Livestock Industry
Jan 13 2025 // A single cow in Mexico and a pest the size of a housefly have held up pens full of Texas-bound cattle worth millions of dollars for the past six weeks. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has banned Mexican cattle imports...
Winter Weather Wallops US Farmers
Jan 10 2025 // A nasty dose of winter weather has pummeled much of the U.S. from Kansas to the East Coast, leaving many Americans to dig out of the blizzard — including farmers. And more is on the way, with the polar air expected to...
