Reading Time: 3 minutes BBQ fans, brace yourselves: “Pork butt” will soon be a thing of the past. In an effort to boost sales just ahead of the U.S. grilling season, and make shopping at the meat counter a bit easier, the pork and beef industries are retooling more than 350 names of meat cuts to give them more […] Read more
The language of meat is changing in a bid to boost consumer appeal
What’s in a catchy phrase? Plenty if the term is ‘pink slime’
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters / A year ago, Beef Products Inc. had four state-of-the art plants, more than 1,300 employees and was expanding aggressively. The meat company was the leading maker of “lean finely textured beef,” a low-fat product made from chunks of beef, including trimmings, and exposed to tiny bursts of ammonium hydroxide to kill E. coli […] Read more
PFGBest boss gets 50 years’ jail for fraud
A U.S. judge on Thursday sentenced the founder of Peregrine Financial Group (PFGBest) to 50 years in prison for looting hundreds of millions of dollars from the brokerage, saying his customers would probably never recover the money they lost. Russell Wasendorf Sr., who had tried to kill himself just before the fraud was uncovered last […] Read more
U.S. Thanksgiving turkey dinner to be easy on the wallet
Reading Time: 3 minutes Americans will be able to enjoy relatively cheap Thanksgiving turkeys this year, thanks to many retailers locking in their costs before a drought this year drove up U.S. feed prices. And retailers are determined to keep prices for the traditional Thanksgiving main course as low as possible, even though sky-high corn prices have nearly doubled […] Read more
Iowa farmland sale hits new record high at $21,900 an acre
As the Midwest struggles with the ripple effects of this year’s devastating drought, farmland prices in Iowa hit a new record high on Thursday when an 80.47-acre parcel sold for $21,900 an acre, the auction firm that handled the sale said Friday. The parcel is located in Sioux County near Boyden, Iowa, about 42 miles […] Read more
ABC News seeks federal venue for “pink slime” lawsuit
ABC News sought on Wednesday to move to federal court a meat processor’s defamation lawsuit over reports about lean finely textured beef, a product that critics have labeled "pink slime." Lawyers for the network filed to transfer the case, brought last month by Beef Products Inc., the leading producer of the product, from of a […] Read more
Ego too big to fail, PFG founder admits 20-year fraud
Russell Wasendorf Sr., arrested on Friday, confessed to a 20-year fraud at his now-bankrupt Iowa brokerage, saying business troubles and his "big" ego left him no choice: "So I cheated." In the dramatic conclusion to a week-long saga that has shaken trader confidence in the trillion-dollar U.S. futures markets, authorities released parts of a detailed […] Read more
U.S. beef processor shuts plants over “pink slime”
Beef Products Inc., the top producer of ammonia-treated beef product dubbed "pink slime" by critics, said Monday it had halted production at three of its four plants in three states for 60 days from Monday. Rich Jochum, corporate administrator for the South Dakota-based company, said that the temporary closure could become "a permanent suspension." "This […] Read more
Price and optimism sky high in Iowa
Reading Time: 2 minutes If there is an epicentre of the nation’s farmland boom, it can be found here amid the rolling hills of northwest Iowa. A fortune is being plowed into the dirt of Sioux County, where well-heeled farmers and wealthy investors compete fiercely for some of the most fertile land in the corn belt. Prices across Iowa […] Read more
Farmland boom alters 40-year Iowa corn yield model
In response to surging Midwest farmland prices, researchers in Iowa are overhauling a decades-old formula used to predict corn yields, which will allow farmers and tax officials to more accurately value property. The corn suitability rating (CSR) has long been a Midwestern benchmark to forecast how productive an Iowa farm will be if corn is […] Read more
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