Washington | Reuters — Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren took aim on Wednesday at agricultural conglomerates, promising her administration would break up big agribusiness mergers that she said have hurt family farmers. Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts and a fierce Wall Street critic, released a broad plan that she said would make it easier […] Read more
Democratic contender Warren targets corporate agriculture
Crop and calf insurance premiums are down this year
The cost of crop insurance is nine per cent lower, although where you live and what you grow makes a difference
Reading Time: 2 minutes Most crop producers will see lower crop insurance premium rates this year, says the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation. And cow-calf producers will see reduced premiums for the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program, too. On average, 2019 crop insurance premium rates are nine per cent lower than last year, AFSC said in a news release. It […] Read more
Grain trade regional tie-ups seen more likely over mega-deals
Paris | Reuters — The agricultural trading industry can expect more consolidation at a regional level in an effort to improve margins, but big deals between global merchants are becoming more difficult, Louis Dreyfus’ CEO said. Merchants have been grappling with lower profits from sourcing and shipping commodities such as grain and oilseeds, prompting cutbacks […] Read more
U.S. farmers face devastation following Midwest floods
Winslow, Neb./Chicago | Reuters — Midwestern farmers have been gambling they could ride out the U.S.-China trade war by storing their corn and soybeans anywhere they could — in bins, plastic tubes, in barns or even outside. Now, the unthinkable has happened. Record floods have devastated a wide swath of the Farm Belt across Iowa, […] Read more
Second U.S. jury finds Bayer’s Roundup caused cancer
Reuters — A U.S. jury on Tuesday found Bayer’s glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide caused cancer, a blow to the company eight months after another jury issued a US$289 million verdict over similar claims in a different case. Tuesday’s unanimous jury decision in San Francisco federal court, which came after five days of deliberation, was not a […] Read more
U.S. farm belt slammed by floods, heavy snow from bomb cyclone
Reuters — A harsh late-winter storm broadsided a vast swath of the U.S. agriculture industry this week as heavy snow closed roads and buried cattle in the Plains while excessive rain flooded Midwest fields and swamped grain elevators. A “bomb cyclone” hurled hurricane-force winds, sparked tornadoes and dumped heavy snow and rain across the Plains […] Read more
Manitoba farmers unfazed by flood reports
MarketsFarm — As experts forecast a spring flood to hit southern Manitoba, farmers in the Red River Valley won’t be caught off guard. Manitoba’s Emergency Measures Organization held flood preparedness seminars in Morris, Brandon, and Selkirk throughout the week of March 11. Topics covered included the forecast, flood outlook, preparedness and response and disaster financial […] Read more
Trump’s EPA unveils plan to pump up ethanol as Big Oil cries foul
Reuters — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released its proposed rule lifting a summer ban on higher-ethanol blends of gasoline to help farmers, putting the agency on a collision course with Big Oil which has called the move illegal. The proposal to broaden sales of the so-called E15 rule marks the latest flashpoint […] Read more
Trump budget proposes steep subsidy cuts to U.S. farmers
Washington | Reuters — U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2020 budget on Monday proposed a 15 per cent cut for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, calling its subsidies to farmers “overly generous” at a time when they are going through the worst crisis in decades because of depressed commodity prices and Trump’s trade tariffs. The Republican […] Read more
Alberta input retail chain expands westward reach
A pair of independent crop input retail outlets in west-central Alberta will be networking with seven others by month-end. Crop Management Network (CMN), a joint venture between an employee-owned network of retail outlets and La Coop federee’s Agrico Canada arm, announced Wednesday it has reached a deal to buy Performance Ag Group. Performance Ag, which […] Read more
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