Big Players
Prices may head lower in 2009, as processed food makers look to stimulate demand in weak economy. Long-term trends pushing food prices higher - growing global demand, increasing flow of grains to fuel production - may hibernate as world's economy slows. Economist predicts food inflation rate will fall to about 4 percent.
By Mike Hughlett
Chicago Tribune 2008-12-26 (entry)
With FDA OK of herb stevia as a zero-calorie sweetener, Coca-Cola introduces Sprite Green and Pepsi launches three flavors of a zero-calorie SoBe Lifewater, plans March launch of Trop50, an orange-juice drink. And: Such sweeteners are key in reversing sales decline of carbonated soft drinks, says Pepsi head (click 'See also').
By Betsy McKay
The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2008-12-18 (entry)
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Tom Vilsack's selection as Obama's USDA secretary may be 'agribusiness as usual,' since words 'food' or 'eaters' unspoken in news conference, says Michael Pollan, author. Food system responsible for one-third greenhouse gases, 'catastrophic' diet that causes chronic disease in half the U.S. population and drives up health care costs (click 'See also'). Food must be included in plan to address climate change, energy independence, health care.
By Renee Montagne
National Public Radio/Morning Edition 2008-12-18 (entry)
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Pilgrim's Pride seeks protection of bankruptcy court after battling year of volatile feed, fuel costs, low poultry prices, and drop in demand from restaurants. And: Tyson, Perdue, Sanderson, Wayne are other big poultry players (click 'See also').
By Miriam Marcus
Forbes.com 2008-12-01 (entry)
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Palm oil production surges with population; one in 10 processed food items contains it and it's a source of biodiesel. Plantations planned in Brazil; S. Korea owns rights to half the available farmland of Madagascar, much of it rainforest, and plans corn, palm plantations. Slash-and-burn expansion of Cargill crop spews carbon, replaces tribal homelands, displaces orangutans, destroys rainforests - and raises farmers' living standards. And: 'Our Hungry Planet' series (click 'See also).
By Matt McKinney
Star-Tribune (MN) (may require registration) 2008-11-30 (entry)
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Melamine has pervaded U.S. food system. It's added to fertilizer and accumulates in the farm fields. Last year, millions ate chicken that had been fed tainted gluten from China; Tyson Foods butchered hogs that had eaten tainted feed too. Meat was not recalled. China melamine scandal is opportunity for U.S. to pass fertilizer standards and to test for chemical.
By James E. McWilliams
The New York Times 2008-11-17 (entry)
In 'King Corn,' college pals follow the trail of the ubiquitous grain into the U.S. food supply.
Corn was sole food for all chicken, 93 percent of beef in 486 servings of food from McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's in six states, study shows. Environmentalist predicts that corn-based biofuels mandate could push industrial farmers to soy-based feeds. And: 'King Corn' documentary follows myriad paths of corn into food supply (click 'See also').
By Catherine Brahic
New Scientist 2008-11-10 (entry)
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Equating water pollution, other lapses with cheating on customers, Wal-Mart announces new supplier standards, including ban on child labor, forced labor and pay below local minimum wage. New rules also will include audits of factories for working conditions and compliance with standards regarding water, air, land pollution and waste disposal. Critic says incentives to cheat include pressure to offer low prices, plus lucrative, long-term contracts.
By Stephanie Rosenbloom
International Herald Tribune 2008-10-22 (entry)
Government's dash to effectively repeal key water protections during mountaintop removal coal mining likely a response to presidential candidates' opposition to environmentally ruinous practice. In 2002, EPA rewrote rules that had prohibited use of mining waste as 'fill' in streams, wetlands. And: Rubble from mountaintop removal fouls drinking water, kills fish (click 'See also').
The editors
The New York Times 2008-10-21 (entry)
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Monsanto reports increased profits of $2 billion; seed revenues rose from $4.9 billion in 2007 to $6.4 billion in 2008. Sales of Roundup, other glyphosate herbicides climbed from $2.6 billion last year to $4.1 billion in latest year. Greater grain demand drives need for more yield, more yield requires more innovation and companies that innovate will grow, says chairman.
By Dan Piller
The Des Moines Register 2008-10-08 (entry)
Florida's celebrated decision (click 'See also') to buy U.S. Sugar to
restore Everglades may help Fanjul family's Florida
Crystals. Critics say $1.7 billion deal is bailout to replace federal props as foreign sugar moves in. Fanjuls control Domino, C&H and other brands, put sugar in everything from packaged foods to pharmaceuticals.
By Mary Williams Walsh
The New York Times 2008-09-13 (entry)
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Smithfield Foods pulls NASCAR sponsorship, citing rising corn and oil prices. The pork producer had supported Bobby Hamilton Jr. and his No. 25 Ford in the Nationwide Series, but, like other meat businesses, it faces high input costs, sagging demand and an oversupply that is keeping meat prices low (click 'See also').
By Tom Kreager
The Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 2008-09-19 (entry)
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Food processing firms plug one food into another, claim health benefits of both. But new 'functional foods' don't have rigorous studies behind them, unlike those that added vitamin B to flour (reduced rates of pellagra), added vitamin D to milk (eliminated rickets). Benefit to eating fish might not be omega-3 fatty acids, but that you're eating less steak, says nutritionist.
By Julia Moskin
The New York Times 2008-09-16 (entry)
Kraft to become first food producer on Dow Jones Industrial Average when it replaces American International Group. Stocks added to DJIA index are considered leaders in their industries. And: Kraft's new green initiative includes biomethane plant, which turns methane waste from cheese production into energy at New York site (click 'See also').
The Associated Press; Chicago Tribune 2008-09-18 (entry)
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Monsanto raises earnings outlook after aggressively raising prices of genetically modified corn seed and its matching weedkiller. Agribusiness firm's stock is up 48 percent from a year ago. Lower net income projection reflects settlement with chemical maker Solutia Inc., and writeoffs after buying De Ruiter Seeds. And: Monsanto breaks ground for a new GMO corn seed plant in Iowa (click 'See also').
By Lauren Etter
The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2008-09-17 (entry)
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United Airlines plans October price hike to $9 for boxes containing salads and sandwiches on longer flights and won't offer free snacks on flights of two to three hours. Airline also will charge for meals on most flights to Europe. Price of jet fuel has jumped 52 percent during the past year; industry's combined losses could reach $10 billion this year.
By Mary Schlangenstein
bloomberg.com 2008-08-19 (entry)
ConAgra Foods CEO compensation down 41 percent to $7.9 million in 2008 fiscal year. Board cites uneven performance and blames commodity costs and two recalls: pot pie and peanut butter. Company shifting focus to packaged items, including Healthy Choice, Chef Boyardee and Egg Beaters.
By Christopher Leonard
The Associated Press; The Boston Globe 2008-08-15 (entry)
Rice farmers' suits against maker of biotech rice too dissimilar to consolidate into class-action, judge rules. After Bayer CropScience's Liberty Link rice contaminated public food supply in 2006, mostly likely from plot at Louisiana State University, some countries temporarily banned U.S. rice exports, drying up foreign markets and causing drop in U.S. rice price.
The Associated Press; International Herald Tribune 2008-08-14 (entry)
After shoppers and businesses shun biotech hormone that increases milk yields, agribusiness giant Monsanto looks to sell its Posilac business. Company says it will focus on its genetically modified seed. And: Sale of business means sale of Georgia facility, which employs 200 (click 'See also').
By David Biello
Scientific American 2008-08-07 (entry)
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In her latest book, journalist Felicity Lawrence takes an engaging, restless look at Cargill, Unilever and others who decide what we eat and how they persuade us to buy in the name of choice, health and, increasingly, the environment. If there is a flaw in the book, it's not getting close enough to genius of capitalism - how it makes us want what it has to sell.
By Fred Pearce
The Guardian (UK) 2008-07-05 (entry)
Tyson wrestles with costs of grain in chicken farming and ingredients for processed and pre-cooked items. Tyson has raised prices, closed a Kansas factory, cut 1,500 jobs. It also faced bird-flu scare, floods in Midwest and was required by USDA to pull a 'raised without antibiotics' label off some chickens (Tyson is suing over decision). And: corn price was 69 percent higher on average during the quarter than a year earlier (click 'See also').
By David Benoit
The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2008-07-28 (entry)
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Strong demand for corn, soybeans (click 'See also'), pushes DuPont
quarterly earnings higher than expected. Its $9 billion revenue aided
by global agriculture boom, which offset weak performance in housing,
automotive markets. Delaware-based chemical company sells genetically
modified seeds, other agriculture products.
By Euan Rocha
Reuters 2008-07-22 (entry)
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Farm/food bill will protect sugar industry from free trade. Bill also will require government to buy sugar at inflated rates and sell it cheaply for ethanol production. Sugar policy estimated to cost taxpayers $1.9 billion a year in high prices, plus another $1 billion-plus in the next decade for other programs used to prop up prices.
By Jay Hancock
The Baltimore Sun 2008-05-16 (entry)
As UN faces $755 million shortfall for World Food Program, Archer Daniels Midland and other agribusiness giants report record profits. Other winners: Monsanto, which makes genetically modified seed and complementary weedkiller; Deere & Co., which makes tractors; and Mosaic Co., a fertilizer maker. And: Spot shortages and prices of fertilizer, worldwide, threaten progress in battle against malnutrition and hunger (click 'See also').
By David Kesmodel, Lauren Etter and Aaron O. Patrick
The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2008-04-30 (entry)
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With growth of its Polish wheat processing factory, Cargill completes three-pronged push after last month's new wheat processing plant in Manchester, UK, and a $60 million investment in Russian operations in 2006. The Wroclow site will produce sweeteners such as glucose and fructose and wheat gluten for U.S. food, animal feed industries.
By Charlotte Eyre
Confectionery News 2008-04-24 (entry)
Cadbury Schweppes to drop use of six artificial colors by end of 2008. Action comes after Southampton study (click 'See also') suggests links of behavioral problems in children to additives. Major step by leading confectionery company in Western Europe could spur others into action as pressure mounts on manufacturers to reformulate their products.
By Laura Crowley
Confectionery News 2008-04-14 (entry)
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From its origins as a saccharin manufacturer, Monsanto has grown to global giant, dominating commodity seed stocks, buying seed companies and suing farmers it suspects of saving seed from last year. It is potentially responsible for more than 40 EPA Superfund pollution sites after longtime production of chemicals and byproducts, including PCBs and dioxins, and is fighting the labeling of milk that isn't from cows injected with its artificial milk-increasing hormone.
By Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele
Vanity Fair 2008-05-01 (entry)
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Facing unprecedented costs for ingredients, some food makers manage surges by buying long-term contracts for delivery from grain giants Cargill or Archer Daniels-Midland. But some producers don't, for fear of being locked into high prices. Milk costs can't be hedged - there's only so much cold storage available.
By Matt Andrejczak
The Wall Street Journal (may require subscription) 2008-03-24 (entry)
Cargill meat packing plant in Arkansas burns after welding work on Easter Sunday afternoon; no injuries reported. Plant employed about 800 and was Booneville's largest employer. It produced more than two million pounds of ground beef and steak per week and had just undergone a $40 million expansion.
By Tom Parsons
The Associated Press; Chicago Tribune 2008-03-23 (entry)
General Mills boosts profit, sales despite skyrocketing grain prices. Maker of Cheerios, Nature Valley, Progresso soups and Yoplait spends more on advertising and sampling; CEO says company will raise prices when necessary, and continue reducing costs and introducing higher-margin products.
By Julie Jargon
The Wall Street Journal (may require subscription) 2008-03-20 (entry)
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Michigan State University
Click 'See also' to see the changing landscape of organics as existing companies are gobbled by bigger food companies and multinational conglomerates make their own versions of popular foods. Here's the key: organic brands are green; multinational food processors, yellow; investment firms, blue; organic versions of mainstream brands, red.
By Tara Parker-Pope
The New York Times 2008-03-19 (entry)
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Faith-based investors' group launches web campaign (click 'See also') to boycott genetically modified sugar beets, citing 'weak governmental review and oversight, and the lack of long-term, independent and peer-reviewed safety studies.' Pre-written letter for visitors to send to food companies urges public opposition to unlabeled GM sugar from Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beets. Environmental groups have filed lawsuit to prevent spring planting.
By Chris Jones
Food Navigator 2008-03-05 (entry)
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World's largest beef processor in talks to buy third U.S. beef firm in a year. If deals go through, Brazil's JBS would become the largest U.S. meat packer, with ability to kill more than 42,500 cows daily. Second is Cargill Meat Solutions, with capacity to kill 29,000 cattle per day. News comes amid concerns about meat safety after Hallmark/Westland beef recall.
By Matthew Karnitschnig
The Wall Street Journal (may require subscription) 2008-03-05 (entry)
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Massive beef recall tests food companies' ability to track supplies. Heinz learns by its own sleuthing that its Boston Market lasagna with meat sauce contained recalled beef; General Mills put a team on the question to learn of five days in which Hallmark/Westland beef was added to canned soup. After 9/11 attacks, new laws to block bioterrorism required companies to trace their production forward and back.
By Julie Jargon
The Wall Street Journal (may require subscription) 2008-03-04 (entry)
Though agribusiness giants have strict policy against child labor, children in India often found working in pesticide-treated vegetable and cotton fields for Monsanto, Syngenta and Bayer to produce genetically modified seeds. UN International Labor Organization estimates 218 million child laborers worldwide, 7 in 10 of them in agriculture.
By Megha Bahree
Forbes magazine 2008-03-10 (entry)
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Tyson Foods fires several workers in two plants after animal rights group goes undercover and films what appears to be abuse of chickens in slaughterhouses. Group reported concerns to USDA in mid-January, then posted video online. USDA spokesperson says there is no rule for humane handling of poultry, as there is for cows and pigs.
By Elizabeth Lee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (may require subscription) 2008-02-16 (entry)
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Sugar industry, banking on customers' diminished resistance to genetically modified foods, plans big crop of Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beets engineered to tolerate the company's weedkiller. Food safety groups sue, pointing out risks of cross-pollination with table beets and Swiss chard. A similar lawsuit, using similar arguments, stopped the planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa last year.
By Dan Charles
National Public Radio 2008-02-14 (entry)
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Stock strategists see sunny future for corn, wheat and soybeans, as well as for agribusiness giants Monsanto, Potash Corporation and Archer Daniels Midland. Reasons include rise in crop prices, diversion of land for growing biofuels crops, and increase in food consumption in emerging markets, particularly in Asia - a 'fight between feeding people, cattle and cars.'
By J. Alex Tarquinio
The New York Times 2008-02-10 (entry)
With integrated North American market finally in place, domestic sugar growers scheme instead to rewrite trade treaty and create continent-wide cartel. Sugar lobby, one of world's richest and most destructive special interests, wants fixed prices, limited exports and imports, U.S.-Mexico oversight commission, and limit on sugar from third countries - at taxpayer expense.
The editors
The Wall Street Journal 2008-01-23 (entry)
As McDonald's adds baristas and coffee bars, new CEO takes over at Starbucks and plans to refocus, concentrating on expanding overseas, closing poor-performing stores domestically, improving the customer experience and maintaining quality of coffee and ethics of purchasing.
By Janet Adamy
The Wall Street Journal 2008-01-07 (entry)
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Demand in Brazil and Argentina for Roundup herbicide and genetically modified seed pushes Monsanto stock to all-time high, and company considers expanding production. Its cash flow shows that U.S. farmers are buying corn seed early for springtime planting.
By Christopher Hinton
Marketwatch 2008-01-03 (entry)
Hershey, Cadbury and Nestle investigated for alleged "anti-competitive practices in the chocolate-confectionary industry" in Canada. Hershey, based in Pennsylvania, makes Hershey's bars and Skor; Cadbury, of London, makes Dairy Milk and Fruit & Nut; Nestle, of Vevey, Switzerland, makes KitKat and Coffee Crisp candies.
By Kevin Bell
Bloomberg News 2007-11-28 (entry)
After filling politicians' coffers and nurturing alliances with Democratic-leaning labor unions, sugar lobby sees Congressional legislation that would keep our sugar prices well above world levels and sugar subsidies that would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year.
By Dan Morgan
Daily Globe (MN) 2007-11-06 (entry)
Slashing commodities subsidies addresses only a symptom, not the problem of the farm/food bill. Real reform in federal farm policy will come from changing the message to farmers, which, since the early '70s has increasingly been: Produce as much as you can."
By Tom Philpott
Grist 2007-11-08 (entry)
China approves, in principle, new food safety law designed to standardize production, processing, sale and supervision; law also requires better release of information about food safety, higher fines and punishments and public's right to sue.
By Ben Blanchard
Reuters 2007-10-31 (entry)
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Federal investigators suspect large American food companies, including Sara Lee and ConAgra, may have overcharged for supplies to troops in Iraq. The investigation also questions whether Agility Logistics, the firm that distributes the food, took improper payments from food companies.
By Eric Schmitt, Andrew Martin
International Herald Tribune 2007-10-18 (entry)
Despite strong community opposition, European Union OKs imports of genetically modified corn and sugar beet for human and animal food; varieties were developed by subsidiary of DuPont, a unit of Dow Chemical, Monsanto and a German plant breeding company, KWS SAAT and taps into the $6 billion biotech crop market.
Bloomberg News; Reuters; International Herald Tribune 2007-10-24 (entry)
Monsanto and Dow agree to stack designer-modified bug-killing, herbicide-resisting genes in corn seed, with eye on maximum yields; with 93 million acres dedicated to crop in U.S., critics worry about unintended deaths of insects beneficial to ecosystem and soil.
By Ana Campoy
Wall Street Journal 0000-00-00 (entry)
Keeping the organic label pure may be tough to do as Wal-Mart and other behemoths are ramping up; already the industry is split between true ideals (localism and sustainability, in addition to no pesticides) and those willing to sacrifice for growth.
By Jake Whitney
San Francisco Chronicle 2007-01-28 (entry)
"The Price of Sugar" focuses documentary lens on Dominican Republic and horrific conditions of mostly Haitian illegal immigrant sugar cane workers there, then tells story of Catholic priest who sets out to improve their lot.
By Stephen Farber
The Hollywood Reporter 2007-08-23 (entry)
Grand Forks city council says sugar beet residue won't smell so sweet, and bans its dumping on rented land west of the city; American Crystal Sugar Co., disagrees, saying that the sugar, which causes odor as it decays, will be gone.
The Associated Press; The Bismarck Tribune 0000-00-00 (entry)
Genetically modified sugar beet seed designed to resist Monsanto herbicide is gaining popularity among growers and processors, including American Crystal Sugar Co.; Wyoming Sugar Co., and Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative; farmers must pay $60 premium per acre, and GMO sugar won't carry special label.
Associated Press; CNN 2007-08-22 (entry)
In groundbreaking presidential report, cancer panel calls down governmental polices that have made fruits and vegetables more expensive and less available, have limited physical education in schools and created an environment that discourages physical activity; food industry with its unhealthy food sales implicated as well.
MSNBC; Reuters 2007-08-16 (entry)
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Though customers spend more than $14 billion a year on organics and depend on USDA label even for imports, USDA infrastructure, with nine staffers and a $1.5 million budget, languishes; other departments spend about $28 million a year on organic research, data collection and farmer assistance, but the department spent $37 million subsidizing farmers who grew dry peas, an $83 million crop, in 2005.
By Andrew Martin
The New York Times (may require subscription) 0000-00-00 (entry)
Judging from plastic bottles clogging the landfills and SUVs clogging the highways, the news that we're killing ourselves and our world hasn't kicked in, so that makes "The 11th Hour," an unnerving, surprisingly affecting documentary, essential viewing.
By Manohla Dargis
The New York Times 2007-08-17 (entry)
Bush administration's plan for fines, sanctions against growers whose workers have improper documentation could be devastating to the coming fall harvest, and could encourage an underground economy, California farmers say.
By Ashley Gebb
Appeal-Democrat (CA) 2007-08-14 (entry)
CARE turns down $45 million in food aid from U.S., citing practice of selling tons of often heavily subsidized American farm products in African countries that compete with the crops of local farmers; other charities disagree.
By Celia W. Dugger
The New York Times (may require subscription) (entry)
Humane Society targets Wendy's for its egg-buying choices, comparing it unfavorably to Burger King, which is phasing in cage-free policy; company responds that its interests are focused on welfare of chickens and pigs, the meat of which they buy in larger quantities.
By Monique Curet and Tracy Turner
The Columbus Dispatch (entry)
To irrigate crops, farmers have pumped billions of gallons annually from the Ogallala Aquifer, a lake under parts of Great Plains states, but now, water table has dropped steeply, forcing new "dryland" methods of farming for conservation.
By Debbie Elliott
National Public Radio (entry)
When discount superstore partnership enters India through wholesale stores, obstacles will include supply chain made up of mostly small shopkeepers, long chains of middlemen, each of whom takes a cut, and up to 60 percent waste during food transport.
Wall Street Journal (may require subscription) (entry)
With growing rates of obesity in mind, FTC issues 44 subpoenas to food and beverage companies to learn how they advertise their wares to children; similar studies undertaken in the past with alcohol and tobacco companies.
By Mary Jane Credeur and Chris Burritt
bloomberg.com 2007-08-11 (entry)
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In "Twinkie, Deconstructed," Steve Ettlinger describes the work of making unnecessarily complicated snacks; the book is the polar opposite (complete with smiley face) of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," Michael Pollan's frowny faced take on simplifying food.
By Chelsea Martinez
Los Angeles Times (entry)
With ethanol craze and escalating corn prices taking all the attention, worldwide drought has gone almost unnoticed, but it is driving wheat prices up; breadmakers are paying more for flour and weak dollar makes U.S. wheat attractive.
By Jeff Cox
CNNMoney.com (entry)
Bush administration's buy-local request for emergency food aid could help Kenyans, some of the world's poorest people, advocates say, but U.S. is mired in domestic farm subsidies and lobbies of shipping interests; aid for agricultural projects lags as well.
By Celia W. Dugger
The New York times (may require subscription) (entry)
New interactive map allows users to tract proliferation of factory farms by state and county - even number of animals - and it raises questions of whether we pursue the logic of industrialism to its limits, and how badly will it harm the landscape, the people who live in it and democracy itself?
The editors
The New York Times (may require subscription) (entry)
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Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Läckeby Water Group join other food, drink producers in UN agreement to use water more efficiently; lack of access to clean water and sanitation undermines humanitarian, social, environmental, and economic goals.
By Ahmed ElAmin
foodproductiondaily.com (entry)
Cargill's attempt to add Regenasure, a vegetarian version of shellfish-derived glucosamine, to European list of food products for addition in mostly beverages and fermented milk products, hits snag with questions of safety for diabetics.
By Alex McNally
nutraingredients.com (entry)
Despite activists' efforts to bamboozle public, price-conscious customers appear happy buying milk containing synthetic hormone, and squeezing more milk from cows via drugs saves natural resources, reduces corn prices, greenhouse gas emissions and manure production; in a more rational world, customers would choose milk so labeled.
By Henry I. Miller
The New York Times (may require subscription) 2007-06-29 (entry)
