Top Agriculture News

As the agriculture sector works through 2025, producers across the country are closely watching the shifting dynamics of the ag economy. With inflationary pressures, lower commodity prices, and a tightening cost-price squeeze, many are asking, “What’s the financial outlook for farming as we continue through 2025?” Joe Springer, Managing Director of Ag Lending and Insurance […]

My mother-in-law, Jean Reeves, was smart, hard-working, industrious, caring and pretty. She loved gardening, and taught her equally pretty daughters about vegetables and flowers and how they co-exist in nature. When I fell in love with Melissa, I also fell in love with her parents’ extraordinary and expansive dairy farm. The vegetable garden was always spacious, pristine and yummy. Jean’s talent for growing flowers was equally as impressive. Her sizable zinnia garden was memorable for the vivid colors. I think a low flying plane would have flown around to get another look.

Federal inspectors will assume direct oversight of a Boar’s Head deli meat plant when it reopens after an deadly listeria outbreak. The plant in Jarratt, Virginia, is set to reopen in the coming months. It will face at least 90 days of heightened monitoring and testing. That work will be overseen by federal Food Safety and Inspection Service officials, rather than state inspectors who operated previously on behalf of the agency. The change underscores the severity of problems at the troubled plant. Boar’s Head officials say they are cooperating with state and federal agencies.

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University will commemorate the 135th anniversary of the Second Morrill Act with a series of milestone events throughout the 2025-26 academic year, highlighting its legacy as a land-grant institution and celebrating the contributions of small-scale farmers, student researchers and agricultural innovation. The College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES) […]

What a weeklong weather story Hurricane Erin has been. We’ve got state assistant climatologist Corey Davis here. Corey, what have been the impacts along the coastline from Erin as it’s starting to move away from the North Carolina and South Carolina coast? “Well, you said it, Kyle. We’re watching Hurricane Erin pull off to the […]

Late summer and early fall are a great time to enjoy the harvest from various seasonal fruit trees, vines, and even bogs. So, what does potential protection for some of these crops look like this year, according to the USDA outlook? Anthony Prillaman of the National Agricultural Statistics Service starts with apples. “Production is estimated […]

Finding enough labor is a key concern for U.S. agriculture, especially in the fruit and vegetable sector. Oregon farmer Mike McCarthy said produce growers have no option to automate labor functions like many other types of farmers or ranchers. “Many people who grow fruit and vegetables in the United States have not been able to […]

As someone who proudly declares, “I’m very partial to doing a charcuterie board,” USDA food safety expert Meredith Carothers lives up to the title. Her expertise is especially timely as we head into the final stretch of the year—think football tailgates, holiday parties, and cozy family gatherings. But beyond the beautiful spreads, Meredith brings something […]

RODANTHE, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Erin is strengthening again and forecasters say it could re-intensify into a major hurricane. The storm is creeping toward the mid-Atlantic coast and churning up menacing waves that have closed beaches from the Carolinas to New York City. It’s expected to peak over the next 48 hours. Erin is unlikely to make landfall along the East Coast before turning farther out to sea. But authorities are warning that its large swells will cut off roads on North Carolina’s Outer Banks and whip up life-threatening rip currents from Florida to New England. The National Hurricane Center is watching two more clusters of storms to the east of Erin.

RODANTHE, N.C. (AP) — From Florida to New England, people trying to enjoy some of the last hurrahs of summer along the East Coast have been met with rip-current warnings, closed beaches and in some cases already treacherous waves as Hurricane Erin inches closer. Forecasters expect the center of the monster storm to remain far offshore. But the outer edges are likely to bring high winds, large swells and life-threatening rip currents. The biggest swells along the East Coast could come as early as Wednesday. Authorities are prohibiting people from swimming in beaches in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey and Delaware.