Top Agriculture News

Finding adequate labor for agriculture may be the biggest challenge facing farmers today. Will the new administration help find answers? Chuck Conner, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, says it’s a problem everyone recognizes. “Whether it’s tax, farm bill, you name it, you know, sometimes you have some outliers. In the […]

Even in hardship, we have so much to celebrate and be thankful for this holiday season. We live in a state whose farmers provide a significant part of our Thanksgiving meal.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has kicked off his final holiday season at the White House, issuing the traditional reprieve to two turkeys who will bypass the Thanksgiving table to live out their days in Minnesota. The president welcomed 2,500 guests under sunny skies as he cracked jokes about the fates of “Peach” and “Blossom.” He also sounded wistful tones about the last weeks of his presidency. Later Monday, first lady Jill Biden will receive delivery of the official White House Christmas tree. And the Bidens will travel to New York to help serve a holiday meal at a Coast Guard station.

The American Farm Bureau Federation sent out volunteer shoppers to calculate the cost of a typical Thanksgiving Day meal for ten people. Bernt Nelson, an economist for AFBF, talks about what they found. “So, according to our volunteer shoppers, the average cost of a Thanksgiving meal for 10 people is $58.08 or about $5.80 a […]

The Cartner family had known since last year that one of their farm’s Christmas trees would be headed to the White House this winter, but then Hurricane Helene struck Avery County in western North Carolina, where Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm has stood for decades. Though the farm lost thousands of trees to a mud slide, […]

The Culture Celebrator is one of seven consumer segments identified in an in-depth consumer segmentation study completed by the National Pork Board. Sarah Showalter, manager of business and consumer insights at NPB, talks about the Culture Celebrator segment. “Our Culture Celebrators are the smallest of seven segments, but we have identified that they are an […]

U.S. health officials said a California infant has died and at least 10 other people have been sickened in an outbreak of listeria food poisoning tied to ready-to-eat meat and poultry products that include chicken feet, duck neck and pork hock, feet and tongue. Yu Shang Food Inc. of Spartanburg, South Carolina, has recalled more than 72,000 pounds of products. The problem was discovered in October after routine tests detected listeria in the foods and the production environment. The CDC said a California woman who was pregnant with twins was sickened and both infants died but listeria was only found in a sample from one of the infants, so that child and the mother were included in the count.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate former White House aide Brooke Rollins to be his agriculture secretary. Rollins, who heads the Trump-allies America First Policy Institute, was the director of his office of American innovation in his first term. The nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, which will be controlled by Republicans when Trump takes office Jan. 20. Rollins would succeed Tom Vilsack, President Joe Biden’s agriculture secretary who oversees the sprawling agency that controls policies, regulations and aid programs related to farming, forestry, ranching, food quality and nutrition. Rollins is the last of Trump’s picks to lead executive agencies and another choice from within his established circle of advisers and allies.

What a difference a week makes, particularly in the weather. I’m Mike Davis talking with Corey Davis from the state climate office of North Carolina. And yeah, a difference in a couple of different aspects. Corey, tell us what what you’re seeing from your climatological view? “Mike, if you think back to where we were […]

This is the SFN Market Report with Brooks Schaffer of Palmetto Grain. Reach him at [email protected] or 843-540-4540. More of the same for news flow this week. Exports remain strong. Domestic demand remains very strong but the market cannot seem to find any bullish traction. Corn is holding on better than beans. Beans are coming […]