Top Agriculture News

A port strike is now in place. Negotiations between the International Longshoremen Association Union, which represents about 85,000 port workers, and the United States Maritime Alliance employer group representing about 40 ocean carriers and terminal operators, failed to come to an agreement before the contract expired, and while President Biden says he will not intervene, […]

The Agriculture Department is out with its newly revised forecasts for production and prices for the poultry industry, both for broilers and turkeys. Now in most years, the outlook stories for those two products are very similar, but not this time. “Broilers and turkey, kind of opposite situations there.” With a promising outlook for broiler […]

Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) called for emergency assistance for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities who suffered devastating losses in the wake of Hurricane Helene. “This is a horrible blow to farmers, ranchers, and rural communities across the Southeast just as the harvest season was getting started for many crops,” Stabenow said. “As Chairwoman […]

A new study says hurricanes in the United States are hundreds of times deadlier in the long run than the government calculates. In fact, the researchers say they contribute to more American deaths than car accidents or all the nation’s wars. Wednesday’s study says the average storm hitting the U.S. contributes to the early deaths of 7,000 to 11,000 people over a 15-year period. That dwarfs the average of 24 immediate and direct deaths that the government counts in a hurricane’s aftermath. Study authors said even with Hurricane Helene’s growing triple digit direct death count, far more people will die in future years in part because of Helene’s effects.

The National Pork Board’s Consumer Connect segmentation study revealed research-backed insights on how to become more relatable to current and future pork consumers. David Newman, senior vice president of market growth for NPB, says one thing the segments have in common is an appreciation of pork’s taste and flavor. “With our consumer segmentation study and […]

SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — Rescuers are scouring the mountains of western North Carolina for anyone still unaccounted for since Hurricane Helene’s remnants caused catastrophic damage across the Southeast. The death toll Tuesday reached 166 people. Residents in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina have been lining up for water and food and hunting for cellular signals after the storm deluged the region. In Augusta, Georgia, people waited in line for more than three hours to try to get water from one of five centers set up to serve more than 200,000 people. President Joe Biden plans to survey storm damage on Wednesday.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Power is still out for well over 1 million people in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina five days after Hurricane Helene tore down trees and destroyed much of the electric grid. The hardest hit areas are places like Augusta, Georgia, and the Greenville-Spartanburg area in South Carolina. In Augusta, lines for water and food stretched for over a half-mile. It’s taking so long to restore power because crews have to fix transmission lines, then fix substations, then fix the main lines into neighborhoods and business districts, and finally replace the poles on the street.

Raleigh, N.C. — Today, thirty-three lawmakers joined in a bipartisan push for disaster relief funding to prevent deep and lasting economic damage to the agricultural industry in the Southeastern United States. The bipartisan, bicameral group of 33 lawmakers from Southeastern states, including many North Carolina lawmakers, are urging Congressional Leadership to work with them and the Biden […]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Dockworkers at ports from Maine to Texas have started walking picket lines in a strike over wages and automation that could reignite inflation and cause shortages of goods if it goes on more than a few weeks. The contract between the ports and about 45,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association expired at midnight, and even though progress was reported in talks on Monday, the workers went on strike early Tuesday. The strike is affecting 36 ports. The U.S. Maritime Alliance represents the ports and said Monday evening that both sides had moved off of their previous wage offers, but when picket lines went up it was apparent there was no deal.

The devastation following Hurricane Helene in the mountains of North and South Carolina is almost without comparison. Many farms are simply gone after the area received more than 20 inches of rain in less than four days. Linda Pryor is a farmer in Henderson County, North Carolina. “We’ve had extreme devastation and still very cut […]