America's cereal, soda and soup companies are having a rough 2018.General Mills, Campbell Soup, Hershey and Pepsi are all failing to convince investors they have a plan to navigate shoppers' changing tastes.The consumer staples sector is at the back of the pack in the S&P 500, down 13% this year. It's on track for its worst year in a decade. [node:read-more:link]
Transitioning to more sustainable forms of agriculture remains critical, as many current agriculture practices have serious consequences including deforestation and soil degradation. But despite agriculture’s enormous potential to hurt the environment, it also has enormous potential to heal it. Realizing this, many organizations are promoting regenerative agriculture as a way to not just grow food but to progressively improve ecosystems.Drawing from decades of research, regenerative agriculture uses farming principles designed to mimic nature. [node:read-more:link]
In March, as part of Scott Pruitt’s aggressive campaign to roll back federal regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed relaxing standards for storing potentially toxic waste produced by coal-burning power plants. EPA officials cited a study indicating that forcing utilities to get rid of unlined coal ash ponds too quickly could strain the electrical grid in several regions of the country.But when environmental advocates scrutinized the specifics, they discovered a problem: The evidence cited was not established scientific research. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected next month to roll back chemical plant safety reforms that the Obama administration proposed after 15 people died in a fertilizer plant explosion in West. [node:read-more:link]
As California fruit growers wait for effective tools to mechanically harvest their crops the association that represents about 85 percent of the industry is on offense, hoping to secure wins in water and labor issues. Survey California farmers up and down the state and the top issue they likely will cite is water. The cost of labor, and regulatory burdens associated with it, are also high on that list, particularly because the industry must rely on labor-intensive harvest crews to pick fruit. [node:read-more:link]
There is a good case that America’s economy has never needed immigrant labor more than it does now. The American birthrate has slowed dramatically, with the number of babies born in the U.S. last year hitting a 30-year low. At the same time, Alaska fisheries, New Hampshire restaurants and Maryland crab processors all say they are critically short of workers. Farmers say they need thousands more workers, and some production is moving overseas for lack of labor. There are 6.6 million job openings in the U.S., which means that, for the first time in history. [node:read-more:link]
Tyson Fresh Meats will receive nearly $675,000 in Iowa state tax credits to help the company upgrade its pork plant in Perry, Iowa. The Tyson Foods subsidiary plans to construct a new chilling system to improve product quality and efficiencies at the Perry facility, the Iowa Economic Development Authority said in a post on its website. The $43.7 million project won’t add jobs there but will require additional training for existing employees. [node:read-more:link]
need to make a confession. This was an interview I really wanted to do. I spent over 25 years in consumer packaged goods, specifically in dairy, and have always wanted to see quark succeed in the US market. If you don’t know what quark is, Google it. It is creamy and soft. If yogurt and cream cheese had a love child, it would be quark.I first tried Wünder Creamery’s quark at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. I loved it. Then I met co-founder Kamilya Abilova. [node:read-more:link]
In a field of sugar beet in Switzerland, a solar-powered robot that looks like a table on wheels scans the rows of crops with its camera, identifies weeds and zaps them with jets of blue liquid from its mechanical tentacles. Undergoing final tests before the liquid is replaced with weedkiller, the Swiss robot is one of new breed of AI weeders that investors say could disrupt the $100 billion pesticides and seeds industry by reducing the need for universal herbicides and the genetically modified (GM) crops that tolerate them. [node:read-more:link]
he regulatory problems facing a controversial Oregon dairy have raised questions among lawmakers about avoiding “too big to fail” livestock operations in the future. [node:read-more:link]
