It’s a juicy rivalry complete with peach emoji and a well-timed “bless your heart.” The agriculture departments in Georgia and South Carolina sparred on Twitter this week over which of them really deserves the title of Peach State. It started with a tweet from South Carolina’s Department of Agriculture — an account …
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Federal government regulators proposed changes Friday in the way most hogs slaughtered for meat in the United States are processed in a series of new rules that officials say improve industry practices but critics say could imperil food safety. The new rules would allow hog …
The majority of Americans have no clear idea what “sell by” labels are trying to tell them. But after 40 years of letting us guess, the grocery industry has made moves to clear up the confusion. The Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Assn., the two largest trade groups …
PETERSHAM, Mass. (AP) — In a towering forest of centuries-old eastern hemlocks, it’s easy to miss one of the tree’s nemeses. No larger than a speck of pepper, the Hemlock woolly adelgid spends its life on the underside of needles sucking sap, eventually killing the tree. The bug is one …
ROCKY FORD, Colo. (AP) — From where Peggy Sheahan stands, deep in rural Colorado, the last eight years were abysmal. Otero County, where Sheahan lives, is steadily losing population. Middle-class jobs vanished years ago as pickling and packing plants closed. She’s had to cut back on her business repairing broken …
Egyptian cotton once dominated the colonial economy in the age of Queen Victoria, eventually becoming the gold standard for the world’s finest linens and clothing. Two centuries later, everyone from Martha Stewart to Christian Dior still prizes the supple fiber for its softness and durability. In Egypt, not so much. …
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — With an increasing egg shortage due to the widespread bird flu outbreak, the United States will soon allow imported egg products from the Netherlands to be used for commercial baking and in processed foods. It’s the first time in more than a decade the U.S. …
With the worst ever U.S. outbreak of bird flu leaving almost 45 million dead chickens and turkeys, egg costs are climbing to records. Prices for wholesale consumer-grade eggs, sold in grocery stores, more than doubled in the past month to reach an all-time high on Tuesday, according to commodity researcher …
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Whataburger says it is limiting its breakfast-serving hours, citing egg shortages due to the Midwest bird flu crisis. The fast-food chain will serve breakfast 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. weekdays, and 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. on weekends. It previously was available 12 hours a …
(Bloomberg) — Perhaps more than ever, the money in the beef business is in the marbling. Joe Mayer knows this well. At his ranch in Guymon, Oklahoma, a small, wind-swept town along the High Plains north of Texas, Mayer dotes on the “super bull” he bought last year for $130,000. …
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Net income for farmers is expected to fall by nearly 32 percent this year as corn and soybean prices remain low and expenses creep higher, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report Tuesday. While some farmers renting land at higher prices will find …
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Milk sales set records in 2014, but plummeting prices are forcing some dairy farmers to spill the surplus down the drain. Already disheartened by the current glut, which is due to global factors and overproduction, dairy farmers say they worry that futures markets predict dwindling prices …