Ukraine

Nearly every autopsy of Vice President Kamala Harris’s stinging White House defeat begins with some variation of the phrase, “Voters pointed to the rising price of food as their chief concern.”

In an episode of Purdue Agriculture’s “Managing Strategic Risks on Your Farm” podcast series, agricultural economists discussed how you can position your farm to not only survive, but actually thrive in a risky world.

The season-average farm price projection continued edging downward as production out-paces demand, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Headwinds hit the soybean market, pulling prices below the $10 mark to a four-year low, driven by abundant supply and relatively low demand reflected in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s reports.

The third round of Fertilizer Production Expansion Program grant recipients, including four in Illinois, was recently announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Beginning with Memorial Day and ending shortly after Independence Day, we see more American flags flying than at any other time of the year.

The Biden administration’s trade agenda — mostly forgotten after three years of COVID, inflation, war in Ukraine, brutality in the Middle East and a cantankerous Congress — recently surfaced and, wow, is it a mess.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued an emergency waiver to allow fuel made with 15% plant-based bioethanol to be sold during the summer.

U.S. soybean ending stocks and if there will be a convergence of conflicting Brazilian soybean production estimates were among the questions ahead of the agricultural supply and demand estimates report.

Piotr Korycki picks up a handful of wheat and watches as the yellow grains run through his fingers. With a new harvest on the horizon, he feels pressure to sell what he has to prevent it from going bad.

Tractors are in the streets in Paris, Rome, Brussels and many other cities and towns across Europe this winter.

The prices for corn and soybeans have been grinding downward since the summer of 2022.

Polish farmers who had blockaded a border crossing to Ukraine ended their protest after reaching an agreement with the government that met their demands, Poland’s state news agency PAP reported.

A year ago, variability and volatility were the watchwords for farmland values and sales going into 2023.

Brazil’s record high soybean production, depreciating currency and an expected boost in exporting capabilities through expanding transportation infrastructure will have important implications for U.S. international agricultural markets.

Usage increases weren’t enough to offset soybean and corn production hikes, pushing the projected ending stocks upwards in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s supply and demand report estimates Jan. 12.

The federal government reopened two cross-border railroad crossings in Texas, five days after the shuttering of rail operations there disrupted trade and sparked outrage from U.S. and Mexican businesses.

Skyrocketing sugar prices left Ishaq Abdulraheem with few choices. Increasing the cost of bread would mean declining sales, so the Nigerian baker decided to cut his production by half.

Even though there was a significant dry period during the early portion of the growing season, Chris Gould is harvesting a very good corn crop this year.

As difficult as it was for House Republicans to find an electable leader, that rough start was the easy part. Ahead lies governing and it promises to be tricky.

The Speaker will have less than a month to push through a workable federal budget and — at the very least — extend the now-expired 2018 farm bill through the end of the year, if not through all of 2024.

Evidence continues to pile up that today’s political and grain market pileups will be bigger and messier than first thought. Right now, it’s political carnage that’s making headlines.

Now that the risk of old crop surprises is out of the way, the market now turns its attention to yield adjustments in the October crop production estimates.

The Federal Reserve left U.S. interest rates unchanged this month, waiting to see if the rapid rate hikes since March 2022 will finally push inflation down to their target of 2%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a food prices report comparing this summer to the summer of 2022. While it acknowledges that prices of food are continuing to rise, it claims that the rate of that increase has slowed.

Victor Tsvyk harvested 4,800 tons of wheat this month, but after Russia exited a wartime deal that allowed Ukraine to ship grain to the world, he has no idea where his produce will go, or how his beloved farm will survive.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Chicago wheat prices rose from $8.85 a bushel to $14.27 by March 7 2022. The rally, however, was rather short-lived.

When asked to describe war, Union General William T. Sherman noted that “war is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.” Later, Sherman did refine his dictum to the much shorter, impossible-to-forget: “War is hell.”

Food insecurity is on the rise. New data on global food security and nutrition indicate a significant increase in the number of people on this planet lacking access, at times, to enough food for an active and healthy life.

There are several interesting theories on the ag and energy markets that have been unfolding the past few weeks.

The one certainty about the Ukrainian-Russian war is that there is little certainty. Even with Russia’s recent history of aggression, few predicted outright war.

The clock is ticking for the farm bill as it is set to expire at the end of September. Farmers and ranchers aren’t the only ones with eyes on the clock, either.

The Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates more than a year ago to fight inflation. In June 2022, inflation was nearly 9%, but has since dropped to 3%.

Russia followed its withdrawal from a grain export deal by expanding its attacks from port infrastructure to farm storage buildings in Ukraine’s Odesa region, while also practicing a Black Sea blockade.

Heading into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s supply and demand estimates report, the trade’s big questions included where the corn yield estimate was going go.

Farmers markets gave people something they desperately sought during the pandemic: A place to shop outdoors, and at the same time support smaller, often local businesses.

The USDA’s most recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report confirmed that a freight train of grain is barreling toward 2023-2024 markets and farmers everywhere need to prepare for the rockier prices sure to follow in its wake.

USDA analysts forecast record soybean production worldwide of nearly 410.6 million tons, up nearly 11% from last year. If realized, this would be the largest year-over-year production increase in nearly two decades.

A California peace activist who has worked to remove land mines from war-torn regions and replace them with grape vines, fruit trees and vegetables was named the 2023 World Food Prize laureate.

A grassy lane rutted with tire tracks leads to Volodymyr Zaiets’ farm in southern Ukraine. He is careful, driving only within those shallow grooves — veering away might cost him his life in the field dotted with explosive mines.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a last-minute emergency waiver to allow E15 gasoline to be sold nationwide this summer. This was the fourth straight year the waiver was implemented.

Ukraine welcomed the European Union’s hard-fought deal to keep farm exports flowing into and through the bloc to world markets, saying that the Middle East and Africa would specifically stand to benefit from it.

Increasing productivity and profitability of AGCO customers is important for the company to meet the needs of a growing population.

Agricultural conditions were reported to be stable to strong across the Corn Belt, according a survey of Federal Reserve districts.

For more than one organization, recent remarks by U.S. Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai fell short of what ag groups wanted to hear from the Biden administration on agricultural trade.

The first quarter of 2023 has ended, and moving forward, the financial environment for commodities should be far more bullish than what was seen the past few months.

The cattle industry is the largest segment of American agriculture, and beef derived from cattle is the second most consumed livestock protein in the United States.

The supply of fertilizer is improving around the world following shocks to the system last year.

Farmers across the state are gearing up for another productive spring planting season. Once the frost melts and the soil temperatures rise, it will be time to hit the fields, but for many farmers high prices for fertilizer, fuel and other critical tools remain a challenge.

In a potential boost for electric vehicles, President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said they’ve agreed to open negotiations on the use of European minerals critical in the production of batteries for EVs that are eligible for U.S. tax credits.