Philip Brasher

2 weeks ago | agriculture.com | Philip Brasher

Removing soybean oil and other seed oils from food products would force the industry to rely on imported palm oil to fill the gap, driving up consumer prices, according to a study funded by the United Soybean Board. Adherents to the "Make America Healthy Again" movement blame seed oils for health problems. Under a scenario where U.S. usage of fats and oils remains flat, 53 pounds of palm oil per capita would be used to compensate for most of the 58 pounds per capita of seed oil that would be lost.

2 weeks ago | agriculture.com | Philip Brasher

Chicken producers worldwide have shown increased willingness to use sorghum rather than corn in their feed to save costs, demonstrating sorghum’s potential to be an alternative feed, according to USDA economists. New lines of sorghum cultivars free of tannin have made the grain more digestible and therefore easier to substitute for corn, according to a study by USDA’s Economic Research Service.

2 weeks ago | agri-pulse.com | Brad Hooker |Chloe Lovejoy |Oliver Ward |Philip Brasher

Decades before he was the Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a staunch environmental advocate. In 1999 he founded the Waterkeeper Alliance, a network of environmental organizations that now has 350 members in 46 countries. It spawned the California Coastkeeper Alliance the same year. The group has recently pushed for legislation to make all surface water drinkable, fishable and swimmable by 2050 and to add an environmental justice member to the state water board.

2 weeks ago | agri-pulse.com | Philip Brasher

Declines in wheat and hay acreage may be the main drivers behind a decade-long drop in total crop acreage, according to an analysis by a University of Illinois economist. Total crop acreage was relatively stable between 1998 and 2014 before dropping from 356.7 million in 2014 to a low of 337.8 million in 2022. In the analysis, economist Scott Irwin estimates that total acreage will again be 337.8 million this year.

2 weeks ago | agri-pulse.com | Philip Brasher

Chicken producers worldwide have shown increased willingness to use sorghum rather than corn in their feed to save costs, demonstrating sorghum’s potential to be an alternative feed, according to USDA economists. New lines of sorghum cultivars free of tannin have made the grain more digestible and therefore easier to substitute for corn, according to a study by USDA’s Economic Research Service.