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Recent attention to the country’s meatpacking plants has illustrated that when the four dominant companies face disruptions to processing, smaller, independent operations don’t have adequate capacity to pick up the slack.

The nation’s organic dairies are growing in their ability to produce milk relative to the inputs in the production process, but not nearly at the same rate as other dairies in the country, according to new research from the Department of Agriculture.

USDA is again inspecting Mexican avocados, allowing the resumption of exports to the U.S., which cannot come close to meeting consumer demand with domestic production.

The value of the U.S. industrial hemp crop in 2021 was $824 million, the National Agricultural Statistics Service said in its first report on the cannabis crop that was legalized in the 2018 farm bill.

Officials from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service won’t be inspecting Mexican avocados for export to the U.S. until the agency is confident there are safe working conditions in the state of Michoacán, effectively cutting off exports from the only Mexican state allowed to ship to the U.S.

Now that all eggs sold in California must come from hens living in cage-free barns, the industry is watching to see when, or whether, the investment required to meet the requirements pays off. California shoppers, meanwhile, are paying higher prices for eggs.

A majority of consumers blame pandemic-related disruptions for the sharp rise in meat prices that has taken place over the past two years, according to a new Purdue University survey.

Robert Califf has been narrowly approved to lead the Food and Drug Administration, giving the agency a Senate-confirmed commissioner for the first time in over a year.

The Senate will vote this week on a new commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration and will likely extend Friday’s deadline for keeping the government funded, clearing the way for negotiators to finalize a government-wide, fiscal 2022 spending bill.

A coalition of farm groups are suing to block the Environmental Protection Agency from prohibiting the use of chlorpyrifos on food crops, starting Feb. 28.