grains — Latest Stories

New Study Argues Grain Reserves Could Stabilize Food Prices

Economist Isabella Weber makes the case that public food buffer stocks could mitigate price shocks in an increasingly unstable future.

Canada Raises Red Flags on Bunge-Viterra Merger

Canada’s Competition Bureau finds that Bunge’s takeover of Viterra would hurt some farmers and canola buyers.

Bunge and Viterra’s Mega Merger Would Dramatically Consolidate Global Grain Trade

Bunge’s proposed merger with Glencore’s Viterra would be the largest grain trading deal in over a decade, creating a global agricultural commodity goliath to rival industry leaders Archer-Daniels-Midland and Cargill.

Cargill, Continental Grain Take Over Chicken Leader Sanderson Farms for $4.5 Billion

As poultry corporations face price- and wage-fixing scandals, Cargill and Continental Grain want to further consolidate the industry.

Railroad Merger Raises Larger Concerns About Competition on the Tracks

America has a railroad monopoly problem, but merging the smallest Class I carriers won’t solve it.

Big Ag Eyes Big Aquaculture

The world is eating more farmed fish, and global grain traders intend to control the fish feeding business much as they control the feeding of other farm animals.

SeafoodClaire KellowayFebruary 28, 2019ADM, cargill, commodity, seafood, soy, grains, mergers, Trade, Aquaculture

Status Quo Farm Bill Does Not Tackle Agriculture Consolidation Nor Address the Farm Crisis

Last week, Congress passed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, a.k.a, “the Farm Bill.” While Democrats managed to evade Republican efforts to add work requirements to SNAP benefits, this Farm Bill otherwise maintains a status quo that pushes farms to get big or get out, promotes exports over supply management, and benefits agribusiness interests.

PolicyClaire KellowayDecember 20, 2018farm bill, USDA, commodity, dairy, grains, organics

Mexico’s Native Corn Varieties Threatened by New NAFTA

Last week, after the Trump administration struck a deal with Canada and Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, the White House declared victory for US farmers, who gained greater access to Canadian dairy, egg, poultry, and wheat markets. Unfortunately, the new deal called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, also includes lesser-known provisions that could allow agribusiness corporations to patent Mexico’s native corn varieties and challenge the country’s ban on genetically modified (GM) corn cultivation.

Seeds & AgrichemicalsClaire KellowayOctober 10, 2018commodity, GMO, grains, Trade

Ag Bank Mergers Exacerbate the New Farm Crisis

Last year, the Nebraska Rural Response Hotline, which connects farmers and ranchers with legal, financial, and mental health services, set four monthly records for the number of new callers in financial distress. This spike reflects the broader hardship facing rural Americans in the midst of what some are calling the new farm crisis.

Mergers & AcquisitionsClaire KellowayAugust 16, 2018consolidation, credit, Farm crisis, grains, commodity, mergers, Banks

Bayer-Monsanto Deal Closes as Farmers Warn of Higher Prices and Less Resiliency

On Thursday, Bayer closed its $62.5 billion purchase of Monsanto. This comes roughly a week after the Department of Justice (DOJ) approved the merger, on the condition that the corporations sell off $9 billion worth of assets, including seed divisions, intellectual property, research projects, and more. Yet even after these divestitures, the combined entity will be the largest global seed and agrochemical corporation, and U.S. based field crop growers fear the power of the new combine.

Seeds & AgrichemicalsClaire KellowayJune 7, 2018Bayer, Chemicals, commodity, merger, monsanto, seeds, GMO, grains, Big Data

Bayer Plans Sell-Off that would Worsen Competition in Seeds, Chemicals

In the fall of 2016, the German drug, seed, and crop chemicals conglomerate Bayer announced plans to merge with the U.S. chemical and bio-tech seed giant Monsanto. Hoping to overcome objections from European anti-trust regulators, Bayer is promising to sell off its vegetable seed business to BASF, a German corporation that is currently the largest chemical maker in the world.

An ADM-Bunge Merger Would Drive More Concentration in Commodity Grains

Commodity trader Archer Daniel Midlands (ADM) is in advanced talks to purchase fellow commodity trader Bunge, Bloomberg reported this week. That deal, if completed, would create a $34 billion grain company rivaling Cargill, the world’s most dominant trading house.