Every few weeks, a handful of the world's biggest merchants play a high-stakes game, and a well-connected newcomer from Asia, Wilmar International, just sat down at the table. The stakes are in sugar often worth hundreds of millions of dollars; the occasion is the expiry of futures contracts.
As part of Walmart's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, the world's biggest retailer is sending senior employees out to farms, looking for ways to help U.S. farmers reduce their use of carbon-intensive fertilizers or improve logistics.
Newly-drafted USDA regulations aimed at protecting public health may make poultry safer to eat, but there's a trade-off that puts worker health and safety on the line.
Increasing publicity about the ways food is modified, treated and processed has put the food industry on the defensive, but even as public awareness grows, food companies are still trying to keep you in the dark about these three issues.
Meat giant Cargill has issued a new recall that affects 185,000 pounds of ground turkey. Sunday's announcement said that the recall included "85-percent-lean fresh ground turkey products produced at the company's Springdale, Ark., facility on Aug. 23, 24, 30 and 31, 2011, due to possible contamination from Salmonella Heidelberg." The firm posted a list of the problem products on its website.
Agribusiness and trading giant Cargill recalled 8,500 pounds of ground beef late Friday that may contain E coli.
Hoping to stop more small ranches from failing, the Obama administration has proposed a new antitrust rule. But ranchers are divided about whether it will help or hurt them. At a workshop Friday, some argued the rule could end up reducing their earnings.
