Bloomberg (September 19)
“For the first time since at least the 1990s, China hasn’t bought any US soybeans at the start of the export season, a sign that Beijing is once again using agriculture as leverage in its trade fight with Washington.” In 2024, the US supplied “a fifth of China’s soybean imports, worth more than $12 billion, and accounting for over half of total US soy export value.” This year, “US farmers, flush with bumper harvests, are coping with prices near the lowest levels in years.”
Tags: $12 billion, 1990s, 2024, Agriculture, Bumper harvests, China, Export season, Leverage, Prices, Soybeans, Trade fight, U.S., Washington
The Guardian (August 14)
“As parts of the developing world get wealthier, people eat more meat, meaning more forest and grassland is obliterated and greater emissions are belched out by livestock and its attendant machinery, feed and chemicals. Even if we do manage to kick the habit of coal, oil and gas, modern agriculture now has enough heft on its own to shove us headlong into environmental catastrophe.” Food production remains “in a relative stone age when it comes to the climate crisis.” A revolution is necessary if we are to solve “food’s climate problem.”
Tags: Agriculture, Chemicals, Climate crisis, Coal, Developing world, Emissions, Environmental catastrophe, Feed, Food production, Forest, Gas, Grassland, Livestock, Machinery, Meat, Oil, Stone age, Wealthier
The Economist (December 5)
“Europe and America have shown that King Coal can be dethroned.” Next Asia must step up to “topple coal.” Fortunately, this “is overwhelmingly in Asia’s interest to do so. Its people, infrastructure and agriculture are dangerously exposed to the droughts, flooding, storms and rising sea levels caused by climate change….. Coal’s days are numbered. The sooner it is consigned to museums and history books, the better.”
Tags: Agriculture, Asia, Coal, Dethroned, Droughts, Europe, Exposed, Flooding, Infrastructure, Sea levels, Storms, Topple, U.S.
LA Times (December 19)
In its first climate risk assessment, CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension fund, “found that one-fifth of the fund’s public market investments were in sectors that have high exposure to climate change. Those include energy, materials and buildings, transportation, and agriculture, food and forestry.” The report by CalPERS, however, didn’t go into much detail because “less than half of the 10,000-plus companies in their portfolio voluntarily disclose information about their carbon emissions.”
Tags: Agriculture, Assessment, CalPERs, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Energy, Exposure, Forestry, Investments, Materials, Pension fund, Portfolio, Risk, Transportation, U.S., Voluntary disclosure
Chicago Tribune (November 26)
“Global warming is a Midwest crisis in the making.” A just released federal climate change report predicts “sopping rains will damage crops, then heat waves will fry them. Humid conditions will spur the growth of pests and pathogens that will degrade the quality of stored corn or soybeans. Before mid-century… Midwest agricultural productivity will slip back to levels of the 1980s.”
Tags: Agriculture, Climate change, Corn, Crisis, Crops, Damage, Global warming, Heat waves, Midwest, Pathogens, Pests, Productivity, Rains, Soybeans
Straits Times (September 18)
On Monday, Donald Trump “effectively broadsided one of the world’s largest trade relationships, announcing plans to proceed with tariffs on another US$200 billion in US imports of Chinese goods.” Combined with previous tariffs, “this means roughly half of everything Americans buy from China…is now subject to punitive import duties. Whole industrial sectors stand to feel the effects, including agriculture, manufacturing, textiles and retail.”
Tags: Agriculture, Broadsided, China, Duties, Import, Imports, Manufacturing, Punitive, Relationships, Retail, Tariffs, Textiles, Trade, Trump, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (September 3)
“All across American agriculture, production is up and prices are down.” With bumper crops expected, “corn prices have tanked, dropping to about $2.85 a bushel today from $6.50 three crop-seasons ago.” The Department of Agriculture is stepping in to help farmers with some subsidies and other programs, but what farmers really need is for Congress to “approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” which would boost demand overseas substantially.
Tags: Agriculture, Congress, Corn, Crops, Demand, DoA, Farmers, Overseas, Prices, Production, Subsidies, TPP
Institutional Investor (July 30)
“As the planet becomes more crowded and as many of its inhabitants enjoy ever higher standards of living, the stresses on our economy and environment will deepen. The global consumer class is forecast to grow by 3 billion in the next 30 years. To stave off unwanted outcomes affecting global stability, we will have to make fundamental changes in the ways we approach energy, infrastructure, development, agriculture, health care and social safety nets.”
Tags: Agriculture, Consumers, Crowded, Development, Economy, Energy, Environment, Health care, Infrastructure, Planet, Safety nets, Stability, Standard of living, Stresses
The Economist (June 15)
“Now Mr Abe’s eagerly awaited “third arrow” of structural reforms has fallen well short of the rings, let alone the bull’s eye. Indeed, it is so wide of the mark that one is left wondering if Abenomics has failed before it even properly began.” The disappointing third arrow consisted mainly of “old-fashioned industrial policy which has been tried, and has failed, before… Meaningful deregulation, labour-market reform and steps to make agriculture competitive in order to prepare for the TPP were all shelved. Truly bold measures, such as boosting immigration or changing the electoral system to give proper weight to young and urban voters, are off the agenda entirely.”
Tags: Abe, Abenomics, Agriculture, Deregulation, Electoral system, Immigration, Industrial policy, Japan, Reform, Structural reforms, Third arrow, TPP
