Katherine Albertson

Bad news. And again, delayed report from #USDA shows things are worse than projected. Yet, Congressional Ag Committees not even considering anything substantial to address this broken market. Just a status quo #FarmBill and more emergency aid.

‘Agrivoltaics is not just a land-sharing concept, but a systems-level solution to some of the world’s most pressing challenges’ Scientists have conducted a six-sphere literature analysis of agrivoltaics, considering sustainability, soil–crop productivity, socioeconomic resilience, solar power generation, spatial efficiency, an...

Agrivoltaics: "not just a land-sharing concept, but a systems-level solution to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.”

Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.

The Washington Post is laying off at least 14 climate journalists, @sammyroth.bsky.social reports: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/washington... h/t @drhershkowitz.bsky.social

What Supermarket Civil Rights Teaches Us Black activists have been fighting for food justice since the civil rights era.

New dietary guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommend costly foods many can’t afford. But Black activists have been fighting for food justice since the civil rights era — and their lessons matter now more than ever.
wordinblack.com/2026/02/food...

Walmart is officially a trillion-dollar company.

Today the retail giant joined the ranks of Meta, Tesla, Amazon and more to pass a $1 trillion market cap.

Meanwhile, starting pay at Walmart is as low as $14/hour, and thousands of its workers have to rely on SNAP and Medicaid.

Sales of Antibiotics for Farm Animals Jumped 16%, FDA Data Shows The sharp one-year increase is raising concerns among public health experts.

More medically important antibiotics are sold for use in livestock than for humans each year, studies show.

EU and India Make Historic Trade Deal, Benefitting Food & Ag Plus, featured investigations in food monopolies in the U.S.

This one-off trade deal is separate from WTO negotiations and runs counter to U.S. tariff policy. Even EU farmers who had been concerned about importers undercutting their prices came around to the deal. Now food trade is poised to expand.

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

Amsterdam Becomes First Capital to Ban Meat Advertising Animals in media are facing a critical inflection point

"The ban will impact advertising in public spaces, including billboards, bus stops, and digital screens."

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

RFK Jr. pushed food companies to cut artificial dyes. Here’s why they’re moving slowly When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became U.S. health secretary last February, he pushed companies to ditch artificial dyes, a critical issue for supporters in the “Make America Healthy Again” social movement...

Food makers told RFK Jr. they would cut artificial dyes, but it's not happening fast.

"Food manufacturers taking longer to change are citing cost, scarcity of natural ingredients and other logistical hurdles as reasons for the delay."

@reuters.com

www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

EU and India Make Historic Trade Deal, Benefitting Food & Ag Plus, featured investigations in food monopolies in the U.S.

This one-off trade deal is separate from WTO negotiations and runs counter to U.S. tariff policy. Even EU farmers who had been concerned about importers undercutting their prices came around to the deal. Now food trade is poised to expand.

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office A Science analysis reveals how many were fired, retired, or quit across 14 agencies

Incredible self own for the US. The damage being done to the US scientific enterprise is generational. We will look back on this as a tipping point where the US chose all on its own to stop leading the world in science.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Gosh can't a lawyer have a hobby 😅

Great news!

U.S. Farmers Draw the Short Straw in Global Trade And, IATP comments on Minneapolis violence

Nearly every commodity crop farmer across the U.S. is struggling with low sale prices. But this downturn is not just part of the normal boom-and-bust cycle. The issue is with global trade.

Read today's newsletter:
platingprogress.substack.com/p/us-farmers...

The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.

How grocery giants control who can sell food in your neighbourhood: CBC's Marketplace cheat sheet | CBC News The CBC's Marketplace rounds up the consumer and health news you need from the week.

Why our grocery prices are so high.

www.cbc.ca/news/marketp...

‘The invisible man’: Joe Biden has disappeared in almost every way – except in Trump’s daily commentary The 46th president largely exists as Trump’s foil, with his successor blaming him for the country’s woes

While Biden signed the biggest climate spending bill in history, Trump has mounted an unrestrained assault on clean-energy initiatives and championed fossil fuels as the engine of cheaper energy and the burgeoning AI sector.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Farm worker in a grape vineyard holding a sign saying: Campesinos con Minnesota. ¡Viva la huelga!

Farm worker in a grape vineyard holding a sign saying: Campesinos con Minnesota. ¡Viva la huelga!

Farm workers with Minnesota. Solidarity with the general strike!

Campesinos con Minnesota. ¡Viva la huelga!

Canadians Could Save Money with Public Grocery Plus, agricultural reckonings in EU and Uganda, and soybean trade resumes

In Canada, five store chains control 80 percent of the grocery retail market. A new study explores reducing this monopolization and lowering prices through public-owned grocers instead.

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

Trump struck deals with 16 drug companies. But they're still raising prices this year All 16 drug companies that inked deals with the Trump administration over the past few months still raised some of their prices for 2026.

Trump made deals with 16 major drug companies to lower prices in 2025.

But drug companies, including the 16 that made the deals, raised the prices of 872 brand-name drugs at the beginning of this year.

www.npr.org/2026/01/16/n...

A healthy diet with the lowest-emissions products — oats, tuna, sardines, and apples — would emit just 0.67 kgCO2e but would cost nearly twice as much as the least-expensive diet, at $6.95.

A healthy diet with the least-expensive locally available foods in each country — bananas, carrots, small fish, eggs, lentils, chicken, and cassava — emits 1.65 kgCO2e and costs $3.68.

A healthy diet comprising the most-consumed foods in each country — beef, chicken, pork, milk, rice, and tomatoes — emits an average of 2.44 kgCO2e and costs $9.96 in 2021 prices, per person and per day.

Planet-First Food Also Cheaper Debunking a myth that sustainable food is expensive

A study by Nature Foods reveals that a diet consisting of the most affordable foods would also be a diet best for the planet

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

A key finding: "price movements during the tariff period seemed to exceed the direct cost of the tariff itself.”

Meaning that some input companies saw an opportunity to increase prices paid by farmers beyond the tariff cost.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated his life fighting for equity and justice. He taught us that even in the face of intimidation and discrimination, we must never stop working towards a better future – a lesson that feels especially relevant today.

A great read on population divide even in a rural town

It's slow, but it's progress

Minnesota’s biggest companies starting to feel heat from ICE surge From Target to General Mills and Caribou Coffee, Minnesota’s largest employers are feeling pressure amid a surge of immigration officers in the state following the killing of Renee Good.

Silence from MN based companies so far, as ICE attacks their workers, customers, community. General Mills, 3M, Best Buy, Cargill, Target - staying silent. www.startribune.com/minnesotas-b...

What a beautiful photo of a beautiful ecosystem!