Ben Lilliston

Tyson Foods to Shut Major Beef Facility in Nebraska

The big beef companies' model depends on paying low prices to ranchers. Is this a blip or a recalibration?
"The facility, in Lexington, employs more than 3,000 people. Tyson also announced that its beef facility in Amarillo, Texas, would go down to one shift a day." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/b...

We spent a year investigating billionaires for @washingtonpost.com.

We found: the wealthiest 100 Americans gave $1.1 billion to influence the 2024 elections — 140x more than they did in 2000. And almost all of that giving boosted Republicans.

washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

Some good news from Belem. The first big beef company has agreed to report scope 3 methane emissions, and set a reduction target. Marfrig owns National Beef in the US. Will be interesting to track what they report, and how they will reduce emissions.

YouTube video by More Perfect Union We Went to Arkansas. The Farm Crisis Will Shock You

I contributed a few contextual comments within this excellent piece by @moreperfectunion.bsky.social on the current challenges facing farmers, including a squeeze by powerful corporations and chaos created by the Trump Admin - www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl02...

Farm incomes decline amid strong harvests | Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Third quarter 2025 Ag Credit Survey

Mpls Fed ag outlook not good.

a Minnesota lender offered a foreboding assessment: “If conditions continue to deteriorate on the price side there will be producers unable to farm next year.” www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2025...

A nice development for global meat giant JBS, operating in Brazil and the U.S. Prices paid to U.S. ranchers dropped in anticipation of the tariffs.

Pretty eye-popping numbers here. The state is helping a handful of companies with a great deal of #taxdollars. Worth noting that one of the industrial dairies that has receiving over $20 million in less than 2 years is based in Minnesota. #CAFO #industrialag

YouTube video by More Perfect Union We Went to Arkansas. The Farm Crisis Will Shock You

Highly recommend this overview of the U.S. farm system and the challenges that rural, conventional farmers face

@moreperfectunion.bsky.social @benlilliston.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl02...

New York Gets Serious About Food Prices - The American Prospect A proposed state antitrust law has the potential to cut food prices in New York, a boon to Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

Public grocery stores run into a monopoly problem: big grocers get better deals from suppliers. That's actually illegal, but the law that bars price discrimination to small grocers is effectively dormant. @emmarjanssen.bsky.social writes that NY is writing its own version of the law:

There goes a major talking point:

“.. The new tally leaves tariff savings failing to fully offset Trump’s signature tax-cut law, which the CBO said would add $3.4 trillion to deficits ..”

@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

1/ Today's Farm Policy News Summary covers how "agricultural lenders surveyed in the new 2025 ABA/Farmer Mac Agricultural Lender Survey expect only 52% of U.S. #farm borrowers will be #profitable this year, signaling a sharp decline from recent years."

farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2025/11/only...

Farmers Face Prospect of Skyrocketing Healthcare Premiums More than a quarter of U.S. farmers rely on the Affordable Care Act, but despite the government shutdown, tax credits are set to expire.

More than a quarter of U.S. farmers rely on the Affordable Care Act, but Biden-era tax credits expire at the end of the year. They are now weighing difficult decisions, like going uninsured or finding secondary employment.

NEW REPORT: Nearly half of all @usdagov.bsky.social food spending went to just 25 companies, with poultry giant Tyson Foods receiving the largest share despite a history of workplace safety, labor, environmental, and food safety concerns.

foe.org/resources/us...

Deconstructing the Livestock Manure Digester and Biogas Controversy - Current Environmental Health Reports Purpose of Review Anaerobic manure digesters are a hotly debated and rapidly expanding technology that extracts biogas from animal manure. We assessed claims by proponents and opponents of the technol...

New analysis of claims by proponents of livestock manure digesters/biogas: do they improve air quality, mitigate environmental injustice, make economic sense, act as a climate solution? Researchers found biogas industry claims overstated link.springer.com/article/10.1...

JBS Beef North America breaks record with $7.2B Q3 JBS USA Pork also achieved record revenue, driven by strong domestic demand and the expansion of branded and prepared products.

JBS seems to be doing very well with high beef prices: "Our multi-protein and multi-geographic model is the foundation..." www.nationalhogfarmer.com/market-news/...

New today: at @ewgofficial.bsky.social, we just released our updated Conservation Database. We now have conservation funding by practice for multiple different conservation programs, down to the county level for most programs. Found over $31B went to farmers 2017-2024. www.ewg.org/news-insight...

The End of AGOA? A time for a reset and diversification for the African Union The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is dead — at least for now, and some businesses in both the U.S.

NEW: The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a duty-free trade agreement between the U.S. & several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, expired at the end of September & was not renewed by Congress. Industries in these countries are already losing jobs. What comes next? www.iatp.org/end-of-agoa

A China purchase of soy was announced yesterday, but they are still far from the target the Trump Admin has touted for 2025. What about for 26-28? Here, I dig into what we know about ag in the US-China deal & how to assess Trump Admin announcements on trade vs binding agreements.

Iowa AG leads brief against California climate reporting laws • Iowa Capital Dispatch Attorneys general from 25 states are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a stay on California emissions reporting laws.

It's really helpful to the nation's largest polluters - incl fossil fuel global agbiz - to have a group of state AGs carry your water in fighting even the most basic climate reporting laws. iowacapitaldispatch.com/briefs/iowa-...

JBS Venture Agrees to Buy Hickman’s in Push for US Egg Market Mantiqueira USA Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the joint venture between JBS and the founders of Mantiqueira Alimentos, entered into a binding agreement to acquire Hickman’s Egg Ranch, expanding t...

Global meat giant JBS, following its pattern of buying up smaller firms, expands its position in the US egg market - www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. After a disastrous Midwestern outbreak early this year, we tested that theory and found that where the wind blew, the virus followed. Vaccines could help, but the USDA hasn’t approved them.

NEW: We traced out a devastating outbreak of bird flu to its source: an egg farm in Ohio. Where the wind blew, the virus followed.

Within weeks, the farms downwind were about 20 times as likely to see outbreaks as those that weren’t.

We and our allies reached a settlement on behalf of @ewgofficial.bsky.social for Tyson to stop making climate claims. Big Ag needs to know that we're protecting consumers from their greenwashing.

More ➡️ farmstand.org/tyson-foods-...

@animallegaldefense.bsky.social @earthjustice.org

Potato giant R.D. Offutt agrees to pay 442 Minnesota workers for sick leave violations • Minnesota Reformer Fargo-based R.D. Offutt Farms, one of the largest potato growers in the world, agreed to pay $82,770 to 442 workers for failing to provide sick leave in 2024 as part of a settlement with the Minnesota...

Potato giant R.D. Offutt agrees to pay 442 Minnesota workers for sick leave violations minnesotareformer.com/briefs/potat...

🌐Today’s agricultural #trade rules do not meet the environmental, social & economic challenges of our time. To change this, scholars & practitioners have developed a 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘆, a new set of global rules to govern agricultural trade.
Summary 👉 t.ly/gm0Mu
About 👉 t.ly/hUvBr
@iatp.bsky.social

Soybean sales to China since the Trump-Xi meeting have been even more tepid than we initially thought. USDA issues a correction after a Chinese buyer cancels 100,000 tons in orders.

The Land Gap: Climate pledges favor unrealistic land-based carbon removal, ignoring our forests This week, the University of Melbourne launched the second edition of The Land Gap Report, which looks closely at countries’ climate commitments and their implications for how land is to be used — and...

The new Land Gap Report was released this week, with a chapter by IATP Executive Director Sophia Murphy.

Here, Sophia gives insights into the project, and some proposals for what trade reforms must be made to close the gap between climate pledges and real progress.

www.iatp.org/land-gap-cli...

Why High Food Prices Will Make Public Groceries Inevitable Grocery prices have jumped 25% in just 4 years while consumption volumes have plummeted. Public sector solutions may be the key to bring back affordability.

Can always count on @grocerynerd.bsky.social to tell it like it is! A great breakdown of the past 5 years of food price hikes, why profiteering is a driver of these price increases, and policies that would help ensure food is a human right

www.forbes.com/sites/errols...

DOJ Closed Meat Probe Just Before Trump’s Investigation Demand The US Justice Department closed a years-long antitrust probe into the meatpacking industry during the Covid-19 pandemic just weeks before President Donald Trump demanded a fresh investigation, accord...

"The companies (big 4 meatpackers) recently met with officials from the White House National Economics Council to discuss the industry and impact that Argentinian imports would have on grocery pricing..." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Joint Statement on Framework for a United States-Argentina Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and Investment President Donald J. Trump and President Javier Milei reaffirm the strategic alliance between the United States of America (United States, or U.S.) and the

A good deal for the big meatpackers Trump Admin says it is investigating. Argentina opens up imports of live US cattle (amidst a declining US cattle herd). US lowers tariffs on imported & unlabeled beef from Argentina to help manage prices paid to US ranchers. www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...

Earlier this year, FarmSTAND helped us fight to restore our USDA RFSP grant after it was abruptly terminated by the Trump administration. Now, they’re exposing just how carelessly our grant and many others were cancelled. farmstand.org/case/deep-di...