John Bennet Lawes found himself fatherless at the age of 8, and the responsibility of the 250-acre family farm was left in the hands of just himself and his mother. The two figured it out and even made enough to send John off to college. But at the age of 20, John dropped out of …
Fatherless College Dropout Turns Farm Debt into Fertilizer Dynasty Read More »
A finely ground powder of green tea known as “matcha” is experiencing a major supply shortage right now as Japanese growers struggle to keep up with booming global demand. Limited production has been exacerbated by an aging Japanese population and fewer people from younger generations taking up farming. At the same time, demand has never …
Nestlé, the company behind household names like KitKat and Aero, has been quietly rewriting one of chocolate’s oldest rules, you don’t need to add refined sugar if you use more of the cocoa fruit itself. In 2019, the Swiss food giant unveiled a patented technique that sweetens chocolate with the creamy, naturally sugary pulp that …
US agriculture has a well-broadcast labor shortage that has been building for decades. The crunch was so bad in the 1960s that the US government actually devised a program to recruit high school athletes to work farm fields during the summer. A program like that today would no doubt draw immediate ridicule as we all …
The Forgotten 1965 US “A-TEAM” Farm Worker Program Read More »
German discount supermarket chain “Aldi” is rapidly expanding in the U.S., with 225 new stores planned across the country in 2025 alone. The expansion has been helped by Aldi’s 2024 acquisition of Winn-Dixie and Harveys grocery stores, which it has been swiftly converting. Aldi’s growing footprint is also fueled by U.S. consumers who are embracing …
How Aldi’s Founders Turned a Local Store Into a Multi-Billion Dollar Grocery Empire Read More »
Most people have never heard of it, but “RuBisCO” (Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase) is a crucial enzyme for photosynthesis. More than 90% of the inorganic carbon that is converted into biomass is fixed by the enzyme. It’s considered the most abundant protein on Earth, as well as one of the most critical because it’s so essential for …
National Potato Day is today, and many historians will agree that this week is the anniversary of the invention of the “potato chip”, which took place in 1853 at Moon’s Lake House on Saratoga Lake in New York, thanks to chef George Crum and a disgruntled customer.Interestingly, the story really begins in France with the …
Potato Chips Anniversary and the Great Potato Story Read More »
As we move deeper into August, the long-range forecast becomes more critical for planning the weeks ahead. In agriculture, timing is everything, and this update is all about how the evolving weather pattern will shape harvest progress. We just moved out of Phase 2 and are now back in Phase 1 of the LRC for …
Precision Ag startups were big winners in Q2 2025, with fundraising climbing nearly +72% over the previous quarter, according to data from PitchBook. It also marks the first time since 2017 that investors have favored precision ag startups over companies in the ag biotech space, signaling “a notable shift in investor priorities,” according to PitchBook’s …
Venture Capital Finds New Love for “Precision Ag” Read More »
When talking about global soybean production, the key focus tends to be on the U.S. and a few South American countries, specifically Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and, to a lesser degree, Uruguay. But over the past few years, Ukraine has quietly become a more significant player in the global soybean market. In fact, Ukraine’s soybean production …
Ukraine Emerging as a New Global Soybean Exporter Read More »
