Robert Rich Sr. was born into a dairy family but built his fortune on an unlikely product – the first non-dairy whipped topping. Rich’s invention was inspired by milk shortages during WWII and won him a place in the National Frozen Food Industry Hall of Fame. His invention was also dismissed by his father and …
This Multi-Billion Dollar Food Business Keeps Family at Its Core Read More »
Land O’Lakes and Microsoft, two organizations with very different backgrounds, have been working together to address some of agriculture’s chronic headaches—tight profit margins, unpredictable growing conditions, and a workforce that struggles with high turnover. Their latest initiative, a digital assistant called “Oz”, is less about flashy disruption and more about the realities of getting information …
Land O’Lakes and Microsoft Partner on AI-Powered Farm Assistant “Oz” Read More »
Farmers are an innovative bunch of people. Doing what you can, when you can, and with what you’ve got is the best you can strive for some days. And what do you do when all you’ve got are misshapen carrots or broken rice? The answer for these farmers was to create new markets.Baby Carrots – …
Producers Making Treasures From What Some Consider Trash Read More »
On this day in 1933, the first giant dust storm, dubbed “The Great Black Blizzard,” began rolling across the Great Plains. Most Americans are familiar with the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, but the story of how we got there is rather interesting. It really begins back in the ealry-1800s when explorer and map-maker …
Looking Back at How Much Our Knowledge of “Soil Health” Has Changed Read More »
The recent launch of Nebraska’s Trailblazer Pipeline marks a new chapter for the state’s agricultural industry, especially for corn growers whose operations are closely tied to ethanol and biofuel production. The $1.5 billion project, led by Tallgrass Energy, converted a 392-mile natural gas pipeline into a major carbon dioxide network. This line now carries CO₂ …
“Trailblazer Project” Signals New Era for Midwest Agriculture Read More »
The global cotton market is experiencing notable volatility and structural change as 2025 draws to a close, with developments abroad shaping the outlook for U.S. growers, shippers, and merchants. Internationally, a combination of high global stockpiles and subdued demand from major textile-consuming economies has kept cotton prices under sustained pressure and near multi-year lows. This …
How Global Shifts Have Redefined the Cotton Trade… Buy More US Cotton! Read More »
America’s farmers are celebrating some recent changes to US farm labor policy while struggling to fill the gaps left by others. There is relief over changes to how H-2A worker wages are calculated, which is estimated to save farmers more than $2 billion every year. At the same time, some farmers are forced to scale …
US Farm Labor Policies Don’t Work for All Farmers Read More »
Funding across the Agrifoodtech space was down -32% in Q3 2025 compared to the previous quarter, and down nearly -50% compared to last year, according to preliminary data from AgFunder. Deal count is also down, and overall funding in Q3 was led by just a few big fund raises that AgFunder calls “a handful of …
As the cool temperatures start settling in, we will all be reaching for cozy sweaters to fight the chill. Once upon a time, odds were very high that any given sweater in an American’s closet was made with 100% US-produced wool. Those days are long gone and it’s nearly taken the US wool and sheep …
Before becoming the iconic Autumn symbol it is today, the pumpkin was often a food of last resort for early American settlers. The colonists learned how to grow the squash from Native Americans, who considered it one of the “three sisters,” along with corn and beans. They would grow the squash along river banks next …
