Workers in protective suits are seen at a checkpoint on a road leading to a village near a farm where African swine fever was detected, in Fangshan district of Beijing, China November 23, 2018.

African swine fever hits huge, foreign-invested Chinese farm

Despite government claims to the contrary, little progress in containing the disease is apparent

Reuters – China reported an outbreak of deadly African swine fever on a huge pig farm part owned by a Danish investment fund, showing the spread of the virus to modern industrial farms expected to have the best levels of disease prevention. The outbreak occurred on a farm in Suihua city with 73,000 pigs in

Dry spell pares Brazil soybean estimates as crop ratings slide

Dry spell pares Brazil soybean estimates as crop ratings slide

This could cause concern for China that is doubly dependent on the country as trade relations with the U.S. have been frosty

Brazil has harvested two enormous soybean crops in a row and will likely make it a third straight in 2019, but the volume might not be as big as market participants were initially expecting and this could be of particular concern for the top customer. Brazil has helped pad supplies in No. 1 buyer, China,


Geospatial analyst Chigo Ibeh reviews a land-cover map of Baltimore at the office of the Chesapeake Conservancy in Annapolis, Maryland.


Can artificial intelligence aid conservation mapping?

Microsoft is betting it can speed up this labour-intensive process with modern tools

Thomson Reuters Foundation – In December 2016, environmental group Chesapeake Conservancy unveiled one of the largest, high-resolution land-cover maps made in the United States. It analyzed every square metre of satellite data in the 207 cities and counties that touch the watershed of the Chesapeake Bay on the U.S. eastern seaboard. The bay, North America’s

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue (l) and U.S. Representative Rodney Davis of Illinois take farmers’ questions at a farm in Champaign, Illinois October 24, 2018.

Penny for your corn?

Stingy trade war aid irks U.S. farmers

Iowa corn farmer Bob Hemesath jokes that the government cheque he expects as compensation for his trade war losses will soon allow him to splurge on upscale coffee in town instead of his usual burnt gas station brew. Rob Sharkey, an Illinois farmer, hopes his corn trade aid cheque will be big enough for that


China trade can be boosted

China trade can be boosted

Agri-food exports could thrive but Canada needs to push to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers

China is a growing market for Canadian agri-food exports and could become even more important if it reduces tariffs and other trade barriers, says the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance. The call came as four federal cabinet ministers were in China to discuss improved relations. While a free trade deal with China seems far away, proposals

Members of Illinois Soybean Growers Association and a trade group of grain buyers from Sri Lanka inspect soybeans of Pioneer-DuPont Seed facility in Addieville, Illinois, September 19, 2018.

U.S. farmers scramble to contain trade war damage, find new markets

Replacing a customer the size of China, however, is proving to be a very tall order

Clouds crowded the Illinois sky as Nick Harre walked away from his combine at the peak of harvest to join four fellow farmers in greeting some unlikely visitors. Inside a nearby seed barn, they made their pitch to eight Sri Lankan government officials: Please buy our soybeans. The wooing of such a tiny market underscores


Workers transport imported soybeans at a port in Nantong, Jiangsu province, 
China April 9, 2018.

As China soy demand wavers, U.S. farmers turn back to grains

It looks like soy will only be king of the U.S. Grain Belt for a single season

Reuters – Since the mid-2000s, North Dakota farmer Paul Thomas has planted more of his land with soybeans as China’s demand for the oilseed grew. The shift culminated this year when Thomas planted 1,600 of his 5,000 acres with soybeans — the most ever. But Thomas and many farmers like him plan to return to

World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, July 26, 2018.

U.S. President Trump forces WTO revamp

Threats and demands from the U.S. president have sparked an ‘existential crisis’ for the organization

The World Trade Organization is scrambling to develop a plan for the biggest reform in its 23-year history. This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump brought the world’s top trade court to the brink of collapse by blocking appointments of its judges and threatening to pull the United States out of the organization. Trump’s administration


Pastors and congregation members harvesting wheat for communion bread at Plainsong Farm & Ministry in Michigan.

Eat, pray, farm

U.S. churches turn faith lands into food

Thomson Reuters Foundation – As Baltimore was convulsed by protests in 2015 over the death of a young black man in police custody, a handful of people in the eastern U.S. city started worrying about a related issue: food. Thousands of demonstrators thronged the coastal city’s streets to protest the death of Freddie Gray, 25, forcing

Sheep in Australia drought.

The many facets of drought

Drought has effects that ripple through the supply chain

Manufacturers may start reducing wool content in clothing By Jonathan Barrett Yennora, Australia | Reuters Auctioneer Ian Sharp has been selling Australian agricultural products to the highest bidder since 1968, and he’s never seen demand like this before. Earlier this year, the benchmark price for fine Australian merino wool gained a foothold above the once