China’s state-owned COFCO bought three U.S. soybean cargoes, two trade sources said, the country’s first purchases from this year’s U.S. harvest, shortly before a summit of leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
As the two nations battle over trade tariffs, the lack of Chinese buying has cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars in lost sales, after they largely supported Trump in his campaigns for president.
Read MoreThe Bossier City Farmers Market has been officially recognized as the 2025 #1 Farmers Market in the State of Louisiana by American Farmland Trust and the Farmers Market Coalition during this year’s America’s Farmers Market Celebration — the largest nationwide ranking program honoring local farmers markets across the country.
Read MoreIn a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, Congresswoman Julia Letlow thanked the Trump Administration for working to open up trade markets while highlighting the ongoing need for new market access for soybean producers.
Read MoreThe town of Basile is getting ready to go hog wild this weekend for the annual Southwest Louisiana Swine Festival.
Read MoreThe CEO of USA Rice says Japan has been buying more U.S. rice lately.
Over the summer, Japan said it would expand U.S. rice exports by 75 percent and purchase $8 billion worth of other ag goods to address a rice shortage and expand U.S. market access.
Read MoreThe CEO of phosphate fertilizer producer Itafos says farmers are likely to continue to face elevated costs.
David Delaney says it’s an issue of global supply and demand.
Read MoreRice is a point of pride in Japan, and the choice was a break from the typical diplomatic practice of showcasing local ingredients.
Read MoreIn the late summer heat, the hours move like molasses.
Still, across the cane fields of South Louisiana, migrant workers from Mexico brave the sun and punishing humidity to plant sugarcane. They come from the mountains of Guanajuato and San Luís Potosí, or the tropical coast of Veracruz, working the fields, often up to 70 hours a week.
Read More“Y’all sure go through a lot of trouble to get your rice. We just buy it at the store.”
So were the words of a young cousin of Louisiana Rice Promotion Board chair Kane Fontenot when first introduced to the rice harvesting process. Fontenot recounted the story to high schoolers from 15 parishes across the state at the pilot Growing Careers
Read MoreOver the weekend, President Donald Trump announced trade pacts with Malaysia and Cambodia during a trip to southeast Asia. He also provided new details on potential Thailand and Vietnam deals.
Read MoreA low pressure system will send warm and cold fronts across the Lower Mississippi Valley on Tuesday. While thunderstorms are in the forecast, latest projections from the NWS’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) and Weather Prediction Center (WPC) indicate no significant concerns with regard to severe storms or excessively-heavy rainfall.
Most of the state can expect less than 1/4" of rain, with isolated larger totals where slower-moving t-storms have an impact.
Read MoreEarlier today, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced the launch of a Section 301 investigation into China’s compliance with the U.S.-China Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement (Phase One Agreement) achieved and signed by the first Trump Administration in January 2020.
Read MoreU.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins visited a Farm Service Agency (FSA) office in Louisiana Monday, marking her first stop at one of the 2,100 offices reopened nationwide following a presidential directive to resume operations during the ongoing government shutdown.
Read MoreTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday the U.S. and China have agreed on the “substantial framework” of a trade deal that will benefit American farmers and resolve other key issues.
Read MoreWhen it comes to building smart machines, engineers often turn to the human brain for inspiration. But a recent study published in eLife suggests we might do just as well by looking at the compound eyes of the humble honeybee.
Relatively speaking, bees have minuscule brains. But they still manage to perform incredibly elegant navigation, pattern recognition, and decision-making processes. One of their most impressive tricks? Recognizing symmetrical patterns and spatial relationships in flowers, a key part of their unmatched foraging behavior … and a capability highly prized for the enhancement of artificial intelligence (AI).
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