(File photo by Dave Bedard)

Appeals court blocks California warning labels for glyphosate

Decision important in ongoing lawsuits, Bayer says

Reuters — A divided U.S. federal appeals court on Tuesday said California cannot require businesses to warn consumers about the potential dangers of glyphosate, an ingredient in Roundup herbicide that has been linked to cancer. Upholding a permanent injunction, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco found it unconstitutional to force Bayer’s […] Read more

File photo of immature peaches on a tree in California’s San Joaquin Valley. (GomezDavid/iStock/Getty Images)

Major U.S. peach producer files for bankruptcy to pursue sale

Setbacks have included salmonella, fires, heavy debts

New York | Reuters — Prima, a private-equity backed farmer that is the largest producer of peaches and other stone fruit in North America, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware on Friday. The company, owned by private equity firm Paine Schwartz Partners, has about $679 million in debt, and plans to sell its […] Read more


CME June 2023 lean hogs with Bollinger bands (20,2). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Hog futures fall on weak export data

CME cattle futures mixed

Chicago | Reuters — CME Group hog futures fell on Thursday on poor export demand for pork, traders said. Cattle futures were mixed, with live cattle easing on weakening trades in the cash market. Feeder cattle contracts were supported by falling corn prices. The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Thursday morning that beef export sales […] Read more

(Keith Weller photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. Supreme Court upholds California’s pig confinement law

Dissent suggests 'substantial burden against interstate commerce'

Reuters — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday preserved a California law banning the sale of pork in America’s most-populous state from pigs kept in tightly confined spaces, rejecting an industry challenge claiming that the voter-backed animal welfare measure impermissibly regulates out-of-state farmers. The justices voted 5-4 to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of a […] Read more


(Saputo Cheese USA video screengrab via YouTube)

Saputo to consolidate U.S. cheesemaking, shut three plants

Plans include one new plant, one repurposed

The Canadian company ranked among the three biggest cheesemakers in the U.S. is preparing to consolidate five of its cheese plants in that country down to two. Montreal-based Saputo announced last Thursday it has construction underway on a new $240 million cut-and-wrap cheese plant in the Milwaukee suburb of Franklin, to be up and running […] Read more

File photo overlooking the marina and sea wall at Half Moon Bay, about 30 km south of San Francisco. (JasonDoiy/E+/Getty Images)

Suspect in California farm worker shootings appears in court

Early evidence suggests workplace grievance, authorities say

Redwood City, Calif. | Reuters — A California farm worker accused of shooting seven people to death near San Francisco, some of them his co-workers, made his first court appearance on Wednesday after he was charged with murder in the state’s second deadly gun rampage in recent days. Chunli Zhao, 66, the lone suspect in […] Read more


A submerged and abandoned car is seen in floodwaters near a vineyard after winter storms at Forestville, California on Jan. 13, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Fred Greaves)

California rainstorms fade as death toll reaches 20

Drought to remain an issue for much of state

Reuters — The parade of atmospheric rivers that pounded California for three weeks finally faded on Monday, enabling the state to begin lengthy repairs to roads and levees as the White House announced U.S. President Joe Biden planned to survey the damage. The nine consecutive rainstorms that inundated California in succession since Dec. 26 killed […] Read more

Flooding from the Salinas River forces the closure of a road at Salinas, California on Jan. 12, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Nathan Frandino)

California picks up debris from latest storm, braces for next

Also: Why all this rain won't end California's drought

Sacramento | Reuters — Rain-soaked Californians took advantage of a break in a weeks-long deluge to haul away dead trees, restore downed power lines and prepare new stacks of sandbags before another series of storms hits the state beginning Friday. In Monterey County along the state’s central coast, communities near the still-rising Salinas River were […] Read more