Truth About Food Safety FDA Commissioner Robert Califf is on Capitol Hill this week testifying on his agency’s reported inability to move forward on improved food safety goals. The scrutiny has evolved out of a blistering report by Politico on the fact that food takes a back seat versus other agency priorities like medicines. The agency has long spent less on food safety than USDA despite being responsible for a larger share of the food supply. However, the agency and the food industry would do well to remind politicians of some of the truths noted by food safety lawyer Shawn Stevens:
Harmful pathogens can be found everywhere in the environment – they are ubiquitous. Food and moisture are a natural vector for their propagat...
What You Need to Know Today: Crude oil prices extended their rally today, supported by several developments, including escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure and growing concerns about supply disruptions. The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to remove 50 perc...
Key Takeaways: The agricultural trade surplus has become a sizable deficit: the balance swung from a $40.1 billion surplus in 2011 to a $40.7 billion deficit in 2025. Imports kept growing while exports lost momentum: between 2020 and 2025, agricultural imports increased 45 percent, compa...
USDA released its October Cattle on Feed report Friday, showing 11.4 million cattle in feedlots with capacity for 1,000 head or more, slightly below last year. September placements were the lowest for the month since records began in 1996, marking the third consecutive month of placements sett...
Total Red Meat & Poultry September 2026 total red meat and poultry stocks totaled 1.97 billion pounds, down 1.4 percent from August despite typically increasing 0.8 percent during the month, and were 1.5 percent below September 2025 levels. The decline pushed total inventories to a new five...
