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Agriculture

Egg producers will pay $3.3M and donate 53 million eggs to settle price fixing claims

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS
Jun 30, 2026 4:31 pm - NEW YORK — The U.S. Justice Department and 17 states reached settlement agreements with three major egg producers this week to resolve allegations that the companies ille...
‘A real farm crisis’: Illinois farm bankruptcies rise for 3rd straight year

By TARA SUN
Jun 29, 2026 11:20 am - Family farm bankruptcies surged 46% nationwide in 2025. In the Midwest, filings jumped 70%. In Illinois, they rose 55%. Total farm debt is forecast to hit a record $624.7 billion in 2026, as overhead costs like land rent and interest keep climbing. Farmers bought a record 2.54 million crop insurance policies in 2025. But when the guaranteed revenue floor falls below production costs, farmers lose money on every bushel.
Coffee traders await Brazilian beans as farmers hold back

By Ana Mano, Ilena Peng and Mumbi Gitau
Jun 24, 2026 11:30 am - Coffee traders are betting Brazil’s record harvest will ease a global supply crunch, but farmers in the world’s top grower are in no hurry to sell beans, squeezing supplies in consuming countries.
Millions of honeybees escape into a rural Texas neighborhood after a semitrailer crash

By DAVID FISCHER
Jun 22, 2026 3:29 pm - Millions of honeybees escaped into a rural Texas neighborhood after a semitrailer carrying about 400 hives tipped over, officials said. Emergency officials in Orange ...
Federal cuts are hitting Illinois food assistance recipients — and the farmers who feed them

By Molly A Wallace and Medill Illinois News Bureau
Jun 20, 2026 11:00 am - The Trump administration eliminated food assistance for an estimated 360,000 Illinoisans this year by expanding work requirements and cutting benefits for lawfully present immigrants, including refugees and asylum seekers. Link Match doubles SNAP users’ purchasing power at farmers’ markets, food co-ops and local grocers and has grown from $469,000 in spending in 2021 to $2.26 million in 2025. With fewer Illinoisans eligible for SNAP benefits, local farmers who already operate on slim profit margins could lose income.
Illinois bets on biodiesel: Expanding the market for domestic soybeans

By NAOMI TAXAY
Jun 17, 2026 8:57 am - Illinois offers a sales tax exemption to retailers that sell biodiesel fuels, a law aimed at boosting soybean sales. Fuel that is made up of at least 20% biodiesel qualifies for the incentives as of April, up from 17%. The Illinois Soybean Association estimates the new policy could expand biodiesel demand to about 255 million gallons, up from 165 million gallons when state law set the threshold at 11%.
Trump makes changes to steel, aluminum and copper tariffs

By MAE ANDERSON
Jun 02, 2026 4:39 pm - President Donald Trump on Monday adjusted tariffs on some steel, aluminum and copper imports, lowering some tariffs on farming equipment and extending the lower rate to other equipment.
Researchers have spent decades breeding better potatoes for chips, and their work isn’t done

By DEE-ANN DURBIN and MIKE HOUSEHOLDER
Jun 02, 2026 6:15 am - There’s a surprising amount of science in a bag of potato chips. Researchers have spent decades developing potatoes for chip makers that can grow in all kinds of climates, avoid diseases and pests, sit in storage for months and still deliver a satisfying crunch.
Illinois grows millions of bushels of soybeans. Why aren’t we eating them?

Tara Sun
May 25, 2026 4:09 pm - CHICAGO — Inside a factory on Chicago’s North Side, the smell of simmering soybeans drifts through the air. On a typical day, “I use about 4,000 pounds of dry beans,” Jen...
China agrees to boost trade for U.S. beef and poultry following Trump-Xi summit

By DIDI TANG
May 18, 2026 1:56 pm - China has agreed to ramp up trade for U.S. agricultural products such as beef and poultry, buying at an annualized rate of $17 billion per year for 2026 and at that level for 2027 and 2028, the White House announced Sunday, two days after President Donald Trump returned from a high-stakes summit in Beijing where he sought to ease the impact on American farmers from the trade war he launched last year.

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