Ricky Volpe, California Polytechnical State University
“Unilever's Sale to McCormick is About More Than Just Mayo”
By: Marketplace – March 31, 2026
“Folks have been increasingly moving towards more prepared and ready-to-eat foods, the perimeter of the supermarket… With especially younger Americans, we've seen brand loyalty eroded in a big way.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Marketplace
Rabail Chandio, Iowa State University
- “Annual
ISU Farmland Survey Predicts Short-Term Stability, Long-Term Growth”
By: Decorah Leader – January 7, 2026 - “Northwest
Iowa Continues to Lead State in Farmland Values”
By: KTIV News 4 – January 21, 2026
Miguel Gomez, Cornell University
“The Hidden Cost of Viral Food Trends”
By: Bloomberg – March 29, 2026
“Social media has turned niche foods into global sensations at unprecedented speed, sending demand for products like matcha, ube, acai and Dubai chocolate far beyond their traditional markets… Influencers can create demand spikes that supply chains struggle to meet, exposing farmers and producers to volatility and quality risks. In matcha, the surge has been especially intense.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Bloomberg
Kenneth Burdine, University of Kentucky
“Declines in U.S. Corn Acres Could Pressure Feed Prices and Create Headwinds for the Livestock Sector”
By: Brownfield – March 30, 2026
“Tighter margins were already pointing to increased soybean acres. The recent run up in fertilizer prices have changed this even more. The story to me is that we’re going to see a decrease in corn acres. We’re going to see it shift other crops. It’s a question of how significant that decrease is, and I think it’ll be relatively significant.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Brownfield
Scott Irwin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
“As Prices Soar, EPA Greenlights Higher Ethanol Blends in Gasoline”
By: Inside Climate News – March 25, 2026
“I expect relatively slow growth in the U.S. ethanol blend rate from where it is now, about 10.5 percent. But regardless of what the path is, I do think it will be upward, and it’s important to remember that each 10th that the ethanol blend rate increases, that raises domestic U.S. ethanol demand by about 130 million gallons. So even small improvements in the blend rate do matter.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Inside Climate News
David Ortega, Michigan State University
“Fresh Food Distributors Add Surcharges as Fuel Costs Rise”
By: New York Times – March 31, 2026
“We’ve been talking about the price of food for the past five years. Grocery store prices are nearly 30 percent more than they were before the Covid-19 pandemic. Particularly for lower-income households, food is a necessity, and they will protect their food budgets, which means they will cut down on other things like eating out.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: New York Times
Sandro Steinbach, North
Dakota State University
Yasin Yildirim, North Dakota State University
“U.S.-China Trade Conflict Harming California Ag”
By: Farm Progress – April 2, 2026
“In aggregate the top 13 California agricultural commodities exported to China fell from an average total annual value of around $1.55 billion in 2024 to $554 million in 2025 – a 64% decline in a single year.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Farm Progress or Imperial Valley Press, ivpressonline.com, News Break, FreshPlaza
Shawn Arita, North Dakota State University
“‘Could Not Come At a Worse Time’: U.S. Farmers Hit Hard By Economic Fallout of Iran War”
By: MS Now – March 27, 2026
“Before the Strait of Hormuz crisis, the global situation of fertilizer was already extremely tight. So this happened in a very, very bad time. Even if the strait were to open tomorrow, Arita said, fertilizer prices won’t soon recover from the lasting impacts of Gulf suppliers halting production amid the war.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: MS Now or Farms.com
Amitrajeet Batabyal, Rochester Institute of Technology
“How Marriage Markets Drive India's Vanishing Girls Problem”
By: Basis Point Insight – April 3, 2026
“India’s gender imbalance is neither new nor subtle. Skewed sex ratios continue to favour boys, bringing with them consequences that extend beyond demography: a marriage market squeeze, rising trafficking risks, and deeper social strain.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: Basis Point Insight
Laura Kalambokidis, University of Minnesota
“Minnesota’s Job Engine Stalled in January”
By: MPR News – April 2, 2026
“We've taken for granted for a while that Minnesota's unemployment rate tends to be below the U.S. unemployment rate. Seeing that change for this one data point, which is January of this year, is an unwelcome development but something that could change. It could reverse.”
(Continued...)
Read more on: MPR News
'Members in the News' now!
