Naturally Unnecessary Members of the U.S. Congress representing honey and maple syrup producers have added language to appropriations legislation that would bar the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) from categorizing the addition of these two sweeteners as “added” sugars on food product nutrition labels. They claim that these are “natural” forms of sugar and that consumers want “pure” products. Sugar beets, sugarcane and corn (syrup) are also likely natural products, and the FDA has long allowed packaging to say “pure cane sugar.” Honey and maple syrup, the latter called maple “sugar” when all the water is removed, claim to have more nutrients than just sugar. However, the minu...
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...