Sign Up for E-mail Delivery of The Land Line

Maybe There Was an Egg Cartel After All

(10/18/26) Politico describes in detail evidence strongly indicating that major egg companies colluded to drive up the price of their product to record levels in recent years. It turns out charges that these firms worked together to bring about as much as a 138% increase in the price of eggs was previously “dismissed by mainstream economists and commentators as the work of cranks,” according to Politico. Highlights:

• Investigators have found evidence that some of the country’s largest egg producers joined forces to artificially drive up prices in ways immediately felt by consumers.
• Egg giants blamed the price hikes on avian influenza, an epidemic with a near-100% mortality rate, for reducing the nation’s egg-laying capacity. Cal-Maine cited the outbreak in a March 2023 investor announcement that touted its revenue doubling from the previous year.
• But Angela Huffman, an Ohio farmer and head of the antimonopoly group Farm Action, did some calculations showing the average size of the egg-laying flock in any given month of 2022 was never more than 6% lower than it was a year prior.
• The U.S. Justice Department alleges that when prices showed signs of declining, companies like Cal-Maine, Hickman, and Versova held weekly conference calls where they strategized to bid up prices for surplus eggs and create the illusion of increased demand. The strategy appeared to work: on Oct. 18, after dipping from previous highs, prices started a new, upward climb, rising to $4.25 per dozen by December, a 120% increase since the start of the year.
• In February 2025, the USDA rolled out a plan to target bird flu through biosecurity measures and vaccine research. The Agriculture Department also announced new egg imports and encouraged people to raise their own backyard laying flocks. The next month, eggs prices hit $6.23 a dozen.
• As part of legal settlements made with the government, companies were required to give free eggs to food banks. The quality of investigators’ evidence created the opportunity for “a slam dunk to really do something meaningful here,” said Austin Frerick, author of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry. But “the settlement was such a joke,” he added. “The free egg thing just made me laugh.”

An LSP white paper argues that key questions need to be answered about the role industrialized livestock operations play in propagating highly pathogenic avian influenza. “Big Bird. Big Problem: How the Poultry Industry is Turning the Avian Flu Pandemic into a Source of Profit at Taxpayer’s Expense While Decimating Our Farm & Food System” is available here. Episode 384 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast features an interview with Austin Frerick.

♦ ♦ ♦

What Happens to the Farm if You’re Not One Big Happy Family?

(10/26/26) Writing for the Missouri Ruralist, Extension ag business specialist Wesley Tucker discusses the importance of developing good “governance structures” amongst family members before the parents who own a farm are out of the picture. Highlights:

• “Through the years I have discovered that for many families, the go-to plan becomes: ‘Well, I’ll just leave it to all of them as a group, and they can own it together as an undivided entity. I won’t have to make any hard decisions about splitting it up, and this way I can be assured the farm will stay intact, and my kids will be one big happy family farming it together,’ ” writes Tucker.
• But varying expectations on the part of heirs can lead to gridlock and second-guessing one another. With everyone having potential veto power, making decisions and moving forward can become increasingly difficult.
• Tucker recommends setting up a governance structure that creates a framework for how things will function and that keeps family and business issues separate. Included in such a framework should be concepts such as partnership agreements, operating agreements, shareholder agreements, or even family boards, writes Tucker.

 LSP is putting together another iteration of its popular Farm Transition Planning Course. It will be offered during a series of online sessions in January and March. For details, click here.

♦ ♦ ♦

Trump Announces $8 Billion Plan to Cover Farm Losses

(10/20/26) The New York Times reports that USDA will be providing $8 billion in economic aid to farmers hurt by high diesel prices. Highlights:

• The price of a gallon of diesel has averaged $6 or more in most of the country in recent weeks, compared with about $3.50 last fall, saddling many farmers with thousands of dollars in additional costs. Fertilizer costs, which are closely tied to fuel costs, also went up this spring and summer.
•  Under the plan, known as the Harvest Fuel Relief Program, the Agriculture Department will use a formula based on how many acres and which crops farmers planted to reimburse them for a “portion” of their losses. The money will come from the Commodity Credit Corporation, an institution the USDA uses to fund crop insurance and natural disaster payment programs.

• Last month, the USDA forecast that the government would pay $47.4 billion to farmers in 2026, through direct assistance programs. That’s 70% more than last year and higher than the $45.6 billion that farmers received in 2020, when more than half was special COVID-19 pandemic assistance. With this additional $8 billion, direct government payments will total $55.4 billion, and make up a third of net farm income this year.

Earlier this year, LSP members and staff traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for a more sustainable approach to federal farm policy. LSP board member and southwestern Minnesota farmer Laurie Driessen wrote a blog describing how current federal ag policy and the trade war are harming small and medium-sized farmers.

♦ ♦ ♦

MAHA Loyalists Accuse Trump Administration of ‘Broken Promises’

(10/8/26) NBC News reports that some supporters of the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement have begun to publicly turn against their leader, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the Trump administration as a whole as they demand tougher crackdowns on food dyes and pesticides. Highlights:

•  A scorecard released recently by MAHA activists, including former members of Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign, claims the Trump administration broke more than 85% of its promises to MAHA on food, agriculture, and environmental health.
• About 41% of adults in the U.S. say they support MAHA ideals, according to an April poll from KFF, a nonprofit health think tank.
• Food safety advocates say Kennedy hasn’t put enough pressure on companies to remove synthetic dyes and other additives from their products. And advocates for reducing pesticide exposure claim Trump undermined their mission by issuing an executive order to boost the supply of the weed killer glyphosate in the U.S.

Check out LSP’s blog: “MAHA Gives Regenerative Agriculture a Moment in the Sun.”

♦ ♦ ♦

Energy Disruption and El Niño: Leading to a Global Food Crisis?

(10/19/26) The compounding effect of higher energy and fertilizer costs, resilient biofuel-linked demand, and El Niño-related weather risk puts pressure on food prices and, ultimately, food security, concludes S & P Global. Highlights:

• “What is unfolding is not a single agricultural shock, but the convergence of several shocks,” writes the report’s authors. “Conflict is moving through fertilizer, energy, and biofuel markets, raising costs and narrowing farmers’ choices just as an extreme El Niño threatens harvests.”
•  The Middle East and Russia account for about half of global net diesel exports — about two million barrels per day of that supply has disappeared. Global food prices are impacted in two ways: diesel is an important input cost for farmers, and farmers may direct acreage away from food production to feedstock for biofuels. The limitations on passage through the Strait of Hormuz in the spring and summer reduced the amount of fertilizer available, and ongoing shortfall puts new planting seasons at risk.
• The impact on food will likely become much more apparent over the next few months as farmers wrestle with high costs and with shortages of fertilizer and diesel. Consumers are likely to struggle with higher prices, and governments face social unrest and inflationary pressures. El Niño, the warming of the waters of the Pacific that has a global impact on weather, will compound the difficulties if it is as strong as predicted.

In November and December, LSP is helping put on a series of “Climate Resilience” workshops for farmers at various locations in Minnesota. These two-day cohorts provide an opportunity to connect with fellow farmers and develop adaptive whole-farm management strategies. Check out our web calendar for links to the various workshops. For more on practices that build soil health in a manner that reduces a farm’s reliance on expensive inputs, check out LSP’s Soil Health web page.

♦ ♦ ♦

Sustainable Silvopasture is Popular with US Farmers Despite Waning Financial Supports

(10/21/26) Mongabay reports that despite decreased government support for adopting silvopasturing systems that combine agroforestry and livestock production, an increasing number of farmers are adopting such practices. Highlights:

• The U.S. Forest Service published a study earlier this year that found almost a third of the respondents to a recent survey of producers practicing agroforestry were integrating silvopasturing into their operations. Conversion of existing forests to silvopasture was the most common establishment pathway (59%), while 25% of producers planted trees into a field or pasture. Most respondents (74%) grazed cattle in their silvopastures, though many livestock types were reported. When asked about future intentions, 87% of producers reported maintaining or expanding the acres they have in silvopasture.
• Silvopasturing increases the quality of forage while providing shade to animals during the hotter and drier conditions that are increasingly prevalent due to climate change. It can also sequester greenhouse gases.
• USDA funding for farmers looking to adopt silvopasturing systems has dropped in the wake of efforts by the government to defund climate-friendly ag practices.

LSP Ear to the Ground podcast episode 303 describes how farmer Tom Hunter is integrating silvopasturing into his southeastern Minnesota farm.

♦ ♦ ♦

Manure Rate Recommendation Update: What’s New and Important Considerations

(10/12/26) Minnesota Extension explains its reasoning for lowering manure application rate recommendations for non-irrigated corn. Highlights:

• In the past, manure application rates for corn were based on the yield goal for a field and how much nitrogen the typical corn crop needed (1.2 pounds of nitrogen per bushel of corn). University of Minnesota Extension reports that recent research has shown that the soil provides a fair amount of the nitrogen needed, depending on the previous crop (corn or soybeans). As a result, Extension is lowering its recommended manure application rates.
• Based on nitrogen rate research trials conducted across Minnesota, Extension has found that the typical amount of additional nitrogen needed (beyond what the soil provides) is now 0.7 pounds of nitrogen per bushel of corn when following a soybean crop or 0.9 pounds of nitrogen per bushel of corn when following a corn crop.
• Not all nitrogen or phosphorus in manure is available the first year. Some is “plant available” right away and some is tied up in the organic matter and eventually breaks down to become plant available. Another important step in calculating application rates is to consider all sources of nitrogen. This includes nitrogen from fertilizer (like starter fertilizer), irrigation water, credits from manure or other organic nitrogen sources that were applied in the past two years, and credits from legumes.

LSP recently launched its “Rethinking Nitrogen” campaign to build a farmer-led, public movement that shows the power of nitrogen-reducing practices and to create the political momentum needed to pass strong nutrient reduction policies during Minnesota’s 2027 legislative session. For more information on this campaign and to provide input, click here. Check out LSP’s recent blog: “When it Comes to Tissue & Soil Sampling, it Shouldn’t be an Either-Or Choice.” On Oct. 28, LSP will be participating in a webinar called, “Consider the Source: The Climate Costs of Industrial Agriculture in Minnesota.”

♦ ♦ ♦