Weekly livestock news: October 19, 2020

CoBank: Rural industries improve amid COVID-19 surge

Rural America is seeing industry improvement but a surge of COVID-19 cases, according to a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange. Many rural industries, especially agriculture, “have begun to turn the corner,” said Dan Kowalski, vice president of the Knowledge Exchange division. “A weaker, steady dollar has supported a price recovery in most agricultural commodities, and despite the myriad of challenges they’ve faced in 2020, essential rural industries are finding new ways to survive and, in some cases, thrive.” The beef sector ended the third quarter in a much better position than where it started, said Will Sawyer, lead animal protein economist at CoBank. During the last three months, the boxed beef cutout has increased 5%, which helped lift cattle prices by 10% since the low reached around the Fourth of July. “Profitability for cattle feeders has improved to breakeven levels on a cash basis, and packer margins have remained elevated,” Sawyer said. Feedstuffs reports.

JBS parent company pleads guilty to U.S. foreign bribery charges

Brazil’s J&F Investimentos, parent company of JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, pleaded guilty to U.S. foreign bribery charges and agreed to pay $256 million in criminal fines, Reuters reports. Only half the fine, $128 million, will be paid to U.S. authorities, as the company will receive credit to payments made to Brazilian authorities. In 2017, J&F agreed to pay a record setting 10.3 billion real ($1.85 billion) fine in Brazil for its role in corruption scandals that severely weakened the country’s president at the time. Top executives in Brazil had admitted to bribing more than 1,900 politicians to secure contracts for the group. According to documents made public in a U.S. court, the amount of the bribes paid by J&F officials to high-level government officials exceeded $150 million, which generated $178 million in profit for the company, U.S. prosecutors said.

Pilgrim’s Pride agrees to $110.5M settlement over price fixing

Pilgrim’s Pride announced it would pay $110.5 million to settle federal price-fixing charges, The New York Times reports. The company said it agreed to the fine for “restraint of competition” in chicken sales in three contracts to a U.S. customer. The settlement could help ease pressure on Pilgrim’s Pride, which is among a number of major poultry producers that have been dealing with price-fixing allegations for years. According to the company, the agreement included a provision that the Justice Department wouldn’t bring any more charges against it on this matter. The company also said it wouldn’t have to pay any restitution or be subject to monitoring under the agreement.

2021 Fort Worth Stock Show canceled

The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo’s 2021 show has been canceled, after the event’s executive committee voted not to hold the show, which had been scheduled for January. “We wanted to find a way to safely hold a show for our 1.2 million guests, exhibitors and competitors,” said the show’s president and general manager, Brad Barnes. “Unfortunately, the challenges we face to create practical and enforceable protocols and procedures to comply with COVID-19 guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are extremely daunting. The uncertainty of the virus potential spread across Texas and the nation during the upcoming flu season was another major factor weighing on our decision.”

Nestlé joins U.S. dairy industry effort to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050

Nestlé committed $10 million to the new Net Zero Initiative, a dairy industry effort that aims to help dairy farms work toward carbon neutrality and improved water usage by 2050. Nestlé is the first major partner in the initiative, according to the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, which launched the effort. Nestlé’s involvement could push other big companies to join the Net Zero Initiative and contribute funding, Food Dive reports. The company has already committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions for its own operations by 2050.

More spending on global small farmers can meet food demand and mitigate climate change, researchers say

Global goals to tackle climate change and end hunger by 2030 are within reach if donors and developing nations help small farmers grow more climate resilient crops, access irrigation and access social safety resources, new research shows. The report identifies 10 key shifts that could lift nearly 500 million people out of hunger, double the incomes of 545 million small farmers in low- and middle-income countries and limit agricultural emissions, Reuters reports. The changes would cost an extra $33 billion a year, said researchers from Ceres2030, a partnership between Cornell University, the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Institute for Sustainable Development. “If you target investments on the farm, you improve the economic productivity of these poor farmers. If you target investments on the move, which is basically markets, you ensure they have a place to sell their goods,” said Carin Smaller, co-director of Ceres2030.