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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is taking another stab at defining ultraprocessed foods, Politico reported. The effort, led by the Department of Health and Human Services and involving senior White House officials comes just ahead of next month’s midterm elections and after months of complaints that the administration hasn’t lived up to its promises to the MAHA movement. Kennedy and several MAHA advocates have called for ultraprocessed foods to carry warning labels. But defining what ultraprocessed means has met pushback from the food industry. Politico noted that food companies have argued that the scientific community remains divided over whether processing food diminishes its nutritional value and point to positive attributes of processed food, like longer shelf lives.
The report said a higher-level meeting is scheduled for this week between Kennedy and senior White House officials to discuss the status of the food policy. The revived conversations signal potential progress on one of MAHA’s top priorities at a time when Republicans are struggling to persuade voters that they’ve delivered on their campaign pledges, Politico wrote.
Market recap: Harvest pressure and a bearish technical setup left the downside as the path of least resistance, with corn and soybeans hitting multiweek lows, as did wheat. Dry weather in the week ahead should allow producers to make substantial progress on corn and soybean harvest.
- December corn fell 7 ¼ cents to end at $4.67, hitting a nine-week low.
- November soybeans fell 7 ¾ cents to $12.53 ½, touching a seven-week low.
- December soybean meal dropped $2.30 to $354.80, closing at its lowest in two weeks.
- December soybean oil lost 44 points to finish at 66.69 cents.
- December soft red winter wheat fell 5 ¼ cents to close at $6.55 ¼, posting a nine-week low.
- December hard red winter wheat lost 4 ½ cents to $6.99 ½, seeing a three-month low.
- December spring wheat gave up 6 ¼ cents to $6.70 ¼.
- December cotton rose 13 points to 80.13 cents.
- December live cattle fell $0.325 to end at $228.025 after some mild profit taking. November feeders rose $2.025 to $343.925, logging a three-month high.
- December lean-hog futures dropped $0.575 to end at $66.35, just above last week’s contract low.
Export inspections… USDA said soybean export inspections for the week ended Oct. 16 were 2.002 million metric tons, up from 1.11 MMT at this time last week, and 1.59 MMT at this time last year.weekly U.S. soybean export inspections totaled 2.002 MMT during the week ended Oct. 15, up 892,365 MT from the previous week. Net inspections were well above analysts’ pre-report range of expectations from 1.2 MMT to 1.6 MMT. USDA reported weekly U.S. corn export inspections of 672,475 MT, down 641,258 MT from the previous week. Net inspections were well below analysts’ pre-report range of expectations from 1.1 to 1.35 MMT. Weekly U.S. wheat export inspections totaled 240,308 MT, down 66,717 MT from the previous week. Net inspections were short of analysts’ pre-report range of estimates from 300,000 to 400,000 MT.
Harvest plays catchup… The soybean harvest nearly caught up with the five-year average last week, while corn harvest still lags behind despite a significant leap, USDA’s weekly crop conditions and progress data showed Monday.
- Corn was rated 56% good or excellent as of Sunday, USDA said, unchanged from the previous week and matching analyst expectations. Harvest was 44% complete, up from 33% a week earlier and a percentage point behind the average guess and lagging behind the five-year average of 52%. The Pro Farmer Crop Conditions Index (0 to 500 scale, 500 equals perfect) rose by a marginal 1.08 points.
- The soybean crop was 64% harvested, up from 46% last week, 2 points better than the average estimate and a point behind the five-year average of 65%. With more than 50% of the crop harvested, USDA has discontinued weekly condition ratings for soybeans.
- USDA said the winter wheat crop was 63% planted, up from 51% a week ago and just below the average guess of 63%. The five-year average for this time of year is 69%.
Black Sea grain corridor… Ukraine is in talks with Turkey, Egypt and India on the possibility of opening up Black Sea civil navigation, particularly for agriculture exports, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Bloomberg News. The report said Turkey, Egypt and India proposed safe navigation for vessels under their flags, entering both Ukrainian and Russian ports and transporting the food, with agreements not to strike the vessels. Russia, however, opposes the plan despite regular calls from Turkish, Indian and Egyptian intermediaries, Zelensky said. Ukraine’s president also said that Kyiv asked the European Union to renew its program of “solidarity lanes” that allowed Ukraine to export grain via European railways and ports at the beginning of Russian full-scale invasion in 2022.
School meals funding effort… Politico reports in its Morning Ag newsletter that a coalition of farm, anti-hunger and health groups joined with the School Nutrition Association to urge USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to use available funds for school meals. “America’s school meal programs are facing a growing financial crisis,” the groups wrote in a letter sent last week to Rollins and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, the report said.. “In addition, 35 percent of school meal programs operated at a deficit at the end of School Year 2023-24, nearly double the 18 percent reported two school years earlier.” Politico said the groups asked Rollins and Vought to use available funds in Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1935 to “provide emergency financial relief for school meal programs nationwide.”