Will the White House give Ag vaccine priority?

There’s light at the end of the tunnel.

In the same week where the U.S. recorded more than 1 million new COVID-19 cases in six days, developments on vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna resulted in 90%+ effectiveness. Plus, timelines point to available doses being dispensed for priority groups in early 2021.

So after healthcare workers and high-risk individuals, the food industry has raised its hand to be next-in-line.

Fifteen food and agriculture groups sent notice to both the White House and President-Elect Joe Biden’s transition team pleading for food and agriculture workers to be designated as ‘high priority’ for getting the vaccine.

The letter was signed by heavy-hitters in the food industry like:

→ North American Meat Institute
→ International Dairy Foods Association
→ United Fresh Produce Association

How we got here: Rewind to March when food and meat processing plants were operating on pins and needles. When concerns around shortages crept up, President Trump enacted the Defense Production Act to keep plants open as they were ‘critical infrastructure.'

The challenge became to keep operations running and outbreaks at a minimum.

But the stats are rough. 73,000 positive workers. At least 331 deaths. Add in that 1,198 plants had to temporarily shut down or slow production, and the evidence mounts for priority vaccine status.

On the bright side: At the state level, food companies are getting their way. Many plans have food and ag workers near the top of the list for priority when vaccines can be allocated. Now, the industry just wants federal support.

Looking ahead: Temperature checks and plastic barriers can only work so well. Don’t be surprised if pop-up vaccination stations appear at the country’s largest food production sites in early 2021.

Last week in 'Quick Hits', we noted a Canadian telecom company acquiring its way into agtech...

Let’s revisit that.

The proud parent company, Telus, snatched up seven agtech companies across the US, UK, and Canada to form Telus Agriculture. They’ve racked up products and services that include supply chain management, advanced data systems, precision agronomy, traceability, and artificial intelligence.

The shopping spree allowed Telus to:
Cement a fast footprint in 50 countries
Claim customers that collectively span over 100 million acres
Combine a team of 1,200 experts.

The ultimate goal? Connect all the players in the agri-food value chain.

From input manufacturers to the farm and distribution to food retail, Telus hopes to align incentives, optimize data insights, and increase transparency.

But Telus isn’t entirely new to agriculture.

In the past three years, they have:
Invested in remote-sensing biz Hummingbird Technologies Series B round
Buddied up with IBM & Microsoft on agriculture data projects
Built up a $16 billion fiber-optic network, noting it would help agtech applications

What’s Ahead: Mergers ain’t easy and Telus knows the process won’t come without challenges. Additional acquisitions focused on people, specialty crops, and livestock are on the horizon, too. But as Chris Terris, VP of Strategy, notes, the goal is simple:

“We’re not here to disrupt the industry. We’re here to enable it”

ADM is in the hot seat. 🔥

Six more companies joined the litigation club alleging that ADM manipulated ethanol markets by depressing prices. In total, nine ethanol producers are now involved in similar lawsuits against the commodity giant.

The claim? ADM used ‘economically irrational’ moves in their ethanol trading.

In other words, ‘buy low, sell high’ was not their strategy.

Instead, ADM bought when prices and margins were high in 2017. Then, they reserved course, selling in waves as the Chicago benchmark price bottomed out at 15-year lows.

All of this, allegedly, created a price-depressing scenario for other market players.

ADM has attempted to have the court dismiss one of the cases, claiming the law does not allow for lawsuits related to losses selling a commodity like ethanol.

So, what’s next: With ethanol production at multi-month highs, the spotlight on ADM will be bright as this plays out in court.

QUICK HITS

✅ Perdue Farms launched a limited supply of their drumstick- and turkey-shaped ThanksNuggets solely available on their e-commerce platform.
*In case you were curious, all sold out*

✅ Lindsay Corporation revealed their ‘smart pivot’ technology, a novel irrigation system that can detect crop health issues and shares predictive analytics via remote machine diagnostics.

✅ Protein power players JBS SA and Tyson Foods celebrated strong quarterly results, both spotlighting US pork and beef sales as drivers.

✅ The European Union targeted US alcohol, tobacco, and cotton as part of the $4 billion tariff gut-punch due to disputes over aircraft production subsidies.

✅ John Deere purchased South Dakota-based startup Harvest Profit, a cost and profit tracking software measuring operations on a field-by-field basis.