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February 8, 2022

TOGETHER WITH:

Good morning.

A quick bit of operational news for the Magnetic crew today. Starting Friday, the newsletter will begin coming from team@magnetic-ag.com. Make sure to give this new email a quick save to your favorites so you don’t miss us in your inbox later this week.

Now let’s get to the goods.

Stories:

• Feeling the Hurt in Fert
• ADM Flies Into New Feed Partnership
• Food Chain Meets Blockchain

FERTILIZER

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Just when you thought nitrogen prices couldn’t go any higher... 

The Commerce Department has reached a preliminary ruling regarding Russia and Trinidad and Tobago "dumping" urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) into the U.S. fertilizer market, deeming the practice unfair. This means a key form of nitrogen will be getting even more expensive as a result of tariffs and anti-dumping duties.

This finding has been welcomed by U.S. fertilizer firms, such as CF Industries Holdings Inc., who are fighting to stay competitive against imports. However, this strikes a tough blow for farmers already dealing with escalated fertilizer prices.

Quick definition: "Dumping" refers to a foreign producer selling products in the U.S. market at prices below the cost of production or below the sales price in the country of origin.

Fertilizer facts and figures:

• 9.15% – 127.19%: the range of dumping rates from various Russian fertilizer entities
• $52.07: the average increase in per acre nitrogen costs for 2022
• $0.32 per bushel: the amount corn farmers would need from the market or government to offset higher nitrogen prices

Soundbite: "Corn growers are already feeling the financial pressure from the high costs of nitrogen fertilizers, which will only increase once these tariffs are put in place. The expected price hikes and fertilizer shortages that the tariffs will create may cause farmers to change their planting rotations right before planting season." -  National Corn Growers Association President Chris Edgington, in conversation with AgriPulse 

→ Benson Hill goes fishing. The AgTech company has teamed up with Riverence Holdings, a land-based producer of trout, to create a cheaper, more energy efficient feedstock for fish.

→ Farmer fairness hotline. The USDA and the Department of Justice launched farmerfairness.gov, an online portal allowing farmers and ranchers to report potential anticompetitive practices in the livestock and poultry industries.

→ Model me this. A new bipartisan bill was introduced last week that would make the EPA update its greenhouse gas modeling to better reflect emissions reductions coming from biofuels.

→ Eminent domain debate. Proposed carbon pipelines in the Midwest have launched a new debate on whether the companies can seize land from property owners who aren’t interested in selling.

→ Not to be confused with a tractor parade… Hundreds of farmers in Greece protested skyrocketing energy costs by parking tractors on a national highway. 

→ Greenlight got the green light. Greenlight Biosciences, the startup making RNA products for agriculture and human health, completed its Nasdaq public listing last week at a $1.2B valuation.

AGRIBUSINESS

Steve Jones / Getty Images

Sometimes we feed our pets better than we feed ourselves, but a new partnership might test that sentiment. And it just might bug you.

French flies: France-based InnovaFeed is partnering with Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (ADM) in Illinois to provide some tasty treats to Fido’s feed. Tasty, as in—yep—bugs.

You buggin’: The company will produce feed ingredients from black soldier flies for use in pet food manufacturing. This option provides high-quality nutritional value alongside a lower carbon footprint and fewer required acres of land. The U.S. recently loosened its restrictions on allowing the use of the fly in food for dogs.

Head and thoraxes above the rest: ADM will be able to produce 60K metric tons of protein and 20K tons of oils for pet food and livestock, poultry, and fish feed. Not only will the little soldiers be on the front lines of producing food: their waste will also produce 400K tons of fertilizer.

Wings up: InnovaFeed is planning to build a Bug’s Life of a research and development plant located near ADM next year and commercialize the buggy doggo din-din by 2024. Even more, they’re aiming to incorporate bugs into human products like energy bars and sports drinks. Gotta build up our ant-y bodies. 

Grains: Corn followed soybeans surge which all happened due to projected losses in the South American crop.

Livestock: Strong demand took hogs higher for the day.

*As of Market Close [2/7/22] 

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Today’s trivia comes from Magnetic reader David S.

In which U.S. state do chickens outnumber people?

Answer at the bottom of the email.

**Win a Magnetic koozie when you submit a trivia question and it gets used in a future newsletter! Submit questions here.

AGTECH

GIPHY

Blockchain technology isn’t just for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies: applying it to food traceability is closer than you think. 

How close? Try November, when the FDA is scheduled to finish writing the rule requiring the food industry to keep and update records on supply chain events like growing, receiving, transforming, creating, and shipping for specific products—essentially tracking a vegetable from farm to supermarket.

Although blockchain may sound complicated, Wal-Mart, Nestle SA, and other food industry partners have been walking down the blockchain path since the Food Trust launched in 2018, using technologies from IBM. Today, more than 500 organizations have joined the Food Trust.

Soundbite: "For the food and beverage industry this opens up a whole world of opportunity," said Jimmy Nguyen, founding president of the Bitcoin Association. "It means you can create applications that allow better traceability on food and beverage items including to document source of origin… as well as achieving sustainability goals."

But that’s not all… Blockchain in the food industry can also be used to track inventory, provide consumers with detailed ingredient information, fight counterfeiting and fraud, boost reward and loyalty programs, and allow simpler auditing and reporting. 

Where this goes: While many would agree blockchain is the future of food traceability, it must overcome its largest hurdle—simplification—to be more widely accepted.

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Chickens outnumber residents in Delaware by more than 200-to-1.

Written by Aaron Dunajeski, Sheridan Wimmer, Amelia VanLandegen, and Travis Martin

Edited by Ashley Scoby

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