Good morning.
If you had "learn more about a sordid vegetable oil tale from the 1950s and 60s" on your bingo card this morning... well, it's your lucky day.
This old-time heist story involves the theft of $1B worth of soybean and cottonseed oil (in today's currency), a really big uh oh from American Express, the delivery of spoiled lard to Yugoslavia, a whole bunch of Cadillacs, and a man nicknamed the Salad Oil King.
There's a lot to unpack there.
But maybe everyone involved with this man could have seen what was coming: after all, anybody who starts a sentence with "I have a brilliant and productive mind, and I could do more for our fats and oils business than anyone else in the world" is probably going to take you on a ride. Read the full story here.
Stories:
- Tense Transportation
- H-2A Wage Hikes: Rules and Resistance
- Crop Dusting Drone Gets FAA Approval
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Bump, bump, bump went the brakes: The transportation industry is a bit bumpy right now. An index that measures logistics and transportation health hit an all-time low in March. Truck, ocean, and rail have been thwarted by lasting impacts from the pandemic and labor issues.
Which coast is the best coast? According to logistical data, the West Coast is getting 36% of import shipments, down 42% from the second part of last year. The East Coast is seeing 64% of shipments.
Take us back, back to COVID, COVID: During the pandemic, ports were seeing major backlogs and supply chain crunches. Not to mention the labor shortages. These issues meant the East Coast was getting more incoming ships.
Aboat the ports: Although the worst of COVID-related supply chain snags seem to be behind us, the reason for slowdowns now is temporary work stoppages due to contract negotiations between unions.
At the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, U.S. ag exports are seeing a boatload of losses after a union there stopped work. Shipments of meat, dairy, produce, and other goods destined for Asia are now trying to be saved, while these companies see their dollars walk the plank.
And when shipments arrived in those ports, they had to look for alternative routes.
Portable negotiations: The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association are in negotiations, but recently released differing statements—the former saying it reached a tentative agreement, while the latter says there’s still some work to do.
Potential strikes: Experts don’t think there will be a strike since it would undermine negotiations, but should anything happen, Congress needs to be ready to intervene if needed.
Is it time for rail? 52% of all rail freight consists of bulk commodities, like ag and energy products. Last fall’s threats of labor strikes in the rail industry and recent derailments haven’t helped transportation matters.
And grain shippers have noticed issues, citing inconsistent service. Legislation has been introduced as the Railway Safety Act of 2023.
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→ California hydrating. While there are still ongoing flooding issues in some parts of the state after an historically wet winter, California water districts will receive 100% requested water deliveries for the first time since 2006.
→ More grain pain. Group of Seven countries are considering a total ban on exports to Russia—and now Russia is threatening to pull out of the safe-transit deal that’s helped facilitate Ukraine grains through Black Sea ports.
→ Pigs on the move. After a fire this week at a Tyson Foods plant in Nebraska that usually slaughters 8,250 hogs a day, pigs are being transported to other plants to keep supply chain disruptions to a minimum.
→ An over-correction? Just months after the Mississippi River was at such low levels that it was disrupting barge traffic, the river is now flooding in parts of the Midwest.
→ Tides are a-changin’. Off the back of a La Niña season, El Niño is set to make a comeback, which could signify better crop yields in the Midwest.
→ Limping hemp (values). Hemp production value in the U.S. was at $238M in 2022—which is down 71% from year-ago levels.
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H-2A Wage Hikes: Rules and Resistance |
TheaDesign from Getty Images
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You can now add "H-2A seasonal guest worker costs" to that list of seemingly everything that’s going up in price.
Maybe…
The deets: Late last year, the U.S. Department of Labor made a calculation rule change to the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) that adjusted the way and amount that H-2A workers get paid.
You can geek out on all of the acronyms and minute details here, but the bottom line is this:
Labor costs are going up.
Under the new rule, wage rates across the country for these important ag workers will increase by around 12%, but the increases vary widely based on region.
Farmers in sunny California can expect to see the lowest percent increase, but farmers in the Deep South will see major increases… with small farmers being hit the hardest.
In the Peach State, farm worker wages will increase by over $1.50 per hour (that’s 14%), adding an extra $120M in costs to Georgia growers.
Help from the Hill? In response to these expected wage hikes, the Agriculture Workforce Coalition (and its 550 member organizations) sent a letter to Congress urging them to introduce resolutions to the Congressional Review Act that would disapprove the AEWR calculation methods.
Touting the rule’s trickle-down adverse effect on grocery bills, Senator Tim Scott (SC) said this:
"When big government makes it more difficult to put food on the table, you know there’s been a monumental failure of leadership."
Ouch.
Where this goes: Resistance to the increases is gaining momentum from Republicans, but it’s not yet certain how the cards will fall when Congress eventually takes a vote.
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The oldest continuous agricultural experiment in the Western Hemisphere has gone digital. Information on crop hybrid, rotation, planting density, yield, and fertilizer type/amount for the Morrow Plots are all accessible online to scientists, students, and educators worldwide.
Two-part question: Which land grant university is the home of the Morrow Plots, and what year did the experiment begin?
Answer at the bottom of the email.
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Crop Dusting Drone Gets FAA Approval |
After being the first to receive FAA approval for their commercial eVTOL system, Guardian Agriculture is set up in a League of their Drone—err, own.
eVTOL what? Guardian’s Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) system, The Guardian SC1, is designed to precisely and safely deliver crop protection autonomously. Think drone meets crop duster. The concept isn’t new—but the ability to provide large-scale, full-field coverage at a realistic price point is.
The SC1 can carry 200-pound payloads with several options for application spray volumes. The equipment has four six-foot propellers, is 15 feet wide, and can cover 40 acres/hour. According to Guardian, the charge time is similar to what it takes to fuel a pickup truck.
Flying to the future: With more than $100M in customer orders already stacked up, Guardian is set to begin commercial operations in California this spring while ramping up production capacity.
Soundbite: "This is just the start. The real-world experience we’ll accumulate allows us to demonstrate our system’s safety and reliability, which we can leverage across other use cases and products outside of agriculture." — Guardian Agriculture COO, Jeff Sparks
Background: In 2022 Guardian landed a multi-million dollar partnership with Wilbur-Ellis, an ag products manufacturer. The deal allows Wilbur-Ellis customers to receive first access to the eVTOLs.
Soundbite: Wilbur-Ellis VP of supplier relations, Willie Negroni, said FAA approval meant that Guardian "is uniquely positioned to change the face of farming for the better. For the first time, we now have a reliable, cost-effective, and sustainable solution in the form of the Guardian SC1. We are so confident in the technology and the Guardian team that we are not only a customer, but also an investor."
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1876.
"I’ve gotten requests from government and university researchers, both in the U.S. and abroad. They’re mainly modelers trying to link weather patterns with yield and soil data; a lot of modelers salivate at the Morrow Plots data." – Andrew Margenot, University of Illinois assistant professor in crop sciences
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Written & Edited by Sheridan Wimmer, Kevin Cross, Jen Hill, Amelia VanLandegen, and Ashley Scoby
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