A class action case charges that chicken farmers are so beholden to middlemen that they are effectively employees of the company.
agriculture
Posted inEconomic Policy
Progressives Want to Ban Trading of California Water Futures
A new bill would prevent traders, farmers, and industrial users of water from betting on price swings.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Developing Countries Strained by Rich-World Monetary Tightening
A new report shows how rising commodity prices, on top of macroeconomic tightening by the Fed, could spark riots in low- and middle-income countries.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Fertilizer Firms Spread Wealth to Shareholders as Farmers Weather Extreme Prices
U.S. officials have banned fertilizer imports from key overseas competitors while domestic firms fork over billions in stock buybacks.
Posted inBooks
How High Energy Prices Emboldened Putin
Rupert Russell’s new book shows how the financialization of commodity prices worsens volatility and destabilizes geopolitics. It couldn’t be more timely.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Rollups: The Big Tech Monopoly Down on the Farm
John Deere refuses to allow farmers to repair their own equipment. That’s because it wants to control farm technology and data, critics contend.
Posted inWorking in America
How Farmworkers Are Organizing to Close the Wage Gap
Agricultural workers in New York just formed the state’s first farmworker union, but a new law guaranteeing overtime protections and organizing rights has been delayed.
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
A Missing Link in the Fight Against the Climate Crisis
Under Trump and in the years of austerity, scientists fled the EPA and other agencies. The race to save the planet requires swift and extensive hiring policies.
Posted inWorking in America
Newsom Vetoes Union Vote-by-Mail Bill for Farmworkers
Assembly Bill 616 would have made it easier for California farmworkers to vote to unionize by allowing them to fill out and mail ballots as absentees.
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
New York Dairy Farms Skirt Clean Water Act Requirements
Farms in New York have used a form of legal arbitrage to shield their manure management practices from scrutiny.