August 16, 2025

Spotlight Stories

Spotlight 1 – Successful Farming details an Indiana farmer’s soil transformation journey from poor fields to top yields. Check it out, here.

Spotlight 2 – AgTechNavigator asks, “why are U.S. farmers struggling to adopt sustainable ag?” Read the story, here.

Spotlight 3 – El Paso Matters writes about how pecan farmers in El Paso are innovating as drought and climate change pressure local water supplies. Take a read, here.

Industry Updates

Scientists from the University of Arizona have found that agrivoltaics, the practice of combining agricultural production with solar energy generation on the same land, can help improve crop yields and food security in dry regions. According to their research published in npj Sustainable Agriculture, agrivoltaics help reduce the effects of the midday depression in photosynthesis — a daytime drop in photosynthetic activity caused by extreme solar radiation, heat stress, and low moisture. Solar arrays placed strategically over crops produce a beneficial microclimate that lowers air temperatures, increases humidity levels, and shields crops from excessive sunlight, all of which can increase crop yields. The authors note that water-stressed regions such as "North, Central, and South America, the Middle East, and North Africa" could especially benefit from agrivoltaics to secure food supplies, reduce water scarcity, and put less strain on water supplies used for irrigation. [link]

President Donald Trump has called on China to significantly increase its soybean orders from the United States, a move that could potentially address the trade imbalance between the two nations. The President took to Truth Social to express his hope that China would quadruple its soybean orders from the U.S. to address its soybean shortage. Analysts say that this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. [link]

A new Anglo-French study suggests that spreading crushed volcanic rock on farmland could help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere — and potentially boost crop yields. However, its effectiveness depends heavily on local soil conditions. Researchers from Rothamsted Research (UK), INRAE (France), and the UK’s National Oceanography Centre tested basalt rock dust — a quarrying by-product — on two soil types: sandy and silty clay. In pot trials, they applied the dust at two rates (equivalent to 80 and 160 tonnes per hectare) and monitored changes in soil chemistry and ryegrass growth. The study found that basalt raised soil pH by about 0.8 units, improving fertility. It also released key nutrients like potassium, which significantly boosted plant growth in sandy soils. However, uptake of others — including phosphorus and trace metals — decreased in some cases, especially in nutrient-rich soils, due to altered soil chemistry. [link]

Americans will have to wait several weeks for the Trump administration’s next steps in its agenda to “Make America Healthy Again,” according to three people familiar with the matter. While President Donald Trump’s MAHA Commission will submit its strategy to the White House on Tuesday, August 12 — sticking to an executive-ordered deadline — scheduling issues stand in the way of its public release. Officials are aiming to launch their strategy by the end of this month, according to the three people familiar. The commission’s first MAHA report, issued in May, laid out the case that ultra-processed foods, pharmaceutical prescriptions and environmental toxins are driving a crisis of childhood chronic disease in America. [link]

Researchers at the University of Sharjah (UoS), in collaboration with global tech leader IBM, have unveiled My FarmWell, a pioneering mobile application designed to address water scarcity and promote sustainable agriculture across the UAE and the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Powered by IBM’s cutting-edge Environmental Intelligence Suite, the app marks a significant step forward in climate-smart farming. Hosted on IBM Cloud, the app offers localized, practical guidance to help farmers optimize irrigation, choose suitable crops, and manage water resources more efficiently. [link]

Danone is launching an Oikos yogurt drink aimed at users of Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs as the dairy giant seeks to cement the popular brand as a tool for consumers to support their nutritional needs while taking the medications. The product, called Oikos Fusion, helps consumers build and retain muscle mass, targeting the roughly 10% of the U.S. population that has tried or is using GLP-1 drugs. Danone, citing data from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, said a fifth of the weight consumers lose is muscle while taking GLP-1 medications. [link]

Proterra Investment Partners announced that it is acquiring AcreTrader, a leading farmland investment platform operating at the intersection of agriculture, finance, and technology. AcreTrader, under Proterra's ownership, is positioned to scale farmland offerings while maintaining its mission to increase access and transparency within the asset class. The transaction also further expands the growth of Acres.com as an independent platform, delivering complete land intelligence to meet its rapidly growing market demand. AcreTrader has enabled investment in over 140 farmland properties spanning 44,000 acres across 20 states, with its investment management arm, Acretrader Management, LLC, delivering net IRR ranging from 9.4% to 30.3% on realized deals. [link]

The USDA says that U.S. corn and cotton farmers who use cover crops are more likely to implement other conservation practices with soil health and environmental benefits, compared to farmers not adopting cover crops. Researchers with USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) used producer survey responses from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey to find that 8.2 percent of corn (2016 and 2021) and cotton (2015 and 2019) acres had a cover crop. Of the acreage with cover crops on cotton and corn fields, 41.4 percent also adopted no-till (growing crops without tilling or plowing the soil), and 33.0 percent adopted reduced till (growing crops with less soil disturbance than conventional tillage systems). This is compared to 28.2 percent and 31.7 percent, respectively, for fields without cover crops. [link]

The Maryland Department of Agriculture is advising rural residents to expect an increase in low-flying airplanes, helicopters, and drones until October 10, 2025. Farmers participating in Maryland’s Cover Crop Program will be using aerial seeding to plant cereal grains and other types of cover crops in their fields to protect local waterways from nutrient runoff, reduce erosion, and enhance their soil’s health for spring cash crops. Farmers enrolled in the department’s Cover Crop Program receive grants to plant cereal grains and a variety of cover crop mixes in the fall. Once established, cover crops provide a protective cover throughout the winter, helping to reduce erosion and nutrient runoff, while enhancing the soil’s organic matter for spring planting. [link]

Mars is partnering with US gene editing firm Pairwise to rapidly develop cocoa varieties with improved resilience to disease, climate stress, and supply chain volatility. The companies will use CRISPR-based methods to breed traits far faster than traditional breeding allows. Global climate change has led to weather events that have disrupted cocoa production in concentrated parts of the world, sending raw material costs soaring for Mars' chocolate products. [link]

A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford, working alongside Duurzame Zuivelketen (DZK), has outlined how the agriculture sector can ‘better contribute to global biodiversity targets without causing unintended harms’. The study, Towards positive net outcomes for biodiversity, and developing safeguards to accompany headline biodiversity indicators, which was published in npj Biodiversity, utilized data from the Dutch dairy industry – including close to 8,950 farms and approximately 1.6 million cows – to develop a scoring system to measure biodiversity impacts in relation to possible sector-wide targets. It found that while a single score can be useful when tracking overall progress, this approach can mask environmental impacts such as nutrient pollution and habitat loss. The researchers proposed a series of safeguards, or ‘clear, quantitative thresholds for major environmental pressures’ to ensure that progress made in one environmental area does not come at the expense of another. [link]

Amazon is now letting shoppers in 1,000 cities across the U.S. order perishable food items through its Same-Day Delivery service, as the e-commerce giant seeks to compete more directly with Instacart and Walmart+ in the growing quick-commerce space. Users can now order fresh grocery items, including produce, dairy, meat, seafood, baked goods, and more, alongside everyday household products, electronics, and other items available for Same-Day Delivery. Amazon says its “specialized temperature-controlled fulfillment network” will ensure that shoppers receive perishable groceries intact, and that orders undergo a six-point quality check upon arrival and before leaving for delivery. Additionally, temperature-sensitive products are delivered in insulated bags. [link]

A new report from environmental think tank The Breakthrough Institute says that the US is falling behind in the race to become the global leader in agricultural biotechnology. It notes that US farm productivity is stagnating, the agricultural trade deficit is set to reach a record high, and geopolitical competitors such as China are outspending the US 2-to-1 on agricultural R&D. Notably, the US is being outpaced by China on patents, academic papers, and regulatory approvals of gene edited crops, and urgently needs “updated and streamlined biotechnology regulations,” says the report. [link]

In Case You Missed It…

In late June, Texas Governor Greg Abbott made the state the seventh in the U.S. to ban the sale of cultivated meat, while also ordering an investigation into ultra-processed foods. See more, here.