Climate Smart Cotton Program and Retail Food Prices Higher
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**U.S. cotton growers can apply now through Sept. 1 for the Climate Smart Cotton Program, a five-year initiative led by the Cotton Trust Protocol.
The program aims to measure and improve the carbon footprint of U.S. cotton.
Participating growers will receive technical and financial support as well as other benefits to enhance their operations, profitability and environmental stewardship.
Applications will be approved on a first-come first-served basis.
www.gfb.org/media-and-publications/news.cms/2023/1525/cotton-growers-can-apply-for-climate-smart-cotton-program
**Retail food prices increased 4.8% in the first six months of 2023, down from last year’s midyear inflation rate of 8.2%.
USDA’s Economic Research Service reports the 20-year average for midyear inflation was 1.6%.
All food categories increased in price in the first six months of 2023 compared with last year, but the increases for meats, fresh fruits, fish and seafood, and fresh vegetables, were below their historical averages.
**Global events over the past few years have created an unprecedented “polycrisis” that’s disproportionately hurt small-scale farmers and people living in food-deficit countries.
In a new report from the Farm Journal Foundation, the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine war, and climate change have created far-reaching impacts across global food systems, affecting food, fertilizer, feed, fuel, and financing available to producers.
