Soybeans and Twitter Wars

Welcome back Food Junglers. It’s been a busy week as 2025 starts to accelerate into chaos. What fun. Of course, apologies for the late issue. I’ve started a new job, so still trying to find my feet. Anyway, let’s dig in.

This week:

🗑️ The US is nowhere near its food waste goals.

👨‍🍳 A celebrity chef hits back at Donald Trump.

🌵 Lidl is betting big on plant-based products.

🚜 China and Brazil go head-to-head in a soybean dispute.

🐔 Bird Flu has now spread to the mighty state of Georgia…

CLIMATE
FOOD WASTE AIN’T GOING AWAY

The United States is nowhere near its goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030, according to new analysis from the University of California, Davis.

In September 2015, the U.S. set a target of reducing food waste by 50 percent. The idea was to reduce the amount of food that ends up in landfills, where it emits greenhouse gases as it decomposes.

Researchers calculated that, even when taking reduction measures into account, the U.S. still generates about 328 pounds of food waste per person annually — which is also how much waste was being generated per person in 2016.

ZOOMING OUT: The study’s findings were “not surprising” given the absence of federal policy governing food waste, said Lori Leonard, chair of the Department of Global Development at Cornell University.

“People are trying to do what they can at state and municipal levels,” she said. “But we really need national leadership on this issue.”

POLICY
CHEF HITS BACK AT TRUMP

Chef José Andrés is firing back on President Trump’s claim he was “fired” as a presidential appointee, calling on the commander in chief to “put politics and name calling aside”.

In a social media post the President wrote that Andrés, a celebrity chef and founder of World Central Kitchen, was one of “over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration” who “are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again.”

Andrés, a vocal critic of the 47th president, said, “I hope @realdonaldtrump exercises his presidential authority so the Council can continue to advocate for fitness and good health for all Americans. These are bipartisan issues…nonpartisan issues.”

ZOOMING OUT: Given Trump’s allegiance with RFK Jr. – the incoming US Health Secretary who aims to make America healthy again – the president looks keen to prioritise healthy eating.

However, these kinds of social media outbursts obscure this vision. Perhaps it will become clear in the coming months as his new cabinet takes shape.

BUSINESS
LIDL BETS ON PLANT-BASED

In collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), supermarket giant Lidl has committed to increasing the proportion of plant-based foods sold by 20% by 2030, compared to 2023 levels.

This initiative is part of Lidl’s broader effort to align its product offerings with the Planetary Health Diet (PHD) guidelines by 2050.

To encourage the adoption of plant-based diets, Lidl has introduced pricing initiatives to make plant-based products as affordable as their animal-based counterparts. The retailer has also implemented carbon footprint labelling on select products to help consumers make informed choices.

ZOOMING OUT: Lidl’s sustainability efforts extend beyond product development. As the first major UK retailer to achieve the Vegetarian Society’s Plant-Based Trademark, Lidl has prioritised transparency and consumer trust in its vegan offerings.

Its commitment to sustainability aligns with its broader climate targets, including an 70% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.

SUPPLY CHAIN
CHINA SHAMES BRAZIL

China, the world's biggest soybean buyer, has stopped receiving Brazilian soybean shipments from five firms after cargoes did not meet plant health requirements, according to a statement from the Brazilian government.

The phytosanitary-related suspension comes as Brazil has been bolstering its share of the world's biggest soybean market at the expense of the No. 2 exporter, the United States.

Brazilian soybean export shipments remain seasonally light early in the South American harvest. But loadings are due to surge over the coming weeks as more of the harvested crop is moved to market, at which point suspensions could be far more disruptive.

ZOOMING OUT: It's also an unexpected twist in the global agricultural supply chain, as U.S. President Donald J. Trump's threats of renewed tariffs against Chinese imports have increased geopolitical tensions between the world's top two economies.

HEALTH
BIRD FLU HITS GEORGIA

All poultry activities have been suspended in the state of Georgia after bird flu was confirmed in a commercial poultry operation, officials said Friday.

This marks the first time bird flu has been confirmed in a commercial poultry operation in Georgia since the nationwide outbreak began in 2022, and the fifth time the virus has been detected in the state.

All poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets and sales in Georgia have been suspended until further notice, the state’s agriculture department announced. Also, all commercial poultry operations within a 6-mile radius have been placed under quarantine.

ZOOMING OUT: An increasing number of bird flu cases among commercial and wild flocks have been confirmed nationwide, with 94 confirmed in the last month, according to the USDA.

Of those, half were commercial flocks, while the other half were backyard flocks. There were 11.16 million birds affected, the department said.

BEFORE YOU GO…

• With hopes of a European launch growing, Californian plant-based meat leader Impossible Foods has had a patent for its heme protein reinstated in the EU.

• The French government’s proposed labelling ban on plant-based meat products could be cancelled by its top court, echoing a similar decision by its EU counterpart.

• Private label sales achieved a new high last year, hitting $271 billion, according to Circana data cited by the Private Label Manufacturers Association.

• Prices for U.S. corn appear to be rebounding ahead of the next planting season for U.S. farmers, this after tumbling last year to their lowest levels since the Covid-19 pandemic.