Andy Vance

In breaking news this morning, my Feedstuffs colleague Rod Smith reported that Virginia’s Smithfield Foods, one of the world’s largest food companies, has been acquired by China’s Shuanghui International Holdings for $4.7 billion dollars. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal – should it pass U.S. regulatory scrutiny – could become the largest Chinese [...]

Sometimes I’m convinced people just need to have something to be against, because they lack something to be for. Pardon the grammatical horrors of that last sentence. It’s just that I’m scratching my head over the recent “March Against Monsanto” that allegedly attracted 2 million participants in some 400+ cities. What exactly are you mad [...]

The last column I wrote in 2011 dealt with the historic agreement between United Egg Producers and Wayne Pacelle’s Humane Society of the United States. Like many in agriculture, I was less than thrilled with the idea that one of the leading farm industry organizations was playing ball with the leading animal rights lobbying group. [...]

My colleagues at Feedstuffs shared the first available commercial data on hen performance and egg production in an enriched colony housing system in a report released on the publication’s website earlier today. The colony system, negotiated as the solution to differences of opinion between United Egg Producers and Wayne Pacelle’s Humane Society of the United [...]

Trade is a pretty common topic in agriculture. Because exports play a significant role in the bottom lines of farmers producing many different commodities, and because the policies of our trading partners and competitors can affect our ability to do business overseas, farmers are understandably interested in issues of trade around the globe. As it [...]