By Nicolás Rivero  January 1, 2026 The Washington Post Mariangela Hungria won the 2025 World Food Prize for her work on microbes that feed plants nitrogen, allowing farmers to slash fertilizer costs and pollution. Mariangela Hungria has spent four decades researching bacteria that convert nitrogen from the air into a form plants can use, boosting crop yields and reducing the need for expensive and polluting chemical fertilizers. (World Food Prize Foundation) Mariangela Hungri

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. 6:00 a.m. EST December 26, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. Soybeans are harvested on a farm in Warren, Indiana. (Michael Conroy/AP) Red-state farmers continue to struggle under damaging inflation and the fallout of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, especially with China. Mike Phillips has spent the past year reconciling his vote for Donald Trump with the uncertain future of his farm in central Iowa. The 72-year-old has been farming for five decades and till

By Maureen Farrell Dec. 23, 2025 Harvey Schwartz, chief executive of Carlyle, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, had predicted a banner year for the industry.Credit ...Alex Wong/Getty Images As funds deliver mediocre returns and shed investors, the industry is struggling to unload 31,000 investments, an increase over this time last year. Heading into 2025, private equity executives were predicting a new heyday. After several years of high interest rates and a t

By Samantha Pearson  | Photography by María Magdalena Arréllaga for WSJ Nov. 5, 2025 2:00 pm ET AUTAZES, Brazil—In the heart of the Amazon rainforest, workers are preparing to dig a vertical shaft as wide as a subway tunnel half a mile down into the ground. It isn’t gold or oil hidden here in a grassy clearing between indigenous lands, but fertilizer—something arguably just as precious to this vast farming nation. As global trade tensions flare, Brazil has replaced a growing

By Carl Zimmer  Oct. 17, 2025, 5:02 a.m. ET The New York Times Colorful microbial mats, composed of thermophilic microbes, surround a bubbling hot spring in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.Credit ...Jon G. Fuller/VWPics, via Associated Press Hundreds of scientists have joined together to save a group of species from extinction, a group that might not seem like it needs saving: microbes. Microbes need protection for many reasons, researchers say, including the fact that o

By Laura Cooper   The Wall Street Journal Oct. 10, 2025 9:00 pm ET SONOMA, Calif.—The U.S. wine industry hasn’t had it this bad since Prohibition.  The list of problems is long in California, the cradle of American wine. Vineyards have an oversupply of grapes. People are drinking less, especially younger drinkers, and tariffs have caused the biggest foreign market for U.S. wine—Canada—to dry up overnight. With this year’s grape harvest in full swing, way too much wine from p

By  Patrick Thomas  | Graphics by  Stephanie Stamm  and  Elizaveta Galkina Sept. 1, 2025 8:00 am ET Bumper crops and diminished demand...

By Alexa Robles-Gil   The New York Times Aug. 27, 2025 A black oak in the Yale-Myers Forest of northern Connecticut that was felled...

By Clara Hudson  | Aug. 26, 2025 12:12 pm ET | WSJ Pro Drought is rife in California. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News Investors...

By Dean Seal  | Photographs by Maddie McGarvey for WSJ Aug. 19, 2025 9:00 pm ET The company created a line of products for legal cannabis...

By Ksenia Shaikhutdinova August 19, 2025 WSJ Video A global look at the economic and cultural forces shaping our world. Hooters is...

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media Two of the world’s largest food and agri-business players are partnering to accelerate...

By Joseph Hoppe  July 21, 2025 6:59 am ET | WSJ Pro A car is seen part submerged in floodwater, in England. Potato prices in the U.K....

By Yusuf Khan | June 25, 2025 5:30 am ET | WSJ Pro Jim Andrew, PepsiCo’s chief sustainability officer, visits a corn grower farm in...

Published on Jun 24, 2025, 3:00 PM WSJPRO Six strategies can help food companies produce ROI from sustainability initiatives An analysis...

June 24, 2025 at 4:07 p.m. The Washington Post   By Shannon Osaka New research shows that microplastics from paint and food processing...

By Somini Sengupta  June 21, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET Staples including wheat, beef and coffee are all being affected by the lack of rainfall....

By Terrence McCoy May 6, 2025 The Washington Post Soy and corn are stored in silos in the countryside of Mato Grosso state, Brazil, in...

By Patrick Thomas April 14, 2025 9:00 am ET A farmer spreads pesticide on a field. Photo: jim watson/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images...

By Kevin Draper and Jack Nicas China has long relied on the U.S. for soybeans. But with new steep tariffs, it is likely to look even...