For more than a year, misinformation that ivermectin is effective at treating or preventing the coronavirus has run rampant across social media, podcasts and talk radio. Even as the Food and Drug Administration has said the drug is not approved to cure COVID and has warned people against taking it, sales for the medicine have gone up and the demand has strained the equine and livestock world. (New York Times)

Grocery shopping has gotten more expensive. In August, grocery store prices crept up another 0.4%, leaving them 3% above their level a year earlier and 7.6% higher than they were two years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic upended the U.S. economy. Staples such as beef, pork, fish and eggs have notched double-digit increases just in the last 12 months. (USA Today)

For months farmers have been concerned about proposed tax changes, including the elimination of stepped-up basis. New research from USDA’s Economic Research Service confirms those concerns are warranted as nearly 20% of farms could have an increased tax liability, including 65% of the value of U.S. farm production. (Farm Progress)  

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is expected to announce another step toward addressing consolidation in the meat and poultry sector, an issue that’s become a bipartisan priority since the start of the pandemic. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai is set to lay out the Biden administration’s China strategy, including enforcement of the Phase One trade deal and its impact on U.S. agricultural goods. (Politico)

U.S. fuel ethanol production was down more than 1 percent the week ending Sept. 24, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Sept. 29. Stocks of fuel ethanol were up by nearly 1 percent. (Ethanol Producer Magazine

The brewing Cold War between the EU and U.S. over the future of farming risks undermining not only tens of billions of euros’ worth of agricultural trade annually, but also threatens to undercut the more fundamental aspiration to reverse global warming through cooperation on food systems. (Politico)