Americans’ thirst for cheap milk – and grocers’ rush to provide it – are remaking the centuries-old dairy industry. When supermarket shoppers reach for white gallon jugs these days, most of the time they grab a low-priced store brand. To expand those offerings, major grocery retailers, including Kroger Co., Walmart Inc. and Albertsons Cos., have built their own milk-bottling plants. (Fox6)  

With nearly seven months gone, an ambitious $36.5 billion target for Chinese imports of U.S. farm goods this year may not be quite out of reach, but it’s looking like a big, big stretch. By end-May, imports were running behind 2017 levels – rather than 50% ahead as needed – and while orders for China’s main farm import, soybeans, have started to pick up, scorching levels of buying would be needed to hit the mark. (Reuters)  

Farmland has become steadily more expensive, and the pool of farmers and their heirs who can afford to buy it is shrinking. Yet there’s a growing appetite for it among investors, including pension funds and wealthy individuals. (NPR)  

Seafood vessels and processing plants have become hotspots for the virus in coastal states like Alaska where fishing is a critical industry – similar to the spate of outbreaks at meatpacking sites across the Midwest. (Politico)  

Corn prices in China are soaring, which could be good news for American farmers. As China’s formerly bloated stockpiles shrink, prices have climbed to a five-year high. (Wall Street Journal)

Soybean futures lower in overnight trading; ethanol production surges to highest level in four months; flood warnings, watches in effect for parts of several midwestern states. (Successful Farming)