California Dates Hitting Shelves and Holiday Cooking Essentials

**Fresh California dates are hitting shelves again after some suppliers ran short following a crop disaster last year.

Farms in the Coachella Valley, where most U.S.-produced dates are grown, are in the midst of harvest that runs July through November.

Last August, Tropical Storm Hilary devastated the Riverside County crop, causing some producers to deplete their supply months ago.

This year, growers are hoping for a strong rebound.

**The Fall and Winter holidays are just around the corner, but USDA says the essentials for holiday cooking have been accumulating in cold storage.

Stocks of bone-in and boneless hams at the end of July stand at 1.2% above last year.

Whole-hen turkey stocks totaled 109.4 million pounds, an increase of 12.5%.

Butter in cold storage was 7% above 2023.

The 2024 beef production forecast is adjusted slightly higher.

**The Environmental Working Groups filed a lawsuit against Tyson Foods, the second-largest meat company in the world.

The suit accuses the company of making “false or misleading” marketing claims targeting consumers concerned about climate change.

It targets Tyson’s claims that its industrial meat production operations will reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and that it produces “climate-smart” beef.

The plaintiffs want to stop Tyson from continuing to make what they say is unsubstantiated environmental claims.