Smithfield Price-Fixing Settlement and Surge in Renewable Diesel

**The USDA plans to invest $8 million to support and expand monitoring of carbon in soil on working agricultural lands as well as track how climate-smart practices are affecting carbon sequestration.

This is part of the USDA's efforts to build out a national soil carbon monitoring network, which was kicked off on

Conservation Reserve Program acres in 2021.

Proposals for regional projects focused on soil organic carbon stock monitoring are due November 28.

**Smithfield Foods agreed to pay $75 million to settle a price-fixing lawsuit.

Smithfield spokesman Jim Monroe says the company denied liability in settling, and that the accord reduces the distraction, risk, and cost of protracted litigation.

Smithfield previously reached settlements worth $83 million with direct purchasers and $42 million with commercial purchasers.

Other defendants include Hormel Foods, Tyson Foods, and data provider Agri Stats, Inc.

Smithfield is based in Virginia and owned by WH Group out of Hong Kong.

**A new report from CoBank says the recent investment surge in U.S. renewable diesel production capacity is likely to ignite a period of growth and transition for the biofuels industry.

CoBank’s Ken Zuckerberg says, the outlook for biofuels is good as the U.S. and other developed countries embrace renewable liquid transportation fuels as a solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

CoBank says U.S. soybean acreage would need to grow by 17.9 million acres to fill the supply gap.