Vertical farming won’t replace conventional farming, but researchers say vertical farming is happening now, and growing.

Research by Stanford University shows vertical farming is growing and will likely be needed to complement traditional farms to “meet the food demands of tomorrow.”

Vertical farming is the practice of producing food in vertically-stacked layers. The farms are in enclosures that provide a controlled environment to grow crops, with high-data monitoring. Stanford says vertical farms offer year-round growing capacities, less water consumption, and improved crop predictability. For example, AeroFarms, a 70,000-square-foot vertical farm in a renovated steel plant in New Jersey, claims 95 percent less water use and 390 times more productivity than a commercial field farm with the same square footage.

The vertical farming market is expected to be worth $5.8 billion, by 2022, according to market research firms.

Withdraw threats by President Donald Trump regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement are putting transportation jobs at risk. Politico says that thousands of transportation jobs up and down the Mississippi River and across truck and rail networks are at stake, including those involved in the shipment of agricultural products. Barges loaded with grain shipped along the Mississippi River head to New Orleans, and boards cargo ships destined for Mexico, among other locations. Mexico imported $3.6 billion of wheat, corn and other cereal grains from the United States last year. Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of U.S. NAFTA freight is carried by trucks, according to the Transportation Department. Finally, tearing up NAFTA would have a “huge” impact on railroads, according to the Association of American Railroads. At least 42 percent of rail cars are directly associated with overall international trade, and approximately 50,000 rail jobs are dependent on international trade.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and National Farmers Union Wednesday announced Farm Town Strong, a campaign to address the rural opioid epidemic. The Farm Town Strong campaign comes on the heels of a recent survey commissioned by AFBF and NFU that highlighted how the opioid epidemic has hit farmers and farm workers especially hard. While just under half of rural Americans say that they, a family member or friend have been directly impacted by opioid addiction, for farmers and farm workers it’s 74 percent. The campaign will provide resources and information to help farm communities and encourage farmer-to-farmer support to overcome the crisis. The groups have launched a new website, www.FarmTownStrong.org, to provide access to information and resources that can help struggling farm families and rural communities.

A recent Department of Agriculture report shows that millennials prefer fruits and vegetables over grains and meats. The USDA report analyzed food-buying data by generation. Agri-Pulse reports that millennials spend the smallest share of their food budgets on grains, white meat and red meat. Millennials, those born between 1981 and the mid-2000s, are now the largest, most diverse living generation, surpassing Baby Boomers, in the United States. As such, USDA says their purchasing behavior heavily influences the current retail landscape. Another important finding is that as they have more money to spend, millennials appear to have a stronger preference for fruits and vegetables than other older generations. The report also says millennials do spend more on red meat as their income rises. However, economists found a clear trend, noting that there are “consistent generational differences in meat consumption,” finding each expenditure trend for white and red meat decreases with each younger generation.

A University of Illinois economist expects 2018 crop prices to remain below high levels seen earlier this decade due to global inventories. Economist Todd Hubbs explains that global economic growth continues to build on the momentum seen over the last year, offering some limited upside for demand. Growth in China and emerging markets in Asia is projected to remain strong throughout 2018. The prospects of improved growth support commodity demand, but significant changes to trade policy could mitigate the demand growth in export markets. Meanwhile, Hubbs says that the livestock markets continue to respond to the growing demand for meat globally and lower feed costs. Prices in the livestock sector look to level out after declining from the highs seen in 2014 and the subsequent supply response. Meanwhile, livestock production levels are expected to increase in 2018.

The U.S. and South Korea will hold formal trade talks starting Friday regarding the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, known as KORUS. Officials from Korea and the U.S. will meet in Washington, D.C. Friday to discuss “potential amendments and modifications” to the five-year-old deal, according to Politico. The two nations met last year to discuss concerns surrounding the trade agreement as President Trump repeatedly criticized the trade pact, and threatened to withdraw the U.S. unless changes are made. However, U.S. officials have so far not followed trade promotion authority procedures required to pursue major changes to the deal, suggesting they do not anticipate the talks will result in changes to U.S. law that would require congressional approval. South Korea was the third largest importer of U.S. corn during the latest marketing year, and is currently the fifth largest U.S. agricultural export market.

The U.S. Grains Council issued a report on this year’s corn harvest quality, saying a good growing season resulted in record yields that had very good quality. The report says the majority of crop conditions in 2017 were good-to-excellent. That led to strong plant size, good kernel health, and a projected record yield of 370.3 million metric tons, or 14.58 billion bushels. If the projection turns out to be accurate, it would be the second-largest harvest on record. The report says just over 95 percent of America’s corn crop rated at U.S. grade number 2 or better. That result came from an extended planting period, a warm and wet vegetative period, a cool and dry grain-filling period, and a warm, wet, and slow harvest. The average test weight came in at 58.4 pounds per bushel, higher than the five-year average, and shows excellent kernel-fill and maturation. Roughly 98 percent of samples tested below the Food and Drug Administration’s action-level for aflatoxins, which is 20 parts per billion. 100 percent of the samples tested below the FDA-mandated advisory level for vomitoxins.