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Advertisement AGRICULTURE Farm and fisherman bankruptcies hit five-year high amid low prices and high costs After years of low crop prices and rising costs, America's small farmers are facing a crisis brought on by higher interest rates, Trump's trade war, and dramatically reduced demand from China. In the first half of the year, small-business bankruptcies filed by farmers and fisherman hit the highest number since 2020, which was the tail end of a similar cycle of low-prices. Farm debt is expected to hit $561.8 billion in this year, a record high, according to the US Department of Agriculture. 'We've had three years of tough sledding here where breakevens are at or below cost,' said Brett Bruggeman, the chief operating officer at Land O'Lakes Inc., one of the biggest farmer-owned cooperatives in the United States. Soybean, corn, and pork producers have been among the hardest hit farmers in recent years as China began buying more from competitors in Brazil and other parts of Latin America. Before President Trump's first term in office in 2017, US farmers dominated the Chinese import market, said Joseph A. Peiffer, with the Iowa-based law firm Ag & Business Legal Strategies. Today Brazil occupies that position, he said. 'Once you lose a customer it's awful hard to get them back,' he said. Firms that specialize in restructuring farm debt have seen an increase in business, lawyers said. Land O'Lakes said its members are seeing dwindling cash reserves and growing concerns about the 2026 crop year. More new growers have been applying to a Land O'Lakes program that helps finance crop inputs like seeds and nutrients. — BLOOMBERG NEWS Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up SODA Advertisement Coca-Cola could turn to cane sugar. But can US growers meet demand? After four decades drinking Coca-Cola sweetened with corn syrup, Americans are going to get the chance to buy the soda made from domestic cane sugar. But whether US farmers can meet that demand is unclear. Coca-Cola Co. said Tuesday it will launch the new Coke variety this fall, a week after President Trump said the company had agreed to start using the sweetener. The move is hardly an outlandish idea. In fact, Coke sold in other countries like Mexico is sweetened with cane sugar. And the company relied on cane sugar before switching to high fructose corn syrup around 1980. While the company will still be using corn syrup for original Coke, the addition of a domestic cane-based soda could help growers in Louisiana and Florida at a time when demand has been slow. However, a sustained bump in demand — especially if other companies follow Coca-Cola's lead — risks outstripping homegrown availability. US cane only makes up about 30 percent of overall domestic sugar supplies, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The rest comes from imports, which were about 2.2 million metric tons for the 2025-26 season, and American-grown sugar beets that perform better in colder climates. A sugar supply shortfall would likely mean more cane imports from Mexico and Brazil, exposing American companies and consumers to higher prices just as they are facing market upheaval from Trump's tariffs. Cane sugar is more expensive than high-fructose corn syrup. On top of that, long-standing import tariffs mean US raw cane sugar futures are already more than double what the rest of the world pays. That price gap widened to a record on Tuesday. — BLOOMBERG NEWS Advertisement HOUSING MARKET US home sales slow again as prices keep pushing record highs Sales of previously owned US homes fell in June to a nine-month low as potential buyers continued to bristle at record prices and high borrowing costs. Contract closings decreased 2.7 percent in June to an annualized rate of 3.93 million, a report from the National Association of Realtors showed Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected a 4 million sales rate. The median sales price increased 2 percent in June from a year ago to $435,300. Home prices continue to rise even after a recent pickup in inventory. 'Multiple years of undersupply are driving the record high home price. Home construction continues to lag population growth,' Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in a statement. 'High mortgage rates are causing home sales to remain stuck at cyclical lows.' Yun said on a call with reporters that it's typical to see high home prices this time of year because families want to move before the school year begins. The nation's home-resale market is likely to limp along for the foreseeable future as would-be buyers contend with mortgage rates hovering near 7 percent and prices that are up almost 50 percent from five years ago. While home listings have increased this year, many owners are hesitant to give up mortgages secured at much lower rates. — BLOOMBERG NEWS Advertisement RIDE-HAILING Uber to test program to match female riders and drivers Uber Technologies Inc. is piloting a new ride type in the United States that will match female riders and drivers, expanding access to a safety feature it already offers in some international markets. The service will launch in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit over the next few weeks, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Riders will see a new on-demand ride option called 'Women Drivers' alongside the existing UberX, Comfort, UberXL, and Black offerings. Customers can reserve such a trip in advance, or set their preference in the app settings to increase the likelihood of being matched with a woman driver. Female drivers, who make up about 1 in 5 of Uber's US driver population, can similarly choose that preference in the settings of their driver app. Drivers' eligibility for the program will be based on the gender listed on their license. For riders, it will be determined by their first name or whether they specified their gender as female on their Uber profile. 'It's about giving women more choice, more control, and more comfort when they ride and drive,' said Camiel Irving, vice president of operations in the US and Canada. Cities that have a bigger population of women drivers will be the ones that get the feature sooner, she said, but added that the three options are designed to allow different ways of matching without compromising wait times and service availability. The company also sees the option as a way to attract more female drivers to the platform. — BLOOMBERG NEWS Advertisement