November 25, 2026
1. Imported foods are getting riskier
A year into Trump's second term, the food industry should take note of increasing risks related to a string of DOGE-driven cuts at the FDA. Two of the most important FDA oversight areas are the inspection of foreign food handling facilities, and the tracking of pathogens (opens a new window), and the agency is going to struggle with both initiatives for the foreseeable future.
Imagine a basketball team playing defense with three players, and it's easy to see why more contaminated food is going to slip into our country moving forward. To be blunt, it's a simple math equation that more people are going to get sick or die as a result of consuming more contaminated foods.
Seafood and produce are particularly high risk categories. Import distributors, restaurants, and grocers, all need to take a very careful look at their risk management programs and quick. Recall insurance in particular should be reviewed to ensure coverage levels are adequate for higher potential claims moving forward.
2. Should our foods really be this bright?
Robert F. Kennedy, the current Secretary of Health and Human Services, is on a crusade to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). A core tenant of his strategy is to rid our food supply chain of many colorants and additives, suggesting that cleaner eating can drive better health and reduce disease rates.
Titanium dioxide is a synthetic white pigment, used in thousands of foods in our grocery stores, and often labeled only as an "artificial colorant". It is technically a mineral, rather than a petroleum based synthetic dye like Red 40 or Yellow 5, and this distinction might be allowing it to fly under the regulatory radar so far.
While no definitive studies have proven this additive to be harmful, it was notably banned in the European Union in 2022 (opens a new window) after some research showed it may build up in the body and even damage DNA. Food manufacturers should expect increased scrutiny on this and any other additives with even a shroud of data suggesting they cause health problems. Reformulating old recipes takes time and money, but it may be a better course than risking litigation or product recall. The era of shiny, neon foods, may be sunsetting.
Learn more about food additive risks with Lockton here (opens a new window)
3. The high fades for hemp
As part of the senate compromise to end the government shutdown last week, the party is over for hemp, or at least on pause (opens a new window). The industry has grown to nearly $30B since the passage of the 2018 farm bill, which intended to support hemp farmers by legalizing a new market of wellness product containing CBD. A key requirement was that the products could not be psychoactive, and could only contain near zero levels of intoxicating TCH.
The bill writers did not, however, predict what happened next. With hemp federally legalized, entrepreneurs quickly started extracting other psychoactive compounds from the hemp, namely Delta 8 and Delta 10. This extraction process, and the interstate commerce of the products, became an open and fast-growing market that is now approaching $3B. The market effectively created a completely unregulated and shadowy market for pseudo-weed. The loophole that allowed this entire scheme will now be closed, and market participants as well as hemp farmers have just a year to adapt.
A core role of government is to protect consumers, and it's quite surprising it has taken them seven years to address this issue. Lobbyists for hemp will fight hard for regulation rather than an outright ban, and sellers meanwhile will be looking for other things to sell. There is no magical insurance coverage to hedge against pivots in policy, but old-fashioned diversification of product lines is the next best thing.
Learn more about cannabis related coverages with Lockton here (opens a new window)
4. Takeaways from the COP30 climate conference
When nearly 200 countries gathered in Brazil last week to strategize on mitigating climate change, the Americans were notably absent—not a great look for the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases. It has been 10 years since the signing of the Paris Accord (opens a new window), an agreement that the U.S. has bounced in and out of as we went from Trump (out) to Biden (In) and back to Trump (out).
The main goal of the Paris accord is to keep post-1900 temperature gains from exceeding +1.5 degrees Celsius. While there has been meaningful progress in the expected run rate over these 10 years, the current projection is closer to +2.6 degrees, and that single extra degree makes a massive difference in the types of weather climate models are predicting.
The food supply chain makes up around a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions (opens a new window), and lots of R&D investments are working to drive that number down. Unfortunately, food and ag more than any other sector will face dire consequences as weather turns more extreme. The chart below shows that a child born this year will live in a world of incessant heat waves and droughts, and nearly five times more crop failures. The insurance industry is delivering innovative coverages for these risks.
Learn more about coverages for natural disasters from Lockton here (opens a new window)
5. Beef prices are going to the Moon
The U.S. cattle herd is the smallest it has been in over 70 years. Ranchers are making good money, but beef packers are in the red. The American consumers demand for beef is astounding, even as prices are 50% higher than just a few years ago (opens a new window)! Trump has rolled back tariffs on Brazil (opens a new window) to entice more beef into the U.S., but the reality is those volumes aren't going to move the market in any meaningful way. It will take years to rebuild the herd size, which means as long as demand is strong, prices are going to stay high.
