A bankruptcy judge has given final approval for the sale of Twinkies, Wonder Bread and many of Hostess Brands' other assets, clearing the way for the iconic products to return to shelves.

Hostess snacks - including Twinkies, Ho Hos, Ding Dongs and Zingers - were sold for $410 million to a joint venture of private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. They expect to return the product to store shelves this summer.
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Two California residents are suing Anheuser-Busch, alleging that the company waters down Budweiser and other beers "significantly" to boost profits, their attorneys announced Tuesday.

The class-action lawsuit alleges that the maker of the "King of Beers" has the technology to precisely control the amount of alcohol in its beers but adds water so that the alcohol is well below the advertised figure of 5% by volume, the suit said.
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Ask and ye shall receive.

After an outpouring of outrage, Maker's Mark announced Sunday that it won't be watering down its whiskey, after all. The bourbon producer last week said it would have to cut the alcohol volume of its signature red wax-sealed whiskey to 42%, from 45%, in order to meet rising global demand.
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Editor's Note: Brian Scott farms with his father and grandfather on 2,300 acres of land in northwest Indiana. They grow corn, soybeans, popcorn and wheat. He blogs about it at The Farmer's Life, where a version of this post originally appeared. Corporate relationships and the use of genetically modified products are complex and controversial issues, and Eatocracy will be presenting points of view on it from more farmers, food scientists and environmentalists in the coming weeks. We invite you to become part of the dialogue.

As a farmer who is active on social media, I’ve seen a lot of posts online about how corporations control farms or how farmers are slaves to “Big Ag.” Some people claim we are beholden to companies and must sign unfair contracts to be privileged enough to use their biotech seed.  They also claim the contracts rope us into buying other inputs like pesticides and herbicides from the same company.

Others make claims about how family farmers are treated by big corporations that they see as enemies of nature, monopolizing agriculture and ruthless in their greed. It’s easy to misunderstand something if you aren’t directly involved.
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Hormel Foods, the maker of Spam luncheon meat, is paying $700 million to buy the Skippy peanut butter brand from consumer products maker Unilever, the companies announced Thursday.

Hormel said Skippy has annual sales of $370 million, nearly $100 million of which comes from outside the United States. Skippy, which was first introduced in 1932, is the leading brand of peanut butter in China and the No. 2 peanut butter brand overall, behind only Jif, which is owned by J.M. Smucker.
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The New Year could push milk prices to $7 a gallon.

With Congress spending all its time trying to avert the fiscal cliff, a slew of other legislative matters are going unattended. One of them is the agriculture bill which, if not addressed, could lead to a doubling of the price of milk early next year.
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Editor's note: Tom Long is the chief executive officer of MillerCoors. He wrote this column in response to a CNN Opinion piece by Steve Hindy of The Brooklyn Brewery: "Don't let big brewers win beer wars."

(CNN) - The other day, the industry group representing small brewers issued its latest definition of what qualifies as a "craft" beer. Based on our size, that definition excluded us, even though we brew some of the most popular craft beers in the marketplace.

We respect the fact that some of our fellow brewers would want to differentiate themselves, but we're convinced that the ultimate assessment of our beers will not come from an industry organization, but instead from America's beer drinkers.

We know that no matter what style of beer it is, we will ultimately be judged by the quality of our beers. We like that, because we are confident that the quality of our beers stacks up well versus that of any brewer of any size, anywhere.

Read the full story: Judge brewers by their beer

Editor's note: Steve Hindy is co-founder, president and chairman of The Brooklyn Brewery. Brooklyn Brewery started in 1988 and is among America's top 15 craft breweries.

(CNN) - The proposed purchase of Mexico's Modelo beer brands by the world's largest brewing conglomerate, Anheuser-Busch-InBev, is causing deep concern among America's craft brewers.

Anheuser-Busch already controls about 47% of the U.S. beer market. Adding Modelo's Corona beer and other brands would give it another 6%. MillerCoors, the other big player in the United States, controls about 30%.

If the Modelo deal goes through, a duopoly would control more than 80% of the U.S. beer market.

The concentration of market share in two global companies means they have tremendous influence over distributors and retailers. This gives an advantage to big brewer beer brands over small brands created by America's independent craft brewers. Ultimately, with limited choices, the beer consumer loses.

Read the full story on CNN Opinion: "Don't let big brewers win beer wars"

Hostess Brands said Tuesday evening that a last-ditch mediation session with its bakers' union over a new contract imposed in bankruptcy court had failed, bringing the company closer to liquidation.

Hostess said in a brief statement that the mediation session "was unsuccessful," and that it had no further comment ahead of a hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning in bankruptcy court, where it has requested permission to liquidate.
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Hostess Brands and a key union agreed Monday to try to mediate their dispute - an unexpected development that could spare the company from permanently shutting down.

The Bakery Workers union, which represents 5,000 of the 18,500 employees at the maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, went on strike on Nov. 9. The company had imposed paycuts and other concessions opposed by the union's membership.
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