Iowa, which has been embroiled in controversies over agricultural runoff and water-quality issues, has announced a novel program to give farmers who plant cover crops a $5-per-acre discount on their crop insurance over the next three years, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Since GMO crops came into cultivation two decades ago, human exposure to glyphosate has increased by approximately 500 percent, according to UC-San Diego scientists. They say more research is needed on the impact of the chemical on human health. The research follows the listing of glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world, by California regulators as a carcinogen.

Canada stood fast in defense of its supply management system for dairy, and Mexico rejected a U.S. proposal for sanctions on seasonal surges in produce shipments during an inconclusive round of NAFTA talks in Mexico City.

Two members of the Senate Agriculture Committee filed a bill to require the USDA to use crop insurance data as its first choice in deciding whether farmers will get an Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) subsidy. Most corn, soybean and wheat growers are enrolled in the insurance-like ARC program but there are recurring complaints of wide variation in payment rates among adjoining counties.

In a brief ceremony that mixed traditional holiday wishes with predictable humor, President Trump “pardoned” a 36-pound white-feathered tom turkey, Drumstick, from becoming a White House meal.

An area the size of New Zealand, some 29.7 million hectares (73.4 million acres), was stripped of tree cover during 2016, says data on Global Forest Watch, an increase of 51 percent from the previous year. "Forest fires seem to be a primary cause for this year's spike, including dramatic fire-related degradation in Brazil," wrote two World Resources Institute analysts in a blog.

While the UN’s sustainable development goals call for an end to child labor by 2025, an official at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says “child labor is mostly concentrated in agriculture and is growing,” reports Inter Press Service.

Climate change will come with a serious price tag, says a report by the Government Accountability Office, urging President Trump to take the phenomenon seriously. The study “says that different sectors of the economy and different parts of the country will be harmed in ways that are difficult to predict,” according to The New York Times.

Newly released documents from the 1960s show that the sugar industry funded research on sugar and cardiovascular health “and then buried the data when it suggested that sugar could be harmful,” says the New York Times.

Six Republican bills could change the face of the Endangered Species Act, says High Country News. For example, the Federally Integrated Species Health Act, introduced by California Republican Rep. Ken Calvert,  would turn management of endangered salmon species entirely over to the Fish & Wildlife Service. As of now, the National Marine Fisheries Service co-manages endangered salmon with FWS.

The director of the UN International Agency for Research on Cancer rebutted criticism of his agency’s listing of glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world, as probably carcinogenic to humans, saying the criticism included “repeated misrepresentations” of the IARC’s deliberations.

Before the administration changes NAFTA, or any other trade agreement, it ought to analyze the impact on agriculture and tell farmers what to expect in the export market, said 18 farm-state senators in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

The FDA is assessing whether 26 ingredients count as fiber on nutrition facts labels. “If you're a nutrition-label reader, the list includes some familiar-ish sounding ingredients — such as inulin, which is often sourced from chicory root,” says NPR. “Other ingredients on the 'do-these-count-as-fiber?' list include gum acacia, bamboo fiber, retrograded corn starch, and — get ready for the tongue-twister — xylooligosaccharides. Some of these fibers are extracted from plant sources, while others are synthetic.”

A decade or more ago, farmers in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado began to run out of irrigation water. The solution, after years of court cases and finger-pointing, was an agreement to raise the price of water, says the NPR blog The Salt.

The annual Plowprint report by the World Wildlife Fund estimates 2.5 million acres of virgin grasslands in the Great Plains were converted to cropland, or energy and urban development last year. While it's a smaller loss than the 3.7 million acres of 2015, the perennial loss of grasslands is a threat to water quality and wildlife habitat in the Plains, which stretch from Texas into the Canadian prairies.

It was a comic skit on Portlandia: two hipsters asking about the provenance of the locally raised chicken being served in a restaurant. But farce has become fact this holiday season under a pilot program by Cargill that allows consumers to identify the farm that raised their turkey.

With demand for organic food outrunning U.S. production, state agriculture departments frequently have too little money and limited expertise to help the sector grow, says a report by the Berkeley Food Institute. It recommends states dedicate more money and personnel "to keep up with the growing organic market" and include organic agriculture in "state pride" programs that trumpet local products.

An estimated 80 percent of Yemen's food supply arrives by boat, so the recent closure of its ports makes famine a likelihood across the country, says the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. Meanwhile, the UN says that warfare and climate change are driving up hunger rates in sub-Saharan Africa.

Beginning next spring, 15 schools in Brooklyn — a sliver of the 1,800 public schools in New York City — will participate in the Meatless Monday campaign by serving vegetarian breakfasts and lunches, city officials announced. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the mayor's residence, Gracie Mansion, also would go meatless for its Monday meals.