One of the nation's best-selling brands of organic milk puts an oil derived from algae grown in a factory into some of its milk as a nutritional enhancement, says the Washington Post. "Rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, the oil allows Horizon to advertise health benefits and charge a higher price," the paper said.

On a 7-1 vote, the Seattle City Council approved a tax of 1.75 cents per ounce on sugary beverages, such as soda, sports drinks and energy drinks, said the Post Intelligencer. "Supporters hope the tax will help fund educational programs and close the learning gap between white students and students of color, while also curbing consumption of unhealthy sugary beverages."

Hog farmers can thank increased international demand for U.S. pork for the profit-making market prices in the months ahead, says Purdue economist Chris Hurt. Writing at farmdoc Daily, Hurt forecasts an average market price of 50 cents a pound for hogs, nearly 4 cents higher than the average price in 2016.

In Kansas City, a class-action lawsuit says Syngenta should be held liable for corn shipments rejected by China early this decade. And in Elk Point, South Dakota, Beef Products Inc. (BPI) is seeking billions of dollars in damages from American Broadcasting Companies Inc. (ABC) for reporting that used the name "pink slime" to refer to BPI's "lean finely textured beef."

The European Union hopes to enlist American cities and states to lower greenhouse gas emissions, now that President Trump has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate treaty, Reuters reports.

Democrat Kim Weaver, who lost a 2016 race against Republican Rep. Steve King in northwestern quadrant of Iowa, has withdrawn from a second race against the eight-term conservative, said the Sioux City Journal. In a Facebook post, Weaver cited "very alarming acts of intimidation, including death threats," and health issues affecting her mother, who lives in Des Moines.

After almost completely removing the growth-promoting drug ractopamine from its pigs, Canada is outpacing the U.S. in pork sales to China, where the drug is banned. Canada has only beat out the U.S. in pork sales a handful of times in the last 20 years, says Reuters.

After President Trump withdrew U.S. participation in the Paris climate treaty, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged $15 million to help developing countries meet their goals under the agreement, says NPR.

Guest farmworkers recruited to the U.S. under the H-2A visa program are guaranteed a free place to stay, with the costs covered by their employer. But many towns in California don’t want to see non-native workers living in their midst, fearful that the newcomers will bring crime and traffic and lower property rates, says Los Angeles Times.

The two largest public-lands agencies in the United States, the Interior and Agriculture departments, “signed a memorandum emphasizing cooperation among federal, state, tribal and local agencies in battling wildfires as the main part of the wildfire season arrives,” said The Associated Press. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue signed the memorandum following a briefing at the interagency fire command center in Boise, Idaho.

Since the start of this century, the U.S. share of the world market in wheat, corn and soybeans has declined, with South America seen as the leading rival. In reality, “the Black Sea is the only area with a larger share of world production in 2014-16 than in 2000-02 for all three crops,” says economist Carl Zulauf of Ohio State University.

Swiss investment holding company TBG AG has taken ownership on Midwest-based Telvent DTN, the agricultural information company best known for the DTN news site and Progressive Farmer magazine. The $900-million transaction was announced in April and took effect at the start of June.

Democratic lawmakers and farm activists criticized President Trump for his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate treaty, saying it would result in harsher conditions for agriculture in coming years. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue shrugged off climate change as inevitable and said USDA was "committed to digging ever deeper into research to develop better methods of agricultural production in that changing climate."

Doctors have prescribed the antibiotic vancomycin for 60 years against disease and infections in people "and bacteria are only now becoming resistant to it," says Britain's Press Association. "Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in the United States have now modified the drug so it works in three separate ways on bacteria, making it much harder for them to develop resistance."

A private security firm used to hunting militants in Afghanistan and Iraq was hired by the Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners to track protestors at Standing Rock, South Dakota.

Faced with climate change and cheap competition from countries like China, the American pine nut trade shows no signs of recovery. Long a staple food for Native American tribes in the Southwest, including the Navajo and Apache, 8 million pounds of pine nuts were wild-harvested in 1942, from New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona.