The Daily Yonder says its analysis of State Election Board records for 2015 and 2016 in Georgia "shows that rural voters are about twice as likely to be investigated as urban voters are." The secretary of state's office, which oversees elections, says if there's a disparity, it's because rural poll workers are not as well trained rather than bias of any form.

In a case of statistical whiplash, the average age of the Canadian farmer is up at the same time the country's Census of Agriculture found a 3 percent increase in the number of farm operators under the age of 35. "This is the first time that there has been an increase in this age category since 1991," said Statistics Canada, which conducts the census every five years.

When Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said he would have a high-powered associate "sitting next to me, with walk-in privileges," focused on rural economic development, he said the new executive would be an assistant secretary. Actually, the job will be "assistant to the secretary," said a USDA spokesman, in arguing the title doesn't matter when you interact daily with a cabinet secretary.

Around a third of large livestock farms in Wisconsin are operating with expired permits, says Wisconsin Public Radio. It's not uncommon or illegal "but it is a source of frustration for farmers and residents concerned about oversight."

Unless critical habitat is protected and restored, researchers say three-quarters of California's 31 native trout, steelhead and salmon species "will be extinct in the next 100 years," says the Sacramento Bee. "California’s record-breaking drought that officially ended this winter wreaked havoc on many of the already-struggling fish, which depend on cold water."

Years ago, Tropicana used the slogan "Flavors Mother Nature never intended" to sell mixed juices to Americans. In a moden-day version, the USDA is tracking down petunias with colors that nature never intended — they're genetically engineered to produce blooms of orange, red and purple with names such as African Sunset, Trilogy Mango and Sweetunia Orange Flash.

The European Commission will propose granting glyphosate — the world’s most common weedkiller and the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup — a 10-year renewal of its license. The commission had held off on making the proposal over controversy that the chemical was carcinogenic.

Farmers have collected $3.65 billion in crop insurance indemnities on 2016 production, a much smaller amount than in preceding years. Economist Gary Schnitkey of the University of Illinois says the loss ratio — payments divided by premiums — of 0.41 was the lowest in 27 years of data available on the Risk Management Agency's web site.

Ahead of the enforcement date for its catfish inspection program, USDA said it will inspect catfish plants once per shift rather than its original plan of having inspectors in the plant whenever it was in operation. In a Federal Register notice, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said catfish plants are more like processing plants than slaughterhouses, which by law cannot operate unless an inspector is present.

Alex Jones, the right-wing host of the radio show InfoWars, says he was wrong to link the Greek yogurt company Chobani LLC and its owner, Hamdi Ulukaya, to a 2016 child-sex-abuse scandal and a rise in tuberculosis cases in Twin Falls, Idaho, where the company is located.

In tests of 250 food cans, the Center for Environmental Health found that nearly 40 percent were lined with bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical linked to birth defects and cancer along with other health disorders, says the CEH in a report.

The world’s first Nutella Cafe is set to open on Chicago’s famed Michigan Avenue in a location abutting Grant Park, whose grassy and wooded expanse leads to the Lake Michigan shoreline, says Eater.

Funding would more than double, to $50 million a year, for research to boost organic agricultural production under a bill proposed by three members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

With Robert Lighthizer now at work as U.S. trade representative, the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee asked the Trump administration to push for fair trade in ultra-filtered milk sales to Canada.

The U.S. Department of Labor is charging Santiago Gonzalez, the owner of G Farms in El Mirage, Ariz., with housing roughly 70 Mexican workers in dangerous conditions and paying them below the legal minimum.

In a preview of the message they’ll give to lawmakers later this week, U.S. farm groups and a delegation of grain and industry officials from Mexico used a news conference in Nebraska to emphasize the value of the U.S.-Mexico ag trade partnership, reported AgDaily.

Three new studies show that the West is running low on water, and that much of that decline is a result of climate change, says High Country News.

As the climate warms and the world’s oceans take up more carbon dioxide, those waters are becoming increasingly acidic, causing damaging corrosion to the shells of many marine species, including oysters.