The European Commission has been in a two-year deadlock over whether to remove formaldehyde from livestock feed. The chemical, which is used to kill salmonella, has been linked to cancer.

Purdue’s monthly survey of producers reported a small uptick in farmer confidence with the arrival of the spring planting season despite an undercurrent of pessimism about what corn and soybean prices will be at harvest time.

Mammoth farms can illustrate “critical weaknesses in the unorthodox inspection system that the Agriculture Department uses to ensure that ‘organic’ food really is organic,” says a report by the Washington Post.

For wheat farmers in western Kansas, the heavy snow and freezing temperatures that recently swept through their region were a one-two punch that flattened a promising crop.

American citrus growers are angry over the Trump administration’s decision to lift an import ban on lemons from northwestern Argentina. “We were completely blindsided,” said Joel Nelsen, president of the California Citrus Mutual.

The prevailing high prices for cotton “are expected to encourage farmers to expand the area under cotton by 5 percent, to 30.8 million hectares, in 2017/18,” says the International Cotton Advisory Committee.

The umbrella group National Cotton Council said it will seek short-term aid to cotton growers from the USDA now that an industry request for $1.2 billion in cottonseed subsidies has been rebuffed by Congress. The Cotton Council said Democratic Sens. Pat Leahy of Vermont and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan are to blame for cottonseed assistance being left out of the bill to fund the government for the rest of this fiscal year.

The Trump administration's 60-day freeze on new federal regulations snagged the animal-welfare rule for organic farmers that was issued two days before the end of the Obama era. Some 334 organic livestock producers wrote Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to ask that the rule become effective on May 19, the end of the 60-day review period. Groups representing conventional agriculture have urged USDA to kill the organic rule.

Voters in Santa Fe, New Mexico, decide today whether to adopt a 2-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages — not just on sodas, but on sweetened sports drinks like Gatorade, lemonades and caffeinated energy drinks, among others, says U.S. News & World Report. Artificially sweetened drinks, infant formula, chocolate milk, pure fruit juices, and weight-loss drinks like Ensure would be exempted.

Experts worry that as the gray wolf population just outside of Yellowstone National Park continues to grow, looser hunting restrictions in surrounding states could change pack behavior and hurt one of the most comprehensive research studies on the species anywhere in the world.

From President Trump down, the administration recognizes the importance of farm exports, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, adding that he expects to make frequent trips overseas to promote sales. Farmers voted by wide margins for Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton last November, although his plans to renegotiate NAFTA and overhaul trade pacts in general has stirred concern in rural areas.

The world's largest seed company, Monsanto, said it terminated its November 2015 deal to sell Precision Planting to Deere and Co., the world's largest farm-equipment maker, and was looking for another purchaser. The Justice Department filed an antitrust suit against the sale to Deere, saying it would dominate the market for high-speed planters, which are expected to become the industry standard.

Farmers in part of Shanxi Province in northern China flew drones over their orchards to spray pesticides on the trees and saved money in the process, according to the state news agency, Xinhua. It quoted a 60-year-old farmer as saying the drones "are a godsend."

It sounded like the return of Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz, who urged farmers to plant fence row to fence row, when Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was asked about the uncertainties created by President Trump's plan to renegotiate trade pacts, says DTN. Ross responded, "If I were a farmer, I would plant as much as I can logically plant in today's environment."

The EPA is changing language on its webpage to match the values of the new administration, and the fact that both President Trump and EPA head Scott Pruitt have publicly denied that climate change is manmade.

The L.A. Times has named its first-ever Restaurant of the Year, but it didn’t go to the usual high-end suspects. Instead Locol — a burger restaurant started by renowned chefs to serve customers in Watts, where unemployment and gang violence are rampant — is the winner.