The nonpartisan U.S-Cuba Trade and Economic Council says the first shipment of U.S. rice to Cuba in eight years apparently passed unnoticed in the ongoing debate over trade with the island nation. Based in New York, the council, which produces monthly reports on commerce involving the countries, says the cargo was worth $252,000 and sailed from the Houston area.

Rebuffed by the Obama administration, the cotton industry told a House Agriculture subcommittee that growers need a subsidy on cottonseed to offset low prices for cotton fiber. The novel proposal, with an estimated pricetag of $1 billion a year, is part of an industry push to make cotton eligible for the same subsidies offered to grain and soybean growers.

In a case that could have ramifications for farms and ranches across the arid west, a Native American tribe in Coachella, Calif., has set a new precedent for tribal ownership rights to groundwater.

Gov. Larry Hogan signed into law a ban on hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, in oil and gas production in Maryland, said the Associated Press. "Supporters of the ban said it was the first in the nation approved by a legislature in a state that has natural gas underground."

Organic farmers will not compromise their certification under the National Organic Program if they temporarily keep flocks indoors as a precaution against avian influenza, says the USDA agency that oversees the program. In a notice, the Agricultural Marketing Service said it "supports bringing the birds inside on a temporary basis in areas in proximity to the recent [bird flu] detections in Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Georgia."

Four years after it issued a regulation on animal disease traceability, the USDA will hold seven regional meetings across the country to see how it's working and to discuss "potential next steps." The regulation put states and tribes in charge of developing trace-back systems and ended years of opposition to proposals for a federal database of livestock movement and ownership.

A trade group for solar power says installation of solar panels is surging in southern Minnesota, especially in utility-scale projects, reports The Associated Press. In one instance, a farmer decided to lease a rocky eight-acre field for installation of solar panels with a total capacity of 1 megawatt of electricity and an annual rental payment that is "a lot more" than it was generating as a cattle pasture.

Scientists with the Surfer Biome Project are investigating whether antibiotic-resistant microbes can be spread though ocean water, says The New York Times. By taking samples from surfers’ mouths, bodies, and boards, the project hopes to learn how easily resistant organisms can pass into the human body.

Although President Trump has signed an executive order to roll back the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, the Supreme Court decided that it will continue hearing a legal challenge of the 2015 EPA rule. Justices denied a Justice Department request to halt work on the case while the administration decides whether to rewrite or rescind the rule, said E&E News.

Global cotton consumption may rise 1 percent in the upcoming 2017/18 trade year and stay well ahead of the cotton harvest as the world whittles down a surplus of the fiber, says the International Cotton Advisory Committee. If so, the cotton stockpile would decline 1.3 million tonnes, or 7 percent, in the year ahead.

In a multibillion-dollar asset swap, Dow is selling part of its crop protection operation to FMC and and picking up nearly all of FMC's health and nutrition business. As part of the deal, FMC will acquire a Dow agricultural research center in Newark and turn it into the global research and development center for FMC, which is based in Philadelphia, says the Wilmington News Journal.

The traditional supermarket is losing its attraction for grocery shoppers, who increasingly buy their food at supercenters, dollar stores and club stores, although supermarkets remain the dominant retailer. Three USDA economists found correlations between where people buy their food, their income levels and what they buy.

The Western Growers Association, speaking for produce growers in Arizona, California and Colorado, says immigration reform should go hand in hand with the Trump administration's priority of deporting undocumented immigrants guilty of serious crimes. Western Growers chief executive Tom Nassif said, "Much of our [U.S.] agricultural productivity is owed to the hard work of foreign hands, in particular the harvesting of our nutritious fruits and vegetables."

Brazil's environmental regulator says that meatpacking giant JBS "for years knowingly bought cattle that were raised on illegally deforested land," says Reuters. JBS denied the allegation, which comes at the same time the Brazilian meat industry is reeling from a meat-inspection scandal.

The Paris climate treaty is a “bad deal” for the U.S. said Scott Pruitt, while adding that the country should stay “engaged" in international climate discussions.

Saying he was using "sound science in decision-making," EPA administrator Scott Pruitt denied a petition by environmental groups to ban the insecticide chlorpyrifos, widely used in agriculture but criticized as a risk to children and farmworkers. Pruitt took a "final agency action" on the chemical, "suggesting that the matter would not likely be revisited until 2022, the next time the EPA is formally required to re-evaluate the safety of the pesticide," said the New York Times.

Two years after an extremely dry winter led to restrictions on water use, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevadas is among the deepest on record, says the Los Angeles Times. An end-of-winter measurement by state snow survey chief Frank Gehrke found 94 inches of snow near the town of Phillips.