Bumper 2016 grain harvests were a leading factor in the decline of the global Food Price Index for the fifth year in a row, said the Food and Agriculture Organization. The UN agency was less sanguine about the outlook for this year.

A year after Congress repealed country-of-origin labeling for beef and pork, the USDA is beginning the process of adding venison to the list of commodities where labeling is mandatory. The 2014 farm law included a provision to include muscle cuts and ground venison to the labeling system.

A new “Ethical Charter” drawn up by two of America’s largest produce associations promises to keep workers safer and ensure humane treatment on farms. But critics say the document is a two-page example of “greenwashing,” light on details and action, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A CDC study found "a striking gap in health between rural and urban Americans," says the agency's director Tom Frieden. Rural Americans are more likely than city-dwellers to die from the five leading causes of death – heart disease, cancer, accidental injury, chronic lower respiratory disease and stroke – which account for more than 60 percent of deaths, according to the study published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report

Nearly 40 percent of California, the northern part of the state, is free of drought, a startling change thanks to heavy rain and snow since the Oct. 1 start of the wet season, says the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor. But moderate to exceptional drought covered the central and southern parts of the agriculturally important Central Valley of the nation's No. 1 farm state.

Powerful snow and rain storms are filling reservoirs "and all but ending the five-year drought across much of northern California," says the San Jose Mercury News. It quoted Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC-Davis, as saying, "California is a dry state and probably always will be in most years but we certainly don't have a statewide drought right now."

In a step the organic farming industry says will expand acreage, the USDA will allow growers to sell their products as "certified transitional" organic goods during the three-year conversion to organic farming.

A year after U.S. regulators approved the Arctic apple, genetically engineered to resist browning, the first batch of the apples will go on sale in grab-and-go pouches of apple slices in 10 stores in the Midwest, says Capital Press. "A QR computer scan code on the packaging enables consumers to get information, including that the apple slices are genetically modified, but nothing directly on the packing identifies it."

The maker of Nutella says the hazelnut spread would never be as good without palm oil, reports Reuters. The Italian company, Ferrero, defended the oil after a European Food Safety Authority report suggested that it is potentially carcinogenic when heated above 390 degrees Fahrenheit. The oil is regularly heated to high temperatures in industry manufacturing to remove its red color and odor.

A preliminary report conducted by the Department of the Interior says the office is considering whether to raise coal royalty rates on public lands and require compensation from coal companies for carbon emissions. Coal on public land accounts for 10 percent of total U.S. greenhouse emissions, says The Seattle Times.

The perennial No. 2 soybean grower in the world, Brazil, is headed for a record crop this year thanks to larger plantings and beneficial growing conditions, reported Agrimoney. The national crop agency Conab forecast a harvest of 103.8 million tonnes, up nearly 9 percent from last year but still trailing the world leader, the United States.

The November general election stands as a dividing point between pessimism and optimism among farmers about the future of the agricultural economy, says a Purdue poll. The Ag Economy Barometer, produced monthly by Purdue, is now at its highest reading ever, 132, in a dramatic surge since October, when it was at its second-lowest mark, 92, since the survey began in October 2015.

The Obama administration has granted endangered-species protection to the rusty-patched bumblebee — the first bumblebee in the United States, and the first bee of any kind in the lower 48 states to get the designation, says The New York Times. Seven other bees are listed, but they are all from Hawaii.

A White House report submitted to Congress this week recommends that moderate funding go toward geoengineering in an effort to fight climate change, says The New York Times.

Best known as a candy maker, privately owned Mars Inc. is buying VCA, a nationwide chain of animal hospitals, for $7.7 billion in a deal that will make pet care the biggest sales sector for the company, surpassing candy and gum sales, says The Washington Post. Mars already owns Banfield, which operates 1,000 veterinary clinics and hospitals.

Federal and state officials are watching for further signs of New World screwworm, a maggot that kills animals by feeding on their flesh, after the pest was found in wounds on a stray dog near Homestead, in Miami-Dade County in southern Florida. "This is the first confirmed case on Florida's mainland," said USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.