World cotton prices were boosted by a smaller-than-expected 2015/16 crop and remain high despite a larger harvest this year, says the International Cotton Advisory Committee, pointing to currency turmoil in India. "The currency crisis ... is exacerbating the situation, since that country is the world's largest producer of cotton and the second-largest exporter," says the intergovernmental body.

Starting in 2018, Nestlé candy products will include a newly formulated version of sugar. The innovation will allow the company to lower sugar content 40 percent, says The New York Times. Without divulging exactly how Nestlé changed the traditional sugar molecule, Dr. Stefan Catsicas, the company’s chief technology officer, explained, “It is sugar, but it is assembled differently so it can disassemble easily in your mouth with less going into your gastrointestinal tract."

Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, expected to face a rugged re-election race in 2018, will meet President-elect Donald Trump today in New York amid speculation that the North Dakotan is under consideration to head the Agriculture or Energy departments, said Roll Call. Heitkamp told reporters she was responding to an invitation from Trump and "I don't even known if it's about a job."

Over the next few years, farmers who rent land from Boulder County, CO, will have to phase out genetically modified corn and sugarbeet crops, said the Boulder Daily Camera. County commissioners voted 2-1 for the ban, and said research into the benefits and drawbacks of GMOs and conventionally bred seeds can proceed concurrently with the phase-out.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Abengoa Bioenergy's 25 million-gallon-a-year cellulosic ethanol plant in Hugoton, Kan., to newly formed Synata Bio for $48.5 million, or 12 cents on the dollar, says Ethanol Producer Magazine. The Hugoton plant, which opened in October 2014, is one of three commercial-scale cellulosic plants in the country.

Energized by victories in four cities and Illinois' largest county, Massachusetts state Rep. Kay Khan says she will introduce a soda-tax bill when the legislature meets in January, says public broadcaster WBUR-FM. Khan championed the tax in the past but believes this time is different: "I think it does make a difference to see that others are thinking about this, and you're not standing out there alone."

Snowmelt from the northern Sierra Nevada provides water for a large part of California during the warm months. An analysis by UCLA says that if greenhouse-gas emissions are not curbed, the snowpack that provides the water could be half its current size by the end of the century, reports public radio KPCC-FM in Pasadena.

Some 5 million hectares of polluted or degraded farmland in China will be retired from production, with a resulting 2.5-percent drop in grain production by 2020, a state planning official told reporters in Beijing. Reuters reported that the official, Wu Xiao, said food security would not be affected by the downturn in production.

The collapse in crop and livestock prices since 2013 will result in the lowest net farm income since 2009, says USDA. In the final estimate of the year, the Economic Research Service pegged farm income at $66.9 billion, down $4.5 billion from its August estimate and barely more than half of the record income that producers enjoyed just three years ago.

Republican leaders in Congress say that immigration reform will take a back seat to improved border security on their legislative agenda for 2017, reports Bloomberg. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters, "I don't think anything changes on immigration until we secure the border."

Two countries that account for one-third of U.S. farm exports, China and Mexico, are the main reasons for a slightly higher forecast for ag exports this fiscal year, says USDA. Exports are now estimated at $134 billion, up $1 billion from the August estimate, with sales to China and Mexico up $300 million apiece.

Vickie Rock, a member of the Democratic state central committee in Nevada, describes Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election this way: "The Democratic Party ceded rural America to the Republicans quite some time ago," reports Roll Call. It says rural Democrats "are now hatching plans to un-do the damage, convinced that a handful of simple steps would go a long way toward winning votes."

Months after removing the lesser prairie chicken from its list of threatened species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will "reconsider the status of a grouse found in pockets across the Great Plains," said the Associated Press. The agency agreed to conduct the review after environmentalists filed a petition that argued that emergency protection is needed for the lesser prairie chicken.

The National Weather Service says rainy season is off to its wettest start in the northern Sierra Nevada in 30 years, with about twice as much precipitation as usual since the Oct. 1 start of the water year, says the Sacramento Bee. Even so, the state Department of Water Resources says customers of the State Water Project can expect to receive 20 percent of the water they requested for 2017.

Pilgrim's Pride, a subsidiary of Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS, will expand its organic and antibiotic-free chicken production capacity by buying GNP Co. for $350 million in cash, said the Denver Post. GNP, based in St. Cloud, Minn, produces organic and antibiotic-free chicken. Pilgram's Price is the second-largest U.S. poultry processor.