The so-called ethanol mandate guarantees the biofuel a share of the gasoline market. Because of this, the Wall Street Journal says "some of the world's biggest oil companies" will see a windfall of more than $1 billion from the sale of renewable fuel credits associated with the mandate.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the beverage industry is spending millions to convince voters that the proposed soda tax will raise their grocery prices, not just the cost of sugary drinks, says Bridget Huber in FERN’s latest story, produced with PRI’s The World.

The global stockpile of grain will swell by 5 percent during 2016/17 because farmers are growing grain faster than the world can consume it, says the International Grains Council. "Grains inventories in the major exporters are predicted to grow to a seven-year high, while those in China could reach 200 million tons for the first time in 17 years," says the monthly IGC Grain Market Report.

"Big Food and Ag" has donated more heavily, by almost a 2-1 margin, to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton than Republican nominee Donald Trump, says Mother Jones, although Trump began catching up in August when his electoral prospects brightened.

While the rest of the nation debates whether to allow industrial hemp farming, the Navajo Nation is already planning for the first crop. Some are hoping that the controversial plant will help bring money to Native American reservations, the same way that casinos have, says Reuters.

“A group of 40 investors managing $1.25 trillion in assets have launched a campaign to encourage 16 global food companies” to change to plant-based proteins in light of the “material” risks of industrial meat farming, says Reuters. Among the companies targeted were Kraft Heinz, Nestle, Unilever, Tesco, Walmart, Costco Wholesale Corporation and Whole Foods.

"A parade of Pacific storms will march on through the weekend," says the Weather Channel, concluding one of the wettest Octobers on record in the Pacific Northwest and bringing additional relief to parts of drought-hit California. The heaviest rainfall is expected in Northern California and southwestern Oregon, with some rainfall in Los Angeles.

The USDA's Rural Utilities Service, a descendant of the New Deal agency that helped bring electricity to rural areas, awarded $3.6 billion in loans to 82 rural electric projects in 31 states. The money will build or improve 12,500 miles of transmission and distribution lines, and includes $216 million for "smart gird" technology to boost the reliability and efficiency of service.

Ruling that its domestic producers have been "substantially" harmed, China's Commerce Ministry announced anti-subsidy duties of 10-10.7 percent on imports of distillers dried grains, an ethanol co-product used as livestock feed, from the United States beginning on Friday, said Xinhua.

Purple Carrot, a vegan meal-kit company based in Boston, now sells its boxes of pre-measured ingredients in local Whole Foods stores, says the Boston Globe — a twist from the meal-kit model of shipping food and recipes to a subscriber's home. "After realizing they're literally getting their lunch stolen by these startups, they [grocers] have begun to look for ways to tap into the public's interest in the trend," the newspaper says.

California is cracking down on illegal fishing in marine protected areas (MPAs) with a new ticketing system, says the LA Times. Previously, fishing in an MPA was considered a misdemeanor and subject to a large fine, which made authorities hesitant to approach someone who may not have even realized they were fishing in an off-limits zone. Now, game wardens hand out tickets worth a few hundred dollars that are payable in local traffic court, says the Times.

Only one in four medical students gets the recommended 25 hours of nutrition training while a medical student, says Texas Public Radio. The Baylor College of Medicine is trying to change that by putting future pediatricians into a teaching kitchen so they can pass along tips on healthful diets to their future patients.

A U.S. district judge has decided a proposed class-action lawsuit against Syngenta will include half a million U.S. corn growers, but excluding those who planted two GMO strains from the Swiss seed company, says AgWeb. The lawsuit stems from China's rejection in 2013 of cargoes containing Syngenta's Viptera strain and the subsequent decline of corn prices.

Ninety-percent of meal-kit customers unsubscribe within six months of signing up for the service, says Fast Company, after analyzing data gathered by the market-research firm 1010data. The firm’s data indicated that only about half of customers of Blue Apron remain in the program after the first week, with numbers falling off quickly from there. The dropout rate is similar for other meal-kit companies, like Plated and HelloFresh.