The five-second rule, long invoked by parents to allow their kids to "safely" eat food they dropped on the floor, is nothing but hokum, according to a report in Feedstuffs on new research published in the journal Applied & Environmental Microbiology.

Despite forecasts of bountiful harvests and a global grain glut, lower harvests of corn, wheat and sugarcane as a result of severe weather in southern Africa are pushing up prices for Zambia's staple foods, Reuters reports.

A synthetic cannabis drugmaker that has been investigated for alleged improper marketing of a highly addictive prescription painkiller donated a lot of money to the campaign opposing legalization of marijuana in Arizona, the Washington Post reports.

An on-line survey of more than 2,000 teenagers found they would cut back on soft drink purchases if they came with a warning label about the possibility of obesity, diabetes and tooth decay, say researchers from the University of Pennsylvania medical school. Earlier this year, the research team said parents were less likely to buy sugary beverages for their children if warning labels were attached.

Colorado is the first state in the nation to certify seeds for growing hemp, meaning they contain tiny amounts of the psychoactive chemical that gives marijuana its buzz, says the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. A state Agriculture Department official said certified seeds, the result of a project begun in March with Colorado State University and Colorado Seed Growers Association, will give hemp farmers confidence they are growing a legal plant.

Humans have destroyed a tenth of the world’s remaining wilderness — an area the size of two Alaskas — in the last 25 years, says a study, "Catastrophic Declines in Wilderness Areas Undermine Global Environment Targets," out in Current Biology.

One of the largest dairy milk producers in Southeast Asia, Vietnam Dairy Products, "is in talks to acquire another U.S. company" as it expands its international presence, said Bloomberg. Vinamilk, as the company is known, became sole owner Driftwood Dairy in California earlier this year.

Some 45 projects across the country will share $27 million in Conservation Innovation grants to reduce farm runoff, improve water quality and preserve farmland, announced the USDA. Recipients range from the City of Chicago to public universities and the National Corn Growers Association.

NOAA has shelved its La Niña watch because its forecasters see little prospect for the weather pattern, somewhat of a mirror to the better-known El Niño, for the next six months. In June, La Niña chances were 75 percent but they are now 40 percent because air and water temperatures in the southern Pacific Ocean are relatively neutral between the two weather patterns.

Global fisheries could see $10 billion losses in annual revenue if climate change goes unchecked, says a University of British Columbia study published in Scientific Reports. That is a 35 percent greater drop than current projections for catches by the 2050s under high CO2-emmissions scenarios, say the authors.

Cities are creating jobs faster than rural areas with a 13.3 percent growth rate in the past year, compared to 4.8 percent in rural counties, says a Daily Yonder analysis of Labor Department statistics. "Unemployment remains a bigger problem in rural counties than metro areas," says the Yonder, which tried to gauge local conditions in battleground states.

The world's leading grower of cocoa, Ivory Coast is confronting the mounting problem of deforestation by evicting tens of thousands of illegal cocoa farmers from its eight national parks, five nature reserves and 231 forest preserves, says Reuters. The eviction campaign is one of the nation's last chances to save its dwindling virgin forests, but could mean a large decline in production of its major cash crop, which is the source of chocolate.

Nearly half of the French population is overweight or obese, an unflattering rebuttal to the national reputation of responsible indulgence in a toothsome cuisine, says the Telegraph. Intending to slow the collective weight gain, the Treasury suggested two options -- a new tax or an increase on the current VAT (value-added tax) of 5.5 percent on junk food to a rate as high as 20 percent.

The effects of ocean warming are already being felt on crop yields and fishing stocks, according to the most comprehensive report yet on the topic, released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii.

In the rugged hills of Vaca Muerta, Argentina, the locals says that the drinking water makes them vomit and cripples them with painful headaches. The Mapuche, an indigenous group who live in the area, blame pollution from fracking operations, which inject chemicals, along with sand and water, into the ground to release natural gas, reports BBC.

It used to be called "garbage feeding," tossing table scraps and unwanted, uneaten food to barnyard animals to peck or chew in a haphazard addition to their rations. With concern mounting on climate change and food waste, the practice of recycling scraps into livestock feed looks like a winning way to reduce food waste, says Inside Climate News.

Just as the spring rally in futures prices brightened farmers' outlook, the summer slump in corn and soybean prices pulled down sharply on the Ag Economy Barometer, say Purdue economists. The monthly survey of producer sentiment fell by 17 points in August for a reading of 95, the lowest since the end of winter.

The trial for Bundy brothers, Ammon and Ryan, and six other defendants charged in the 41-day occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon starts today, reports High Country News.