As the deadline for an FDA plan to shift sales of medically-important antibiotics in the livestock industry from over-the-counter to prescription draws near, there are concerns among retailers and feed-industry officials that the transition may not go smoothly, says FeedNavigator.

In a new report, the Organic Seed Alliance says an increase in private and public investment in organic breeding and non-GMO research is needed to increase the number of farmers who use organic seed. The investment should make boosting seed variety during breeding trials a priority.

Born during the agricultural recession of the mid-1980s, Farm Aid said its annual concert and food festival will be Sept. 17 in Bristow, Va, on the western fringe of the Washington, DC, area. The organization says it has raised $50 million from the concerts since 1985 to help further its goal of "a vibrant family farm-centered system of agriculture in America."

Some farmers are seeing a drop in farmers' market sales, as customers steer toward prepared foods and away from fresh vegetables and fruit, says The Washington Post. Many customers coming to markets today are younger and don’t cook much. They consider the market more of an event than a source for the week’s groceries.

The U.S. and China, the world’s largest agricultural producers, pose the greatest threat to other countries when it comes to spreading invasive pests and pathogens, according to a new report led by an international team and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The developing world, and sub-Saharan Africa specifically, is the most vulnerable to the economic damage such species can inflict.

In order to meet stronger-than-expected demand, the USDA will tap a $500-million discretionary fund so it can continue to issue loan guarantees for farm ownership, reported Agri-Pulse. Congress allotted $2 billion for the guarantees for this fiscal year but sharply lower farm income has prompted banks to ask for more federal loan guarantees, said Agri-Pulse.

Dairy farmer Rob Warnock says he'll vote for Britain to leave the EU despite the likely loss of $60,000 a year in EU subsidies, says The Associated Press. While Warnock believes the referendum will be a wake-up call to the national government on the matter of better agricultural policies, his father is skeptical that will happen, so he says he will vote to stay.

More than half the flow of rivers in the upper Colorado Basin is derived from groundwater, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Society. The study's authors hope it will compel state water managers to ask important questions, since rivers are a key source of irrigation and drinking water across the west. For instance, should a farmer’s use of a nearby river be limited if he or she is also pumping large amounts of groundwater?

Large-scale hog farms typically put sows in metal cages for almost their entire lives in the name of efficient pork production. Pennsylvania producer Clemons Food Group is trying a different approach that reduces the time in "sow crates" to 75 days a year — not hog heaven but a step in the right direction, says Modern Farmer.

The agricultural arm of Saudi Arabia's state-owned Public Investment Fund is now the largest private investor in grain handler G3 Canada, the descendant of the Canadian Wheat Board, says Reuters.

Entomologists from UC-Riverside and the California Agriculture Department "have launched a classical biological control program to reduce ACPs [Asian citrus psyllids] in the state's urban areas," says the UC Food Observer. The tiny psyllid help spread the devastating citrus greening disease, which results in bitter, misshapen fruit and eventually kills infected trees.

Months after it assured protesters it would protect indigenous communities, the World Bank approved a $70-million loan for a massive agribusiness project in Tanzania and included a waiver of the need to consult with, and win broad support of, affected indigenous groups, reports the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The USDA calculates that farm income fell 38 percent nationwide last year. For some of the nation's leading farm states, the drop was the largest in decades, such as the 80 percent drop in Nebraska, says Harvest Public Media.

As obesity becomes increasingly common in the U.S., food banks are trying to help their visitors manage diabetes as well as hunger, says The New York Times. Historically, food banks tried to satiate hunger with whatever food they could, even if it meant doling out chips and cans of sugary barbecue beans. But many of the people looking for food aid now suffer from poor nutrition and dangerous blood sugar levels, rather than too few calories.

Two weeks before Vermont's first-in-the-nation GMO food-labeling law takes effect, a member of Canada's Parliament proposed mandatory labeling of GMO foods, a step that was proposed fruitlessly in the past. Meanwhile, in Washington, leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee said they were making progress on U.S. labeling legislation.

The agricultural giant of South America, Brazil, is altering the world corn market in ways that challenge the United States, the No. 1 grower and exporter, say USDA economists Ed Allen and Constanza Valdes. Brazil is now the second-largest corn exporter and its shipping season coincides with the U.S. harvest, which could mean lower market prices at the moment the U.S. crop cascades onto the market.

Some 16 percent of U.S. red meat and poultry will be exported this year, a 900-million-pound increase from 2015, according to USDA estimates, which call for a modest increase in the new year. Sales were constrained last year by the strong dollar and trade barriers due to the bird flu epidemic.