Over-fished for years, red snapper populations in the Gulf of Mexico have rebounded under federal regulation of the commercial catch that took effect in 2007. But this fisheries management success story has also spewed a bitter brawl between commercial boats and recreational anglers over who gets to fish and who should regulate the fishery. "How do we fairly divide the products of a finite sea while also respecting the constraints of biology?" writes Barry Yeoman in a story for FERN produced in partnership with Texas Monthly magazine.

Honeybees are exposed to an astonishing range of chemicals, not just the neonicotinoid pesticides often tabbed as the cause of population declines, says a Purdue study. The research suggests honeybees in the Corn Belt are exposed to considerably higher overall level of pesticide exposure than previously thought.

Nestlé, the world's largest food company, will pay up to $111 million to a French company in a deal to develop and market a milk allergy test for infants, says Reuters. The transaction "complements the company's market-leading infant formula business" and is part of Nestlé's expansion into health services, said the news agency.

The EPA proposal for the 2017 biofuels mandate would drive consumption of renewable fuels by at least half-a-billion gallons above the traditional rate of a 10 percent blend into the gasoline supply, say U-Illinois economists Scott Irwin and Darrel Good. The petroleum industry has argued the fuel market is saturated at the 10 percent rate.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that landowners have the right to challenge in court the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determinations that a wetland is protected under clean water laws. The case involved peat-mining companies in Minnesota who were told their work in a wetland would affect the Red River of the North 120 miles away.

Cargill, the world's largest privately owned food processor, is taking steps to "de-commoditize," says the Financial Times, so it can satisfy interest among consumers for natural food, meaning non-GMO ingredients or food grown under specific production methods. Marcel Smits, Cargill chief financial officer, says the additional costs of creating a separate channel for a particular product, such as GMO-free corn syrup, are offset by higher profit margins.

The Justice Department should block the Dow-DuPont merger, which would create the largest seed and ag chemical company in the world, because it would unduly reduce competition in the sector, say a trio of legal, farm and consumer groups. The merger is part of a wave of consolidations that would turn the world's six biggest seed and ag chemical companies — Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, DuPont, Dow and BASF — into "a Big 4, dominated by a Monsanto-Bayer and Dow-DuPont duopoly," said the groups in a letter to regulators.

Agriculture Minister Tsao Chi-hung back-pedaled on earlier statements that Taiwan would have no choice but to allow imports of U.S. pork raised with use of growth stimulant ractopamine, said The China Post. The newspaper said U.S. officials have indicated that removal of the ban is a pre-condition for Taiwan to join the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) wants to slash agricultural use of colistin, a last-ditch antibiotic in treatment of infection and disease in humans, by two-thirds, said Reuters. The regulatory agency issued its call at the same time the MCR-1 gene, which enables bacteria to resist colistin, was identified for the first time in the United States in a human and separately in a sample from a hog.

The author of a UN report on food production and the environment says governments should tax meat production to slow the global rise in consumption and the accompanying environmental damage, says the Guardian. "If we are all to copy-cat the way in which we feed ourselves in North America or Europe, the planet would be in deep trouble," said Maarten Hajer, a member of the International Resource Panel.

The El Niño weather pattern, now on the wane, is the prime reason for crop-killing drought in Vietnam, "but it is not the only one," says the New York Times. Scientists say a contributing factor is the government's "rice first" policy, which leads to planting of three rice crops a year instead of the traditional one or two. The intensive growing depletes soil nutrients and magnifies the impact of drought.

A gene that protects bacteria against the last-resort antibiotics used against disease in humans "has been found in the United States for the first time — in a person and, separately, in a stored sample taken from a slaughtered pig," said Maryn McKenna at National Geographic's Germination Blog. Defense Department researchers say in a scientific journal the discovery "heralds the emergence of truly pan-drug resistant bacteria."

The Obama administration is pushing back against critics of its plans to overhaul fair-play rules for livestock marketing, saying opposition to the rules "demonstrates a complete lack of concern for honest, hard-working families." Congress repeatedly blocked USDA from issuing the rules but USDA has a window of opportunity that may close at the end of September, says DTN.

California company Santa Cruz Biotechnology, one of the world's largest suppliers of antibodies for research, agreed to pay a $3.5 million fine, close its research lab and surrender its animal-dealer license in an agreement that resolves USDA complaints that the company mistreated animals, reports the Santa Cruz Tribune.

A government report says the injury rate for meat industry workers has improved greatly yet injuries are more common than in the rest of the manufacturing sector, reports Harvest Public Media. "But injuries in the meat industry are also likely to be under-reported," it says.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology says one of the strongest El Niño weather patterns in history is over, and it gives a 50-percent chance that a La Niña pattern will be upon us by the end of this year, reports the Financial Times. La Niña "typically brings cooler and wetter conditions in the Pacific and more storms in Europe and the United States."

California growers will idle less land than previously due to drought but losses will be around $1 billion to $1.5 billion, compared to an estimated $1.8 billion in 2015, says agricultural lender CoBank. Losses would fall heaviest on farmers with corn, wheat, cotton, alfalfa and pasture land.