A prominent fisheries scientist at the University of Washington, Ray Hillborn, is accused by Greenpeace of failing to disclose funding from the fishing industry in several scientific papers dating back to 2006, says the NPR blog The Salt. The environmental group calls Hillborn a "denier of over-fishing."

Best known as a pharmaceutical company, Bayer may be considering a takeover bid for Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, in a consolidation wave that Monsanto inaugurated but did not consummate a year ago, said USA Today. Bayer has a large seed and crop-protection portfolio.

What kind of produce you eat makes all the difference in your pesticide exposure, says a paper out by Consumer Reports. For example, “eating one serving of green beans from the U.S. is 200 times riskier than eating a serving of U.S.-grown broccoli.”

House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway endorsed Donald Trump for president, reports the website yourbasin.com in Conaway's district in Texas. The website quoted Conaway as saying, "As chairman of the House agricultural committee I feel like I have a duty to try and work with Mr. Trump in developing his agricultural policy which so far as not been particularly vetted in any of the debates."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a $72.3 million allocation within the cost-sharing Environmental Quality Incentive Program for activities that boost carbon storage in healthy soil. Vilsack unveiled the initiative during a one-year review of USDA's Climate Smart program to help meet U.S. pledges to mitigate climate change.

At the same time sugar cane production ends in Hawaii, the USDA forecasts a record harvest next year of sugar beets, grown in the upper Midwest and the West and the dominant U.S. source of sugar, reported Reuters. "The estimate indicates that beet farmers are remaining resolute even as food manufacturers shun GMO crops like their beet sugar."

The popularity of artisanal bakeries and craft brewers has led to a scramble for high-quality grain, says Eater. At the moment, distilleries have fatter wallets and are steadier customers than bakers . "Is there enough grain to go around?"

The senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee gave a copy of her GMO food-labeling bill to chairman Pat Roberts and started staff-level briefings of farm and environmental groups, said The Hagstrom Report — steps that suggest a well-advanced effort to resolve the issue.

Grain elevators "are in for a difficult 2016/17 season," says agricultural lender CoBank, pointing to demands for more storage space while prospects darken for revenue from grain merchandising and grain drying.

Poultry workers say they are routinely denied bathroom breaks, according to a report by Oxfam America, based on interviews with workers at some of the nation's biggest poultry companies, including Tyson Foods, Perdue and Pilgrim's over the last three years.

In the scorching hot Imperial Valley at the southern end of California, Bryce Lundberg stands chest-high in quinoa, "a crop that is thriving in an unexpected place," says the Los Angeles Times in a front-page story. "If the harvest proves profitable here, California could dominate yet another niche crop, as the grain-like seed graduates from health-craze fad to a popular ingredient in energy bars, cereals and even drinks."

The Justice Department has dropped a court fight over the lesser prairie chicken, a step applauded by Western congressmen but that also prompted criticism about whether the battle is really over, reports McClatchy. The Interior Department listed the bird as a threatened species in 2014, but a federal judge in Texas ruled that the government failed to follow its own rules in making the determination.

The winner in 2013 of a challenge against China over chicken products, the United States is going back to the WTO to force China to remove antidumping and countervailing duties.

Vast swathes of coffee-growing territory in Central and South America may become too hot for the comfort of coffee trees in coming decades, thanks to global warming, says Eater, warning "coffee is under threat."

More carbon dioxide in the air is decreasing the amount of protein in pollen and may be contributing to Colony Collapse Disorder, says Yale Environment 360. Researchers compared samples of the plant goldenrod – a staple for wild honeybees – collected from 1842 to 2014 and found that protein levels in the most recent goldenrod samples were lower by 30 percent.

Children face some of the greatest risk of exposure to dangerous pesticides when they live near farm fields or go to schools near them, says a report by Pesticide Action Network North America, which describes itself as a challenger of the global proliferation of pesticides.