A third city in the San Francisco Bay area will vote whether to put a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, predominantly soda. This time, the November referendum will be in Oakland, neighbor to Berkeley, the first and only city in the nation to adopt a soda tax.

Livestock are blamed as a significant contributor to global warming because they emit methane, a greenhouse gas, while digesting their feed rations. An international team of scientists has identified a compound that can be added to feed that reduces methane emissions by up to 30 percent.

The upcoming Massachusetts referendum on animal welfare standards - requiring more space for poultry, pigs and calves - boils down to "a class thing," says the executive director of a group that is challenging the proposal in court.

The government rarely checks to see if farmers carry out soil and water conservation duties that are part of the farm subsidy program, said Agri-Pulse, citing a report from the USDA's inspector general. The IG reported that random sample reviews were conducted in only one of USDA's farm support programs from 2012-14.

The Washington think tank, New America, has launched Food & Power, a resource for original investigative reporting and research on food and agriculture. The site will focus “on the ways economic concentration affects farmers, farm and food workers, eaters, and animals, as well as public health and the environment,” says the group.

Earthjustice, an environmental nonprofit law firm, served Hawaii’s Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) with a notice of intent to sue, claiming the agency has allowed pesticides to contaminate a drainage ditch on the island of Kauai, says The Civil Beat. ADC is a branch of the Hawaiian Department of Agriculture, leasing thousands of acres of land to farms that plant genetically engineered crops.

A new private investment fund has the potential to put $100 million into small food and agriculture businesses in rural America. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the creation of the Open Prairie Rural Opportunities Fund at a White House conference on rural business. It will be the fourth Rural Business Investment Company (RBIC) created with USDA assistance since 2014 with the goal of directing private-sector capital into rural economic growth.

Native Olympia oysters in Oregon's Netarts and Coos bays are loaded with pharmaceuticals and chemicals, including pain relievers, antibiotics, mercury and pesticides, says a study by Portland State University researchers, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Geological Survey and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Bunge and Archer Daniels Midland, two of the largest grain processors in the country, say they will not accept delivery of a new genetically engineered soybean strain from Monsanto because of marketing questions, reported Bloomberg. The European Union has not approved the strain, called Roundup Ready 2 Xtend, for import.

Government scientists in India "are working hard to reduce carbon emissions by making cows less flatulant," says the New York Times. The second-most populous country in the world is home to 280 million head of cattle and 200 million other ruminants, such as sheep, goats, yaks and buffaloes, together emitting 13 tons of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, daily. "So reducing animal flatulence might actually do some good -- especially in India, where there is little chance of cutting back the use of fossil fuels anytime soon," says the Times.

Mexico's 10-percent tax on sugary drinks put a dent in soda sales at first, but purchases are on the rise again, "making the country a key growth market again for soda giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo," says the Wall Street Journal. In a country with the highest per-capita soda consumption rate in the world, the tax was a public health measure aimed at high levels of obesity and diabetes.

The world's largest seed company, Monsanto, is counting the EPA as the third major regulator to determine that glyphosate, the weedkiller used in combination with its GMO hybrids, is safe for humans. The herbicide has been under scrutiny since the WHO's cancer agency classified it in March 2015 as probably carcinogenic to humans.

A long-term study of the rock stars of dieting -- contestants on the reality TV show "The Biggest Loser" -- reveals some of the reasons why it is hard to keep the pounds off, says the New York Times.

If they take their cues from recent changes in the futures markets, U.S. farmers will plant slightly more soybeans and correspondingly less corn, says the think tank Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute.

Some of the biggest commodity groups in the country have enlisted lawmakers in a quiet campaign to shut off public access to the activities of the quasi-governmental boards that promote U.S. cotton, beef, eggs and other agricultural products.

A lawsuit filed over the weekend on behalf of consumers in California and New York accuses PepsiCo of wrongfully labeling its Quaker Oats brand “100% natural” after small amounts of the pesticide glyphosate (commonly sold as RoundUp) were detected in some oatmeal, reports The New York Times.

Seven dozen crop scouts are to begin a hectic three-day motorized sprint across Kansas today, with the goal to sample roughly 500 fields and produce an estimate of the crop in the nation's No. 1 winter wheat state. Their estimate, expected at midday Thursday, will be the first in a shower of crop forecasts that will run through the fall harvest.

The Argentine weather agency says the late-season rains that swamped the soybean harvest have reduced the crop by 9 million tonnes, or 15 percent, said Reuters.