Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack took part in a ceremony in Coronado, California, for the Great Green Fleet, an initiative that uses energy-efficient devices and alternative fuels to extend the operational range of U.S. warships.

Elanor Starmer, a senior adviser to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, was named acting administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service following the departure of agency chief Anne Alonzo, said a USDA spokesman.

A new study that incorporates the impact of subsistence, small-scale and illegal fishing into estimates of commercial fishing draws a dire conclusion, says the Guardian.

A week after the government issued the new edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, "nutritionists, public health specialists and experts in preventive health are vying to critique the government document, fill in its gaps and 'spin' the guidelines to support their interests," says the Los Angeles Times.

The founder of a $100 million investment fund that wants to buy and restore ranch land in Texas, with hunting and fishing habitat in mind, expects to buy land at a substantial discount soon. "The timing couldn't be more perfect," Jay Ellis told the New York Times. Oil prices are tumbling and in Texas, that means land values will slide, too.

The record still stands: in two decades, Congress has nullified only one federal regulation. The House gave final congressional approval to a resolution of disapproval a week ago to the "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) regulation issued by the EPA. And on Tuesday, President Obama vetoed the resolution.

Amigo Bob Cantisano, dreadlocks to his waist and clad year-round in shorts and tie-dyed shirts, hunts in the remnants of homesteads, small orchards and stagecoach stops dating from the Gold Rush days in northern California. Rather than mineral wealth, the treasure he seeks "are trees, the fruits and nuts and ornamentals planted ... in the late 1800s," said public broadcaster KQED in a story produced in partnership with FERN.

Americans spend an average of 35 minutes a day preparing meals and cleaning up after them, according to the Labor Department. "That's compared to about 50 minutes just a few decades ago," says Harvest Public Media in the fifth segment of its "Feasting on Fuel" series.

Growers reduced winter wheat plantings 7 percent for this year, but that's just the first step toward harvest, says economist Darrel Good of U-Illinois. The crop will be determined by how much of the land is harvested and by yields, writes Good at farmdoc daily.

With rainfall far below normal and the growing season advancing this year, southern Africa will increasingly deplete its food supplies and cash reserves to buy food, said the World Food Program.

Leading into the Feb. 1 precinct caucuses that begin the presidential nomination process, Harper's says in a cover story that "it seems to defy reason" that Iowa, a farm state with a population of 3 million, "should play such an out-sized role. But Iowa is not over. In fact, it may be more relevant than ever."

Maine passed a GMO food-labeling law in 2014 that will not take effect unless the five states contiguous to Maine enact their own labeling laws. "But some lawmakers then began a drive to repeal the trigger, putting the law into effect, and a key statehouse panel is expected to take up the issue in coming weeks," reports the Associated Press.

In his first visit to the United States since appointment as Canadian Agriculture Minister, Lawrence MacAuley thanked U.S. allies for their help in winning repeal of a law that required packages of beef and pork to say where the animals were born, raised, and slaughtered. Congress repealed the country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law a month ago, averting up to $1 billion in retaliatory tariffs by Canada and Mexico.

Mexico's soda tax is kicking in, cutting sales of sugary beverages, says the New York Times, citing a study published in the journal BMJ this week. Mexico has the highest proportion of overweight or obese adults among developed countries, about 70 percent, and the highest rate of Type 2 diabetes, according to the OECD.

The Des Moines Water Works federal lawsuit over nitrate runoff into the Raccoon River is taking a detour to the Iowa Supreme Court, says DTN. The lawsuit could set a precedent with its argument that 10 drainage districts in northwestern Iowa should be regulated as "point sources" of pollution and required to meet clean-water standards.

The portion of consumers who care passionately about, are dissatisfied with, and are distrustful of how food is made, packaged and sold zoomed to 24 percent from 10 percent in two years, becoming a "mainstream segment that manufacturers cannot ignore," said Food Navigator, citing a Food 2020 report by public relations firm Ketchum.