Canadians vote today for members of Parliament, with agriculture playing a minor role at best in elections that will determine if the Conservative Party's nine-year run is over.

The Inspector General's office says it will assess whether the EPA properly updated its life-cycle analysis of the Renewable Fuels Standard, which guarantees biofuels a share of the gasoline market.

The U.S. intelligence community says the overall risk of food insecurity will rise during the next decade in many countries "of strategic importance to the United States" because of disruption in local food supplies, lower purchasing power and counter-productive government policies. "In some countries, declining food security will almost certainly contribute to social disruptions and political instability," said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Water temperatures in the Chesapeake Bay are rising by 1.2 degrees per decade, with some "hot spots" such as Baltimore warming more rapidly than that, says the Baltimore Sun in summarizing a University of Maryland study.

Agricultural production in the developing world could get a boost from precision agriculture and Big Data techniques, said agribusiness executives at the World Food Prize conference in Des Moines according to DTN. Information gleaned from Big Data's detailed collection of crop production across a field can tailor seed, fertilizer and pesticide application rates to maximize yields while controlling production costs.

Businessman Stewart Mills is running for the second time against Rep Rick Nolan, a House Agriculture Committee member, in the northeastern quadrant of Minnesota, says Roll Call. A moderate Democrat, Nolan won re-election in 2014 with 48.5 percent of the vote in a three-way race. Mills trailed by 3,732 votes, or 1.4 percentage points.

A test of 42 commonly used pesticides found seven that killed practically no bees, including the neonicotinoid acetamiprid and the weedkiller glyphosate, said the Entomological Society of America. In the study by scientists from USDA's Agricultural Research Service and Mississippi State University, 26 pesticides, including neonicotinoids, organophosphates and pyrethroids killed nearly all the bees that came into contact with the pesticide sprays.

The No 1 fast food company, McDonald's, "has quietly pulled the link" on the Internet to a 20-minute film, "540 Meals: Choices Make a Difference," that was being promoted for nutrition education classes in middle and high schools, says the blog The Lunch Tray. The author of the blog, Bettina Siegel, says the film features "features McDonald's paid brand ambassador John Cisna, an Iowa science teacher who lost weight eating McDonald's for 90 days" and "is little more than an infomercial."

By a mile, the top issues for grocery shoppers are affordable and nutritious food, according to a nationwide survey commissioned by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. When asked about food purchases, nearly 60 percent of participants in the poll rated affordable or nutritious food as very important - 25 percentage points ahead of "not genetically modified" and "antibiotic-free" and three times the ratings for "locally grown," "organically grown" or "from a family farm."

U.S. wheat exports are headed for "a new record low of 850 million" bushels due to mammoth supplies worldwide and the strong dollar, which pushes U.S. wheat out of the price range of some importers, says the monthly Wheat Outlook. Exports usually are around the 1 billion-bushel level and amount to 45 percent of the crop.

Food security and agriculture should be at the center of the debate at the UN climate change conference later this year, said the head of FAO and the French agriculture minister. "We believe that agriculture in the broad sense - including forestry, fisheries and aquaculture - can and must play a central role in addressing climate change, particularly in adapting its impacts, such as water scarcity, soil salinity or increasing pests and diseases of plants and animals," said FAO director general Graziano da Silva.

Farmers around the world are barely improving their productivity rates and creating the risk the world will not be able in coming years to provide sustainably food, livestock feed, fiber and biofuels for a growing world population, says the a report by Global Harvest Initiative. Its annual assessment says agricultural productivity is rising by 1.72 percent worldwide, trailing the 1.75 percent per year that it estimates is needed for the demands of 9.7 billion people in 2050.

The Hawaii state Department of Agriculture plans to expand statewide a voluntary program in which major agricultural companies such as Dow, Pioneer, Sygenta and BASF report the types and amounts of restricted-use pesticides that they use each month on Kauai, says Honolulu Civil Beat. Under the "Good Neighbor Program," the companies put a 100-foot buffer zone around pesticide applications and, if requested, notify neighbors before spraying. State agriculture director Scott Enright "said he expects the program to be implemented statewide by the end of the year."

Producers in Iowa, the No 1 egg state, "say they are looking to house more of their hens in cage-free barns to meet growing demand from big buyers like McDonald's," says the Omaha (Neb) World-Herald. Rembrandt Farms, based in Spirit Lake and one of the largest producers of processed egg products, will shift to an all cage-free model.

Florida's citrus industry is "in an accelerating tailspin," with an orange crop forecast by USDA to be the smallest in 52 years, says the Tampa Bay Times. "The new forecast is a startling 17 percent drop in one year, raising questions of when — or if — Florida's citrus business will be able to stabilize."