Lawyers for the Grocery Manufacturers Association will make a last-ditch attempt on Thursday to prevent Vermont's first-in-the-name GMO food labeling law from taking effect. says Food Navigator. A federal district judge refused to issue an injunction so GMA will present arguments to the U.S. appeals court in New York City.

Chicken farmers in Vietnam say they will file an anti-dumping complaint with their nation's Competition Authority next month against imports of U.S. poultry meat, just days after the TPP trade accord was reached. "Vietnam’s Southeastern Livestock Association asserts the poultry is sold at prices lower than those in the United States," Bloomberg reported.

Four food-policy advocates called on presidential aspirants to spell out their views on a coordinated U.S. food policy with the intention of declaring a National Food Policy within weeks of taking office in January 2017. "Production and consumption of food has a bigger impact on Americans' well-being than any other human activity," write Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, Ricardo Salvador and Olivier De Schutter.

The World Bank projected the portion of the world living in extreme poverty will fall below 10 percent this year, the lowest rate ever. In a statement, the Bank said the projections were "fresh evidence that a quarter-century-long sustained reduction in poverty is moving the world closer to the historic goal of ending poverty by 2030."

Poverty appears to be a bigger factor in poor diets than living in areas without a supermarket nearby, say Ilya Rahkovsky and Samantha Snyder of USDA's Economic Research Service. In a 36-page report, the researchers say that living in a "low income, low-access" (LILA) area "has only a modest negative impact on the healthfulness of food purchases - a difference too small to explain much of the national disparities in diet quality and obesity.”

"It's inevitable that glyphosate is all wound up in GMOs," writes Tamar Haspel in the Washington Post. Many of the strains of GMO crops on the market were designed to tolerate the herbicide, so the crops survive when the chemical is sprayed in fields to kill weeds.

State Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor last spring, is running for the U.S. House in southwestern Kentucky, reports the Ashland Independent.

Minnesota will retain its rank as the top turkey-producing state despite a 12-percent drop in output due to the bird flu epidemic, says the USDA's annual Turkeys Raised report. The state is estimated to raise 40 million, or nearly 18 percent, of the 228 million turkeys grown this year.

China will remain the world's largest cotton importer but its purchases during the current trade year, estimated at 1.6 million tonnes, would be only 30 percent of the total of 2011/12, when they peaked, said the International Cotton Advisory Committee.

Negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact covering 40 percent of the global economy focused on dairy and drugs in the final drive by ministers from the 12 nations for an agreement. They planned a two-day meeting last week but stayed on in Atlanta with hopes of an accord today.

President Obama tapped Pamela Anderson, of the Gates Foundation, and Gebisa Ejeta, the 2009 winner of the World Food Prize, to serve on the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development.

The virus that caused an epidemic that swept U.S. hog farms probably entered the country in contaminated Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers that carry many types of cargo, says the USDA.

Although marijuana is legal, either medicinally or recreationally, in half the states, growers "don't have a clear understanding of which pesticides and fungicides are safe to use - for workers or consumers," says Rocky Mountain PBS I-News in a piece produced in partnership with FERN.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Canada would compensate farmers for any losses resulting from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, said Reuters, with negotiations underway in Atlanta.

ConAgra Foods, the maker of Slim Jim beef jerky and Banquet frozen foods, says it will move its corporate headquarters to Chicago from its longtime base of Omaha. Tax incentives from Illinois, where the company's new CEO lives, helped spur the move.