Ten of the largest food companies in the world urged a global agreement on clear and achievable targets for the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions, said the Guardian.

The Senate Agriculture Committee is likely to set a date for a biotechnology hearing later this week, says a spokeswoman. It would be the first sign in months of movement in the chamber on legislation to pre-empt state laws on GMO food labeling and to keep labeling voluntary on the federal level.

Researchers at UC-Riverside conducted genomic sequencing of five nematode families in work that could improve their performance as a biocontrol against insect damage to crops.

For the first time in three decades, India has "experienced back-to-back monsoon failures," says The Indian Express.

In one of its final looks at this year's wheat crop, the USDA said the harvest totaled 2.052 billion bushels, 4-percent smaller than its previous estimate.

"A source close to the matter" says "Japan is considering sweetening the pot for U.S. rice farmers" when trade ministers meet today in Atlanta in a renewed attempt to wrap up negotiations for a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc, reports Kyodo.

President Obama signed into law five-year extensions of the export-grain inspection program and a program that requires meatpackers to report the purchase price of cattle, hogs and sheep.

Rural teenagers are more likely to receive medical care in emergency rooms than their urban peers, a possible explanation for why they also are 35-percent more likely to have abused prescription painkillers in the past year, says the Daily Yonder, citing a study published in the Journal of Rural Health.

Wheat, often called the staff of life and one of the staple foods of the world, could be transformed in a few years with the arrival in the U.S. of hybrid strains, says Agriculture.com.

The British Medical Journal clarified two points in its critique of expert advice being used by the U.S. government in updating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Nematodes, tiny soil-dwelling animals, cause billions of dollars of crop losses each year. But researchers at U-Missouri and the University of Bonn "have found the first genetic evidence linking one method these animals use to attack plants," says a Missouri release. The scientists "proved that nematodes use a specialized hormone to help them feed."

Plants convert energy from the sun into chemical energy through photosynthesis. Chemist Peidong Yang, of U-California, spent about 10 years accomplishing "a similar feat with the help of semiconductor nanowires and bacteria," says the Los Angeles Times.

Growers in the Midwest are headed for the third year of season-average corn prices below $4 a bushel. Given the cost of planting, cultivating and harvesting a crop, "This … implies 2016 would be the third year of losses if costs are not lowered," says economist Gary Schnitkey of U-Illinois.

A 16-item shopping list of commonly eaten foods would cost slightly less at grocery stores nationwide today than a year ago, thanks to dramatically lower prices for milk and bacon, said the largest U.S. farm group.

The agriculture ministers of Quebec and Ontario will shadow Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast at trade talks in Atlanta as a reminder that the government promised to preserve the integrity of Canada's dairy supply management system, says Canadian Press.

Native to North America, sunflowers are the second-most widely grown seed crop in the world, says Modern Farmer, so it's logical for researchers Laura Marek and Gerald Seiler to scour the country for the hardiest of the wild plants. With climate change forecast to affect agricultural production, "the wild genetic material that breeders need to adapt the crop for future uncertainty is found almost exclusively on our soil," writes Nelson Harvey in a story produced in partnership with FERN.