The Justice Department's use of a secretive national-security court to prevent the theft of hybrid corn seed developed by U.S. companies indicates the gravity of Sino-U.S. competition, says the The New Republic.

Meatpackers may as well put up a sign: No robots need apply, says KUNC's Luke Runyon in a story on the limits of technology and the economics of meat plants.

Crop-insurance claims by farmers for prevented planting are up by 48 percent this year, said Bloomberg, a reflection of the cold and rainy spring. Growers filed claims on 2.3 million acres of corn and nearly 2.2 million acres of soybeans, said the news agency, based on its review of federal data.

Fourteen Democrats in Congress asked the FDA to help small farmers comply with new food safety laws due next spring, said The Hill newspaper.

A team of engineers is testing the practicality of growing food crops in small, inflatable greenhouses in the ocean.

Besides the daunting cost of land and equipment, a growing number of young farmers is starting with the additional burden of college debt, says the Sacramento Bee.

China is a tiny market for ethanol imports but producers in the United States and Brazil are stirred by an upturn in sales, says Reuters.

Commissioner Mark Wetjen announced his resignation from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission effective Aug. 28, nearly four years after he was confirmed by the Senate to serve on the regulatory agency.

Americans shop at farmers markets and join food cooperatives because they enjoy knowing who grows their food and because the commitment to local food makes them feel part of a community pursuing a healthy lifestyle and a sustainable environment, according to a U-Iowa study.

Farmers in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan are eligible for an additional $5 million in cost-share money for projects that will reduce nutrient runoff into western Lake Erie, said the USDA.

Biologist William Powell says the best way to revive the American chestnut tree, one of the most common trees in the country until a fungal blight effectively erased it from the landscape, could be genetic engineering.

There are perhaps 415 wolves in Sweden and the predator has created an uproar among farmers, hunters and environmentalists in the province of Varmland, with the EU involved as well, reports the New York Times.

The Palo Verde Irrigation District, headquartered in Blythe, "has become an increasingly important factor in California's struggle to overcome a four-year drought," says the Los Angeles Times.

The corn and soybean crops will be slightly smaller than forecast by USDA, says Pro Farmer at the end of a week-long sampling of fields across the Midwest and northern Plains.

Wildfires have burned 6.51 million acres so far this year, with 51 large fires active in 11 states this weekend, says the National Interagency Fire Center.

Growers along the South Platte River in Colorado are becoming more efficient water users and the outcome is the opposite of what most people would expect, says public broadcaster KUNC.

Sorghum growers are headed for their largest crop in 16 years, 573 million bushels, says the USDA in its Feed Outlook. The bumper crop is due to a 20-percent surge in plantings and record-high yields of 74.6 bushels an acre.