Researchers say there are 63,000 square miles of lawn in the United States, "an area three times larger than any irrigated crop" and about the size of Texas, according to a piece in Fusion.

Farmers have embraced power equipment for decades, part of the transformation of agriculture from small-scale farms that relied on manual labor to a highly mechanized sector with a much smaller workforce.

The Canadian province of Quebec produces more than 70 percent of the world supply of maple syrup, and a government-backed "cartel," the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Poducers, controls prices, reports the New York Times.

Gov Jerry Brown signed a law to ensure that olive oil from California is labeled properly, said the Vacaville Reporter. If the label says California, all of the oil must come from olives grown in the state, says state Sen Lois Wolk, who sponsored the legislation.

The world's largest producer of sugary beverages "is backing a new 'science-based' solution to the obesity crisis" - exercise more and worry less about calories - says the New York Times.

One of the strongest El Nino weather patterns ever forecast is expected to peak in late fall or early winter but it's too early to say if it will ease the four-year-old drought in Californa.

"Could the next big thing in alternative proteins be a something tiny and green?" asks NPR. "Several companies see a bright future for plant protein, and for microalgae in particular."

Two of three Americans "favor a plan to allow immigrants who are living illegally in the U.S. to remain in the country and become citizens if they meet certain requirements over time," says Gallup.

Cotton production is plummeting in China, the world's largest importer and consumer of the textile, says USDA.

Banking giant Wells Fargo may sell its crop insurance subsidiary, says Reuters, quoting a bank spokeswoman.

"Moms rule," says Eater in a survey of the mom blogosphere in which highly connected mothers offer personal advice on parenting, including recommendations on food.

Kathleen Merrigan, who helped craft the organic food law in 1990 as a Senate staffer and implement it a decade later at USDA, "is an agricultural policy workhorse who calls the public policy arena her 'playground,'" says a profile story at Greenwire.

Global Footprint Network, a sustainability think tank, calculates that today is Earth Overshoot Day, "when humanity’s annual demand on nature exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year."

A large Florida citrus grower and processor, Southern Gardens Citrus based in Clewiston, "is growing genetically modified fruit that’s resistant to the citrus greening disease," said The Packer.

Sorghum is enjoying a resurgence after years of being over-shadowed by corn, thanks in large part to large exports to China that have boosted market prices.

"On a summer afternoon in the city of Sumter in South Carolina, three men...stood in a field, boiling watermelon juice," says Aeon magazine in a deep dive into "a growing global movement to establish a culinary canon and to restore the actual local ingredients that composed it.

Yellow perch recovered from overfishing in Lake Michigan much more rapidly - by hundreds of years - than scientists thought possible, says Purdue U.

Monsanto and competitors such as Bayer and Syngenta are investigating genetic sprays that can temporarily turn off the activity of any gene through a technology called RNA interference, says MIT Technology Review.