In the first debate of the Senate race in Arkansas, Sen Mark Pryor, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, said opponent first-term Rep Tom Cotton, a Republican, is more interested in foreign policy than...

The ebola outbreak in western Africa could disrupt the cocoa harvest in two of the world's largest growers of the crop that yields chocolate and affect prices, says Politico.

Researchers at a Boston Hospital discovered a hormone that could be the basis for a "fructose tolerance test," says Harvard University, which could identify people at risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Start-up companies such as FarmLogs and 640 Labs are in the hunt for customers along with agribusiness giants Deere, Pioneer and Monsanto in the new agricultural field of Big Data, says Reuters.

Cosmic Crisp is a new variety of apple developed by Washington State University and should appear in orchards in 2017, says the Associated Press.

Transportation consultant Walter Kemmsies is skeptical the barge industry will be able to move the huge corn and soybean crops being harvested this fall, said Farm Futures, based on an interview at a grain industry meeting in New Orleans.

A third vaccine against Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus, which has killed 8 million piglets since mid-2013, is on the horizon, says the New York Times. It says MJ Biologics of Mankato, Minn, hopes to get USDA approval for its vaccine soon.

The federally subsidized crop insurance program is an inefficient way to support growers and a drain on taxpayers, says a critique in Choices, the journal of agricultural economics.

U.S. farms are highly mechanized, one of the reasons a comparatively small number of people can produce a torrent of food, feed and fiber. Harvest Public Media went to western Illinois for a contest to harvest corn the old-fashioned way, by hand.

Herbicide-resistant "superweeds" are the result of "over-reliance on a single class of herbicides," says the Weed Science Society of America.

Independent Greg Orman is "at least a small favorite" to defeat third-term Sen Pat Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, in Kansas, says the Sabato's Crystal Ball.

The global Food Price Index is down for the sixth month in a row, says the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Sugar and dairy prices dropped by the largest amounts, followed by grains and oils.

Genetically engineered crops get undue credit for reducing soil losses on cropland, says the Environmental Working Group. In a three-page analysis, EWG says the credit really should go to so-called conservation compliance and the Conservation...

A survey of menus at the 66 largest U.S. restaurant chains found a new items on the menu contain 12 percent fewer calories, says a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Republican Pat Roberts is the leader in newly released polls by CNN and Fox. Roberts, potentially the next chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, was ahead of independent Greg Orman 49-48 with 3 percent undecided in the CNN poll...

The government will raise its estimates of the record-setting corn and soybean crops on Friday, according to two surveys of analysts ahead of the monthly crop report and the companion WASDE report on world crops.

Voters respond strongly to issues such as food safety or assuring that children, veterans and the elderly have enough to eat, said pollster Celinda Lake.

The World Organization for Animal Health says pig blood products are unlikely to spread the deadly Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus when used as a feed ingredient.

Seed company Syngenta, whose genetically engineered corn is blamed for a disruption in U.S. corn exports to China, says it applied in 2010 to cultivate the same variety in China, says Reuters.