Four farm bill skeptics - Republicans Eric Cantor, Steve Southerland, Pat Roberts and Mitch McConnell - are having an ample share of electoral trouble, writes David Rogers at Politico. Cantor, the former House majority leader, was defeated in his Virginia primary election. Southerland, Roberts and McConnell face strong challenges in the general election. Politico notes there are unique factors in each race and the farm bill is a minor issue, if at all.

The global Food Price Index fell by 3.6 percent in August to reach its lowest level in four year, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Prices for all commodities except for meat dropped markedly. Wheat and corn prices are the lowest in four years, said FAO. Meat is up 1.2 percent in a month and 14 percent higher than a year ago.

Political analysts say the outcome of Oregon's statewide referendum on labeling foods made with genetically modified organisms will depend on whether opponents can win over liberal-leaning urban voters, says the Portland Tribune. Analysts expect the opposition to out-spend the pro-labeling campaign. Around 80 percent of the state population lives in urban areas.

A small-scale study in North Carolina "suggests that nearly half of workers who care for animals in large industrial hog farming operations may be carrying home livestock-associated bacteria in their noses, and that this potentially harmful bacteria remains with them up to four days after exposure," says Johns Hopkins University.

Participants in the Women, Infants and Children food program face notably higher prices at small grocery stores than at supermarkets, says a study by USDA and UC-Davis. Researchers looked at prices charged by retailers in California from 2009-12. A package of milk, eggs, cheese and peanut butter or beans was likely to cost $20.05 at a store with one or two registers while it would be $12.95 at a store with at least 10 check-out lanes.

Monsanto agreed to settle lawsuits filed by growers of soft white wheat over the May 29, 2013, discovery of unapproved biotech wheat in an Oregon field, says broadcaster KCRU. The wheat was a strain genetically engineered by Monsanto to tolerate the weedkiller glyphosate but abandoned after field trials years ago. The growers say they lost money because Japan and South Korea temporarily curtailed purchases of U.S.-grown soft white wheat. Terms of the settlement, reached last week, were not disclosed.

The president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Bob McCan, says "there have been honest differences of opinion" over beef checkoff reform during informal discussions among 11 livestock, marketing and import groups. The National Farmers Union has pulled out of the three-year-old discussions, saying consensus was impossible.

The Commodity Supplemental Food Program is among a limited number of programs to get increased funding in the Republican-drafted bill to fund the government through Dec 11. The House Appropriations Committee said its package, unveiled on Tuesday, offsets food price increases so that no CSFP recipients would lose benefits. Chairman Hal Rogers of Kentucky said the 21-page bill "is free of controversial riders, maintains current levels (of spending), and does not seek to change existing federal policies."

The numbers may change when USDA issues its September crop report on Thursday but the story remains the same: U.S. farmers will reap their largest corn and soybean crops ever this fall. The gargantuan harvests will result in the biggest surpluses in several years and bring markedly lower farm-gate prices that end an eight-year run of historically high crop prices.

More than 90 percent of U.S. children eat far more salt than recommended by the government, putting them at risk for developing high blood pressure and heart disease later in life, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a Vital Signs report, CDC researchers said that 43 percent of the sodium comes from the 10 foods most commonly eaten by children: pizza, bread and rolls, cold cuts/cured meats, savory snacks, sandwiches, cheese, chicken patties/nuggets/tenders, pasta mixed dishes, Mexican mixed dishes, and soups.

The Republican-run House passed a bill to prevent the EPA from finalizing its "Waters of the United States" regulation, sending the bill to an uncertain future in the Senate during the brief pre-election session. "I doubt if (Majority Leader Harry) Reid is going to let something like that come up," said Sen Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican. The White House, in a statement, threatened a veto if the bill reaches the president.

A National Audubon Society report says shrinking and shifting habitats due to climate change could imperil 314 species of birds, half of the species in the United States. Endangered species range from the bald eagle and the osprey to the common loon and ruffled grouse. The report is based on annual bird counts and scenarios of a warmer climate on bird ranges. The study looked at 588 North American species. "Our models indicate that 314 species will lose more than 50 percent of their current climatic range by 2080," says Audubon.

Landowners will be paid $328 million for easements that protect farmland from urban sprawl or restore grasslands and wetlands, said the Agriculture Department. The money will flow to 380 projects totaling 129,000 acres nationwide through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. The 2014 farm law combined three easement programs to form the umbrella ACEP. "What this program does is say, where are the needs out there?" said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during a teleconference.

Normal agricultural activities are exempt from regulation under the Clean Water Act and the proposed "Waters of the United States" regulation won't change that, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said. The rule, proposed in March, is opposed vocally in farm country. The American Farm Bureau Federation, for example, began a "ditch the rule" campaign out of concern of federal regulation of farm ditches.

Republican Senator Pat Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Independent Greg Orman are neck-and-neck in a KSN/SurveyUSA poll conducted from Thursday through Sunday. Orman took 37 percent and Roberts 36 percent with a margin of error of +/-4.4 points. Democrat Chad Taylor, who declared he is no longer running, got 10 percent.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy says the recent upturn in gasoline consumption will be reflected in the ethanol mandate for this year, which should be announced in coming weeks. "You will see the rule coming out with changed numbers as a result," she told the National Farmers Union fly-in. EPA proposed a relaxation of the so-called Renewable Fuels Standard on grounds that U.S. fuel consumption was lower than expected, so it was becoming impossible for oil companies to meet the targets set by law for ethanol use.

With the beef industry unable to agree on reform of the beef checkoff program, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he will act soon on the two biggest issues - adequate funding and the governing structure of the checkoff program. The two issues have been linked throughout three years of fruitless informal discussions among 11 groups representing producers, importers and marketers.

Canada's wheat surplus at the start of this marking year was 9.8 million tonnes, up 94 percent from the year-earlier figure, said Statistics Canada. A record 3.7 million tonnes was in storage in Saskatchewan and storage in Alberta also was a record at 1.8 million tonnes as of Aug 1. The huge increases reflected "bumper production for many crops (in 2013), especially in the Prairies," it said.

"(P)ublic health experts say hundreds of children under 16...continue to work in America’s tobacco fields" through an exclusion in labor law that allows youth as young as 12 years old to work unlimited hours as farm workers, says the New York Times in a story about youth labor on tobacco farms. The story says field workers risk green tobacco sickness - nicotine poisoning - from dew or rain water dripping from the leaves of tobacco plants. Vomiting, dizziness and irregular heartbeats are among the symptoms.