Pork exports shot to $4 billion at the end of July, the first time cumulative sales hit that level in so short a time, says the U.S. Meat Export Federation. Exports from January through July equaled 28 percent of U.S. production, up 2 percent from 2013, said the federation. "U.S. prices began to moderate in August, so these price gaps have now been narrowed or eliminated. Going forward, this should relieve some of the price pressure on U.S. exporters.” said Philip Seng, chief executive of the trade group.

Plant breeder Frank Kutka is working on corn varieties that organic farmers can plant without fear of cross-pollination from GMO corn in neighboring fields, writes Ken Roseboro at Civil Eats. It is a multimillion-dollar challenge because organic crops cannot include genetically modified organisms. Corn is the most widely grown U.S. crop. Farmers can take precautions such as planting their fields earlier or later than their neighbors so the fields mature at different times but that is an imperfect tactic.

The House and Senate are scheduled to return to today with one major goal - passage of a short-term government funding bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct 1 or face a repeat of the shutdown of last October. Lawmakers are expected to pass legislation to fund the government until early December before leaving, possibly as early as next Friday, to campaign for re-election.

The National Farmers Union withdrew from three years of fruitless discussions for reform of the beef checkoff as "a waste of time and resources." Over the weekend, the NFU board said it was up to the Agriculture Department to respond to beef producer demands for reform. "It is our recommendation that USDA consider rewriting the beef checkoff program under the 1996 generic research and promotion act," said a resolution adopted by the board. NFU is the second-largest U.S. farm group.

Egg farmers in California are altering their laying houses to give hens more room ahead of the Jan 15 deadline to comply with new rules, writes Twilight Greenaway at Civil Eats, which looks into arguments over egg production. One farmer is spending $3 million to revamp his facilities, to "enriched colony" cages from the smaller "battery" cages, but will have 100,000 fewer laying hens in the end.

Private consultants expect the U.S. corn and soybean crops will be larger than estimated by the government. USDA will update its forecasts on Sept 11. Three consultancies - INTL FCStone, Lanworth and Allendale - release assessments this week. Lanworth was the only one to lower its estimate of the corn crop, to 14.646 billion bushels, but that is higher than the other two forecasts and 4 percent larger than USDA's estimate of 14.032 billion bushels based on Aug 1 conditions, said AgriMoney.

Fulcrum Sierra Biofuels will receive a $105 million loan guarantee to build a plant in McCarran, Nev, to produce biodiesel jet fuel from municipal solid waste, said the Agriculture Department. The plant would produce 11 million gallons a year of fuel. The loan guarantee is nearly half of the $226 million cost of the plant. Cathay Pacific Airways said last month that it would invest in Fulcrum Bioenergy and negotiated a 10-year contract with Fulcrum for 375 million gallons of fuel.

A group of scientists says it has sequenced the coffee genome, reports the Washington Post, opening the door to breeding disease-resistant coffee plants, naturally decaffeinated coffee "and even genetic engineering." The consortium says their genetic map, when compared to chocolate, show the plants followed separate paths to producing caffeine, which suggests it is a valuable trait.

Rice growers in drought-baked California expect twice the reduction in their crop than does USDA. An official with the California Rice Commission told CBS Sacramento that rice plantings and harvest area will be about 420,000 acres this year, down 25 percent from 2013. California is the largest grower of short- and medium-grain rice, the types used in sushi. The rice crop is worth $5 billion, so the smaller crop could mean $1 billion less in rice revenue.

County election officials began the recount of votes on the "right to farm" constitutional amendment in Missouri on Thursday with results due at the Secretary of State's office by Sept 11. The amendment passed by 2,490 votes out of 996,672 cast during the Aug 5 primary election. The recount was requested by opponents of the amendment. Secretary of State Jason Kander's office said a running tally would be posted daily on the Internet.

Family farms account for 500 million of the estimated 570 million farms in the world, says Insights magazine, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, a think tank. "Farming is one of the last economic activities performed largely by families working together." On average, family farms are smaller than nonfamily farms - 475 million farms are less than 2 hectares, or 5 acres. In developing countries, the farms are heavily diversified as a way to protect the family against losses rather than try to maximize profits. Many family and smallholder farmers are poor and work off the farm too.

The obesity rate among U.S. adults doubled since 1980 to its current 35 percent. "We are starting to see signs of hope," say the heads of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America's Health in their "State of Obesity" report. It says childhood obesity rates stabilized in the past decade and the rate of increase in obesity among adults is slowing. "In 2005, every state but one reported an increase in obesity rates; this past year, only six states experienced an increase," it says. The six states are Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, New Jersey, Tennessee and Wyoming.

The government does not expect to sell surplus sugar at a discount to ethanol makers during the new fiscal year. Sugar supplies are forecast to be fairly tight during fiscal 2015, shrinking to a carryover of 837 million short tons, compared to a surplus of 2.16 million tons in fiscal 2013.

The food industry and agribusiness allies that oppose labeling of GMO foods spent $27.5 million in the first half of this year on lobbying that involved labeling, triple the amount they spent last year, says the Environmental Working Group. "The burst of lobbying by food and biotechnology companies was partly designed to muster Congressional support for legislation that would block states from requiring GE labeling on food packages," said EWG, known for its database of farm subsidy recipients.

From the Bacon Belt of the South to the rain-red Pacific Northwest, Farm Futures has identified the six "Best Places to Farm," based on analysis of the profitability, financial efficiency and growth of farming in nearly 3,000 counties. For the analysis, Farm Futures used data from the Census of Agriculture in 2012, 2007 and 2002 with the greatest weight going to the 2012 results. "Being a mature industry didn’t keep farmers in our top regions from reinventing their operations with new technology and new enterprises," says a summary.

Under-funded Democrat Chad Taylor withdrew as a candidate for Senate in Kansas, "an 11th hour move that could clear the way for his party to rally behind an independent candidate and potentially change the math in the battle for the Senate majority," said the Washington Post. Independent Greg Orman "has been viewed as a more viable opponent against Sen Pat Roberts (R), who polls show is vulnerable."

Second-term Rep Steve Southerland, the Florida Republican who proposed $40 billion in food stamp cuts as part of the farm bill, faces a tough contest for re-election, say Politico and Roll Call. In its "Homestretch" series, Politico says Southerland is among three House candidates repeatedly mentioned by GOP strategists as "well-positioned to win but seen as running poor campaigns."

With two more cellulosic ethanol plants to come on line in coming months, annual production of the biofuel should exceed 1 million gallons for the first time in 2014, says the Union of Concerned Scientists. "We still have a ways to go until cellulosic ethanol is as abundant as corn ethanol but with commercial production under way, we are making progress much faster," said UCS's Jeremy Martin on the day Poet-DSM plant formally opened its cellulosic plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa.

An estimated 14.3 percent of American households, or one out of seven, often had trouble buying enough food or affording enough nutritious food last year, said the Agriculture Department. The "food insecurity" figure was almost the same as in 2012 but has declined from 14.9 percent in 2011. Rates surged during the 2008-09 recession and remain high.

Food prices are rising and supplies are short in the three west African nations affected by the outbreak of the Ebola virus and the harvest season is imperiled by labor shortages due to restrictions on travel, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in a special alert. FAO reported "panic buying, food shortages and significant food price hikes on some commodities, especially in urban centers." With harvest-time near for rice and corn, travel restriction "will seriously impact farm production," said the alert.