The government set a 30-day comment period "on how a federal standard of identity for honey would be in the interest of consumers, the honey industry and U.S. agriculture."

Corn yields in Ohio and South Dakota are likely to be far above last year's levels, say scouts on the Pro Farmer crop tour. Their reports indicate a yield of 182.1 bushels an acre in Ohio and 152.7 bushels an acre in South Dakota.

Republicans Rodney Davis of Illinois and David Valadao of California are in stronger position for re-election, according to revised Rothenburg Political Report/Roll Call ratings.

Researchers say they have confirmed that hog feed can be a carrier of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), which has killed millions of piglets since May 2013, says The Pig Site, an Internet news site.

USDA, in a resubmission to the Federal Register, proposed to expand the scope of its Organic Production Survey and to make responses to its questions mandatory.

A middle-income family will spend an average $37 a day to raise a child from birth to age 18, according to government figures on food, housing, health care, child care, education and other expenses.

Analysts are chewing over the arcane Crop Acreage Data page posted by USDA in hopes of a clearer picture of this fall's corn and soybean harvests.

In a story that puts a face on the Census of Agriculture statistic about the increase in Hispanic farmers, the New York Times says, "They have classic American bootstrap stories of grit, determination and a little bit of luck.

A scientist from Virginia Tech has discovered a way that plants communicate with each other at the molecular level. The research could provide a way to fight parasitic weeds that attack food crops, says the university.

Farmers and landowners in California are spending millions of dollars to drill increasingly deeper wells in California, says National Geographic.

Cropland values are steady or starting to erode while ranch and pasture land is rising in value, say agricultural bankers in the Midwest and central Plains.

If Big Data was the topic du jour of the spring, drones are the buzz this summer. There have been regional sessions about them and the upcoming Dakotafest ag show will hold a day's worth of workshops on drones on Aug 20.

Variously called African spinach, ramdana and brom-brou, amaranth is usually picked fresh for use in salads or cooked with meat or fish, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which selected the crop native to the Andes as its "traditional crop of the month."

China barred pork imports from six U.S. processing plants and six cold storage facilities as part of its ban on the feed additive ractopamine, which helps hogs gain weight more rapidly, said Reuters.

The new subsidy STAX will be available to upland cotton growers beginning with the 2015 crop, said USDA's Risk Management Agency in a bulletin to insurers and its field offices.

Recurrent drought has combined with a smaller cattle inventory to begin shifting the cattle industry, centered in the southern and central Plains, to the north and east, says Meatingplace in a seven-part story, "Dry Age Beef."

The junior member of the House Agriculture Committee, Vance McAllister, "has suddenly, improbably, become the man to beat this November," says Roll Call.

The world's largest farm equipment manufacturer said sales were down by 5 percent worldwide - down 8 percent in the United States and Canada - in the third quarter - due to lower commodity prices...

The world's largest cereal maker, Kellogg Co, said it will reduce energy and greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 to combat climate change.