Senators voted 96-3 to take up a bill that would retroactively reinstate five dozen tax breaks for two years at a cost of $81 billion. "Lawmakers overseeing tax policy have indicated that a final deal to extend all of the expired credits might not come until after the midterm elections," said The Hill newspaper. The Senate was scheduled to continue consideration today of a motion to proceed on the bill.

Speaking to law enforcement groups, President Obama said there is a "narrow window" of time for passage of an immigration reform law before election-year politics become paramount. "So we've got maybe a window of two, three months to get the ball rolling in the House of Representatives."

Democrat Mark Pryor, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, leads Republican challenger Tom Cotton, 51-40, in an NBC/Marist telephone poll of 1,174 registered voters in Arkansas, with 7 percent undecided and 2 percent backing someone else. Margin of error +/-2.9 percent, says Pollster.

Some House Republicans are "looking at including language in the fiscal 2015 spending bill to potentially halt key school nutrition regulations for increased whole-grain requirements and competitive foods restrictions, which are set to kick in this July," says Politico.

Most people don't comprehend fully the recent U.N. climate change report because its language is not as clear as it could be in describing what to expect, say researchers. They suggest the International Panel on Climate Change should use percentages to express its conclusions rather than wording such as "likely" or "about as likely as not" or "virtually certain."

A multi-university study examined the barriers to economically priced biofuels from grass, crop debris and wood. Using expertise in biomass processing, catalyst design, reaction engineering, and process modeling, the team identified "the primary cost drivers" in so-called advanced biofuels and "suggests that increasing efficiency in wastewater treatment and decreasing catalyst costs could reduce that amount to $2.88 per gallon," compared to the current price of $4.75 for biomass-derived jet fuel, says a Syracuse University summary.

AgSec Vilsack announced the availability of $78 million to promote farmers markets and local and regional food sales. The funds are authorized through the 2014 farm law. They include $15 million to promote farmers markets, $15 million for marketing and promotional support for local food businesses, such as food hubs, and $48 million in loan guarantee for projects that focus on local food enterprises. For details, click here.

Researchers say they found antibiotic-resistant genes in all 71 areas they checked around the world. The results "add to evidence showing just how common and abundant those resistance genes really are in natural environments," says Cell Press.

Gov Peter Shumlin signed the first-in-the-nation state law requiring labels on foods made with genetically engineered ingredients. The law takes effect on July 1, 2016, and a court challenge is expected from foodmakers and seed companies.

The Drought Monitor says arid conditions deepened in the central and southern Plains during the past week with Kansas as the leading edge "of the intense drought that seems to be waking up and pushing rapidly north along with warmer temperatures."

Ethanol profitability hit a record high of $4.50 a bushel in the last week of March, $2 above the previous record, for a "representative Iowa ethanol plant," says economist Scott Irwin of U-Illinois at farmdocdaily. Profits surged because of high gasoline prices, comparatively low costs for corn, large exports, low inventories and a sluggish transport system.

Researchers from four countries around the world say that as the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere rises, the amount of zinc and iron in wheat, rice, soybeans and field peas went down significantly; wheat and rice also had notable declines in protein content at the higher levels of carbon dioxide used in the experiment. Zinc and iron deficiency is a global health problem.

The weather-damaged winter wheat crop will be the smallest in eight years, if a survey of analysts ahead of USDA's crop report proves correct. The report, due for release Friday at noon ET, is the first field-based USDA estimate of the winter wheat crop. An accompanying report will project the fall harvest for corn, soybean, cotton and rice as well as overall U.S. wheat output.

The United States is "negotiating" with Brazil and trying to avert the potential imposition of $830 mln in retaliatory tariffs in the decade-old cotton dispute, AgSec Vilsack told the Senate Agriculture Committee. Brazil won a World Trade Organization case against U.S. subsidies several years ago and repeatedly held off retaliation while working with the United States to settle the issue.

Beef prices in the grocery store averaged a record $5.55 per lb in the first quarter of this year and are likely to remain strong through 2016, said Purdue economist Chris Hurt at farmdocdaily. The high beef prices will encourage poultry and pork output to grow rapidly during the period to offset the tight supplies of beef.

Events such as war, famine and poor communication explain the slow pace of domestication of crops, says a study by Canadian and U.S. researchers. Agriculture began 10,000 years ago but it took much longer than expected to domestic crops, a key to civilization. When researchers looked into crop genetics, they found that domestication traits are passed faithfully among generations of plants and often more reliably than ancestral traits.

1. North Carolina Rep Renee Ellmers won the Republican nomination for a third term on Tuesday in "the one House race where immigration matters," as Politico phrased it. Ellmers, with Tea Party roots, is one of a few Republicans to support legalization of undocumented workers. She beat her opponent, economic commentator Frank Roche, by a 3-to-2 margin, says the State Board of Elections Web site.

U.S. farmers will face more dry spells, shorter winters and hotter nights under climate change in coming decades, says the National Climate Assessment. Warmer weather can abet the spread of weeds, diseases and pests, says the report.

Some 14 pct of U.S. farms are 10 acres of smaller and most do produce little, says a USDA report adding, "Small acreage does not necessarily mean small sales." About 50,000 of the farms had sales above $10,000 a year; 6,000 grossed over $250,000 and 3,600 had sales of at least $500,000.