More than $3 billion in USDA cost-sharing funds will be available to producers and foresters for climate mitigation projects in the fiscal year that begins this Sunday, the Agriculture Department said on Thursday.

The USDA could use its biggest land stewardship programs — the Conservation Reserve, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and the Conservation Stewardship Program — to combat climate change, wrote University of Maryland professor Erik Lichtenberg in a think tank report. But to make the programs as effective as possible, he said, Congress would have to reorient them, a risky move that could cut into their support.

The provincial government of Ontario "is moving to take the sting out of pesticides that are killing bees," says the Toronto Star. On July 1, Ontario will be first jurisdiction in North America to limit plantings of corn and soybean seeds coated with neonicotinoid pesticides, says The Star...

Camelina and quinoa, an alliterative pair, are among newcomer crops in North America, says Country Guide, based in Canada, before pointing to black barley, another new specialty crop.

There's buzz about the Corn Belt moving northward into Canada's prairie provinces. Top Producer magazine says, "Leading the charge are Manitoba, where corn acreage has doubled to 380,000 in just two years, and Alberta, which grows almost 25,000 acres of corn."

Higher input costs are by far the No. 1 concern among farmers, but only a minority of them have altered their operations because of rising energy prices, according to a Purdue University poll of large-scale operators.

The Agriculture Department will launch a $250-million-dollar grant program this summer to support "independent, innovative and sustainable" fertilizer production at home and to reduce reliance on imports. The USDA also said it would launch a public inquiry into concentration in the seed and agricultural input, fertilizer and retail markets.

From grow lights in greenhouses and massive diesel-powered farm tractors to the refrigerators in millions of American homes, the food system ranks as a major power user. "Up to a fifth of our nation’s total energy use goes into growing, transporting, processing and eventually preparing our food, but those energy inputs are often hidden," says the opening story of a series by Harvest Public Media and Inside Energy.

"Lower energy prices are expected to lead to lower total production expenses by the agricultural sector," say USDA economists, with savings of $5 billion, or 8 percent, this year and $5 billion in 2016, also an 8-percent savings.

After a week in which Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who's running for president, was in the spotlight for her call to check the power of big agribusiness and "level the playing field for America's family farmers," Big Ag began to hit back, insisting her ideas are out of touch with reality.  

A coalition of 55 environmental, agricultural, and food-safety organizations signed a letter urging the Iowa General Assembly pass a moratorium on new and expanded factory farm development in the state. Iowa currently houses nearly 23 million hogs, a record for the state and the highest number in the country.

Americans opened their wallets to spend a record amount on food last year, even when inflation is considered, partly because they like the convenience of take-out and restaurant food, said two USDA economists. Outlays on food away from home grew by an inflation-adjusted 11 percent last year at the same time inflation was driving up prices.

Members of the millennial generation, born between 1981 and 1996, are less likely to go to the grocery store than Baby Boomers or Gen X-ers and spend less per person when they do go to the store, write two USDA economists. "Millennials are demanding healthier and fresher food — including fruits and vegetables — when making food-at-home purchases, and they place a higher preference on convenience than to other generations."

The traditional supermarket is losing its attraction for grocery shoppers, who increasingly buy their food at supercenters, dollar stores and club stores, although supermarkets remain the dominant retailer. Three USDA economists found correlations between where people buy their food, their income levels and what they buy.

Ninety-percent of meal-kit customers unsubscribe within six months of signing up for the service, says Fast Company, after analyzing data gathered by the market-research firm 1010data. The firm’s data indicated that only about half of customers of Blue Apron remain in the program after the first week, with numbers falling off quickly from there. The dropout rate is similar for other meal-kit companies, like Plated and HelloFresh.

USDA officials said that if the money became available, they would restore a handful of crop and livestock reports that were discontinued in April because of a funding gap. “We have heard from our data users how valuable this information is,” said Troy Joshua, executive producer for the Agricultural Statistics Board, on Wednesday.

The USDA was unable to deliver its market-moving crop report, often described as its premiere product, for 10 minutes due to a computer outage in Kansas City, prompting suspicions of profiteering in the grain market during the delay on Friday. The USDA apparently did not have a backup system to put the data on the internet on time.

The Agriculture Department is expected to announce today that a set of major crop reports scheduled for release Jan. 11 will be delayed until the government shutdown is over, said chief economist Robert Johansson.

Bowing to complaints that high-frequency traders are profiting in the 1 or 2 seconds after it releases its market-moving crop reports, the USDA said on Tuesday that it would no longer allow news agencies to look at the reports before they are released. The news agencies transmit their reports at the same instant that USDA makes its data public.

In June 2017, the Seattle City Council approved a tax of 1.75 cents per ounce on sugary beverages. Now the soda industry has donated almost every dollar of the $20.2 million raised to support a statewide referendum on Nov. 6 that would prevent other cities and counties in Washington State from following Seattle’s lead.

Coho salmon face fatal levels of pollution in 40 percent of their range in the Puget Sound Basin, chiefly because of stormwater runoff, says a study published in the journal Ecological Applications.

Jon Rowley, who “helped make and shape Seattle’s reputation as a food destination while earning his own reputation as a culinary evangelist nationwide,” has died at 74, said the Seattle Times. 

On a 7-1 vote, the Seattle City Council approved a tax of 1.75 cents per ounce on sugary beverages, such as soda, sports drinks and energy drinks, said the Post Intelligencer. "Supporters hope the tax will help fund educational programs and close the learning gap between white students and students of color, while also curbing consumption of unhealthy sugary beverages."

Now in its third version, an online game developed by Iowa State University lets students learn about land-use concepts by mixing crops and conservation practices on a simulated 6,000-acre watershed, says Wallaces Farmer magazine. Professor Lisa Schulte-Moore, leader of the team that developed the game, People in Ecosystems Watershed Integration (PEWi), says the new version has more options than previous editions.

Karl Kupers was an early convert to no-till wheat in the arid and erodible Palouse region of the U.S. Northwest, where wheat is dominant, says a reader-funded story on Flux.

Corn growers would use crop rotation and "stacked" seeds to prevent corn rootworm from developing widespread resistance to Bt corn under a framework proposed by EPA and open for public comment until March 16.

A meta-analysis of 115 studies by UC-Berkeley researchers finds the yield gap between organic and conventional agriculture is smaller than thought, around 19 percent.

The Justice Department's use of a secretive national-security court to prevent the theft of hybrid corn seed developed by U.S. companies indicates the gravity of Sino-U.S. competition, says the The New Republic.

The government used national-security laws, commonly employed against spies and terror plots, to nip the theft of genetically engineered hybrid seed from Iowa cornfields, says the Des Moines Register.