Lawsuit challenges atrazine usage: Five environmental groups field suit in U.S. appellate court to overturn EPA re-approval of the widely used herbicide atrazine and two related weedkillers on grounds the chemicals pose an unacceptable health risk to humans. (Center for Food Safety)
Virus worse in Trump counties: Coronavirus infection rates are 75 percent higher in counties that voted in 2016 for President Trump by landslide margins, including rural counties, than in counties that voted heavily for Democrat Hillary Clinton; pollsters say the infection rates may have an impact on this year’s election. (Daily Yonder)
More pain from carbon dioxide gain: Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could boost yields of crops such as soybeans and rice by 18 percent but there would be some losses in crop quality while the higher temperatures associated with climate change would halve yields of other major crops, said researchers. (University of Illinois)
Influential economist Flinchbaugh dies: Agricultural economist Barry Flinchbaugh of Kansas State University, who had a part in every farm bill since 1968 and who chaired a congressionally created commission on agricultural policy in the 21st Century, died at age 78 in Topeka. (Wichita Eagle)
GE salmon farm in Kentucky: AquaBounty Technologies selected Mayfield, Kentucky, as the potential site for its first commercial-scale aquaculture farm, with a planned capacity of 10,000 tonnes a year of its genetically engineered salmon beginning in 2023. (AquaBounty)