Hershey to buy snack maker (CNBC): Hershey has agreed to buy Pirate Brands for $420 million, entering the $2.5-billion cheese puffs market.
Iowa wants USDA agencies (Des Moines Register): Iowa is tossing its name into the hat of states vying to be the new headquarters of the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue plans to move out of Washington.
Rural kids earn more as adults (Daily Yonder): Penn State researchers say that the farther away from a city a person is raised, the more likely that person is to be economically successful as an adult.
To build a robot, watch a fly (NPR): Scientists in the Netherlands used the fruit fly as the inspiration for an agile flying robot with a one-foot wingspan.
African swine flu found in Belgium (Reuters): France called for protective action following the discovery of African swine flu, a disease deadly to hogs though not a threat to humans, in wild boars in Belgium near its border with France.
GMO pioneer retires (Successful Farming): Mary-Dell Chilton, who shared the World Food Prize in 2013 with two other groundbreaking scientists in the development of GMO crops, is retiring after a remarkable 35-year career at Syngenta.