CBC

Trade officials from the 12 nations involved in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations are in Hawaii in hopes of reaching final agreement on a free-trade pact encompassing 40 percent of world economic outlook, says Politico.

Canada's latest case of mad cow disease, reported on Feb. 13, was born on the same farm in Alberta as an animal afflicted with the brain-wasting disease in 2010, says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The provincial government of Ontario proposed a three-point initiative to reduce use of corn and soybean seed treated with neonicotinoid pesticides by 80 percent by 2017, to reduce over-wintering deaths of honeybees by 15 percent by 2020 and to develop a comprehensive plan for pollinator health, says the CBC.

The highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza virus was confirmed in a backyard poultry flock in Winston, Oregon, said USDA in a "stakeholder announcement."

The main cause of declines in the monarch butterfly population is loss of habitat in breeding grounds in North America, particularly the U.S. Corn Belt, says research by the University of Guelph.