China

Chinese businessman Mo Hailong pleaded guilty in Des Moines to conspiracy to steal trade secrets - inbred corn seeds from two of the largest U.S. seed companies - in return for prosecutors' recommendation of a shorter prison sentence, said the Justice Department. "Mo Hailong participated in the theft of inbred corn seeds from fields in the Southern District of Iowa for the purpose of transporting the seeds to China. The stolen inbred, or parent, seeds were the valuable intellectual property of DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto."

A U.S. appellate court turned down EPA's request to withdraw its registration of a new weedkiller that its developer, Dow Chemical, expects will be a big seller. "The three-sentence order did not elaborate on the judges' reasoning," said the Chicago Tribune, adding the decision "brought the next generation of genetically modified crops closer to America's dinner tables."

Even though China has not approved cultivation of GMO crops, environmental group Greenpeace says farmers in the northeastern part of the country are growing the crop illegally, said Reuters.

The government lowered its forecast of U.S. farm exports by 5 percent from August. The $7 billion cut was due to "lower prices, strong competition and diminishing Chinese demand," said USDA in a quarterly report.

At annual U.S.-China trade talks, China "indicated today it would move quickly to review the 11 agricultural biotechnology events [GMO crop varieties] pending approval, and continue our dialogue on access for U.S. beef," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a U.S. statement. "My hope is that over the next 30 to 60 days, these words are met with consistent action."

Soybean production around the world "could match last season's record," helping to boost the global stockpile to a new record, said the International Grains Council in a monthly report. Soybean stocks would rise despite a sharp 3 percent climb in consumption that includes larger imports by China, the world's larger buyer.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says he will suggest at the annual U.S.-China trade meeting that Beijing should lift its ban on imports of U.S. poultry, imposed earlier this year when an epidemic of deadly avian influenza hit poultry flocks in the western half of the nation.

In the first change to China’s Seed Law since enactment in 2000, the top legislature relaxed regulation over nearly two dozen crops but said new varieties of five major crops - rice, corn, wheat, soybeans and cotton - will still need regulatory approval before they go on the market, said Xinhua.

Burdened by a two-year supply of cotton in its warehouses, China is scaling back dramatically on imports of the fiber. The International Cotton Advisory Council estimates China will import less than 1.4 million tonnes of cotton during this marketing year, down 24 percent from last year.

Chinese consumers are eating more and more meat - per capita consumption soared by 24 percent in the past decade, says a report by PwC UK. An additional 30-percent rise would be needed to match the consumption rates in Taiwan of 74 kg a year, "a realistic long-term extrapolation."

China will remain the world's largest cotton importer but its purchases during the current trade year, estimated at 1.6 million tonnes, would be only 30 percent of the total of 2011/12, when they peaked, said the International Cotton Advisory Committee.

Ahead of today’s meeting of Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Obama, Chinese trade groups signed contracts to buy more than 484 million bushels of U.S. soybeans, a deal worth $5.3 billion, said the U.S. Soybean Export Council.

China will harvest its smallest cotton crop - 26 million bales - since 2003/04 as it tries to whittle down a stockpile equal to two years of consumption, says the Cotton and Wool Outlook.

Farm subsidies in China, India, Brazil and Turkey cost U.S. wheat growers nearly $1 billion in revenue annually, says a study commissioned by two U.S. wheat groups.

Economic turmoil in China, the world's largest importer of rice and soybeans, could dampen world trade in feedstuffs and soybeans, said the International Grains Council.

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.