EPA

A large Florida citrus grower and processor, Southern Gardens Citrus based in Clewiston, "is growing genetically modified fruit that’s resistant to the citrus greening disease," said The Packer.

Monsanto and competitors such as Bayer and Syngenta are investigating genetic sprays that can temporarily turn off the activity of any gene through a technology called RNA interference, says MIT Technology Review.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy is to visit a Rocheport, Mo, farm today and speak to the Kansas City Agribusiness Council on Thursday in defense of new clean water regulations. Farm groups loudly oppose the Waters of the United States proposal as a power grab. The EPA says the rule reflects a Supreme Court decision and does not expand its reach.

The "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest since 2002 and more than three times bigger than the target set by the so-called Hypoxia Task Force.

A small company in Costa Mesa, California, says it has found a cost-competitive way to make plastic from methane in cow manure, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Two Pennsylvania officials said the state will work harder to reduce pollution runoff into the Susquehanna River, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay, reports Lancaster Online. The river is the main source of fresh water for the bay.

Cattle and rice producer Bob Stallman will retire as president of the American Farm Bureau Federation in January, after 16 years as leader of the organization.

The USDA said it has decided to approve cultivation of cotton that has been genetically engineered by Dow AgroScience to tolerate the weedkiller 2,4-D as well as glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world, said Agri-Pulse.

Three dozen senators sent a letter to the EPA asking for a much higher mandate for biodiesel than the agency proposed for 2016 and 2017. They say the agency failed to "adequately recognize the domestic biodiesel industry's production capacity and its ability to increase production."

The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Philadelphia, upheld the EPA's "pollution diet" intended to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay, affirming a 2013 ruling by a U.S. district judge.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved a bill to obviate the recently issued "waters of the United States" rule that defines the upstream reach of the Clean Water Act.

A coalition of nine environmental and consumer groups says it submitted more than 500,000 comments in opposition to a Dow weedkiller that combines the herbicides glyphosate and 2,4-D. The Environmental Protection Agency says it hopes to make a final decision later this year, "perhaps by late summer or early fall," on the Enlist Duo weedkiller. It tentatively has decided the herbicide is safe for use.

The largest U.S. farm group says the EPA's proposed "waters of the United States" rule "is even worse than before." The six-million-member American Farm Bureau Federation released a lengthy analysis of the so-called WOTUS rule...

"The demand for corn for ethanol production appears to be on solid footing for the next 18 months," says economist Darrel Good of U-Illinois. "While growth may be limited, a setback is not expected."

Thirteen states filed suit in federal court in North Dakota against the "waters of the United States" rule that defines the upstream reach of the Clean Water Act, said Agri-Pulse.

An EPA hearing in Kansas City on an agency proposal to relax the biofuel mandate for 2015 and 2016 "turned into somewhat of a pro-ethanol hearing and rally with the vast majority of those who testified telling EPA not to mess with the RFS," reports DTN.

Two of the most widely used herbicides, glyphosate and atrazine, will be part of a nationwide evaluation of the effects of 16 chemicals on 1,500 endangered plants and animals...