EU

Initial figures on Britain's rapeseed harvest show yields are slightly above the 10-year average, says the Independent. This is the first harvest since the EU banned use of neonicotinoid pesticides out of concern that they harm honeybees and other pollinating insects.

Orange production will drop by 7 percent this year due to lower yields among the four major growers, Brazil, China, the United States and the European Union, which account for two-thirds of world output, says the USDA.

One of the world's agricultural giants, the European Union, is seeing its wheat and corn crops dwindle due to hot and dry weather that is lowering yields. In its World Agricultural Production report, the USDA lowered its forecast of the EU wheat crop by 2 percent and the corn crop by 3.5 percent from estimates made in early June.

The United States, the world's largest wheat exporter until two years ago, is in an export slump for the second year in a row, according to the Grain: World Markets and Trade report.

A widely used insecticide, the neonicotinoid imidacloprid, "does not significantly harm honey bee colonies at real-world doses," contrary to concerns that neonics, as they are called, are to blame for population declines, says a University of Maryland study.

The European Union will be the world's largest wheat exporter this year, and by a wide margin, says the USDA report Grain: World Markets and Trade.

The United States and European Union have serious disagreements still to resolve in negotiations for a trans-Atlantic free trade agreement, say the agriculture ministers from each side of the ocean.

The outlook for U.S. poultry producers for 2015 is strong, says Rabobank in a report on the industry around the world. Producers in the United States and Brazil "could benefit from ongoing bullish market conditions such as...

By a large majority, the European Parliament voted to let EU members decide whether to allow genetically modified crops to be grown on their land, says BBC News. Until now, decisions on GE crops were made for the bloc as a whole.

Russia's newly announced duty on wheat exports will discourage sales but exports still would be the second-highest ever, says USDA's Grain: World Markets and Trade report.

The Center for International Environmental Law says the proposed U.S.-EU trade agreement "would reduce protection compared to the more stringent pesticide standards already in place in the EU and in individual U.S. states," says the Guardian.

Members of the European parliament approved a plan that would allow members of the European Union to ban genetically engineered crops within their borders even if the EU approves them, "raising the chance their use will remain limited on the continent," said Reuters.

The first case of avian influenza in England in six years was confirmed on a duck farm in Yorkshire, authorities said, a day after a highly contagious strain of bird flu was discovered at a poultry farm in the Netherlands, said the BBC.

For the most part, farmers put their cropland to more intense use rather than convert forests and grasslands because of demand for biofuels in recent years, says a study by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development.

Like the United States, the European Union is reaping a record corn crop this year, says USDA, estimating the European crop at 71 million tonnes.

President Vladimir Putin issued a decree that bans or reduces for one year imports of food and agricultural products from countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia in the crisis over Ukraine. "The Kremlin decree doesn't specify which items will be affected," said the BBC.

That's how Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack summed up U.S. and EU differences on so-called geographic indicators, the names that tie a food to its home area, whether it's Vidalia onions from Georgia or sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is on a whirlwind tour of Europe this week with the goal of expanding trans-Atlantic agricultural trade.