New York Times

When lunchtime at school gets shorter, students eat less of their meals and discard more food, said the New York Times in summarizing a study of 1,000 children at six elementary and middle schools.

Fast-food giant McDonald's, which buys two billion eggs a year, equal to 4 percent of U.S. egg production, "will begin phasing out the use of eggs from hens housed in cages," said the New York Times, "a move that has significant implications for American and Canadian egg producers."

Both Monsanto, the giant seed company, or Stonyfield Farm, the organic yogurt company, "have aggressively recruited academic researchers" to carry their banner in the tussle over labeling foods made with genetically modified organisms, says the New York Times.

The Washington Post’s Roberto Ferdman reported Thursday on the launch of a new advertising campaign targeting the fast-casual restaurant chain Chipotle. Kicking off with a full-page ad in the New York Post, the campaign, funded by the Center for Consumer Freedom, chastises Chipotle for selling high-calorie fare while marketing itself as a healthy alternative.

The New York Times reports on a potential solution for a highly adaptive pest that targets kale, broccoli and other cabbage-family vegetables. Damage from the diamondback moth costs farmers $5 billion worldwide.

More than eight of every 10 Americans say school nutrition standards "should stay the same or be strengthened," said the WK Kellogg Foundation in releasing results of a new poll.

There are perhaps 415 wolves in Sweden and the predator has created an uproar among farmers, hunters and environmentalists in the province of Varmland, with the EU involved as well, reports the New York Times.

The world's largest producer of sugary beverages "is backing a new 'science-based' solution to the obesity crisis" - exercise more and worry less about calories - says the New York Times.

A study by U-Arkansas researchers says a program that provides free fresh fruit and vegetable snacks to school children reduced obesity rates by 3 percentage points among elementary school pupils.

Precision agriculture and big data are familiar concepts in the world of farming. Now, the "Internet of Things" - devices with sensors that transmit data and respond to instructions via a digital network - is being sized up for agriculture.

Rising costs for textile companies in Asia are prompting an upturn in cotton spinning - converting raw cotton into yarn - in the U.S. South, says the New York Times.

Trade ministers from the 12 nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership covering 40 percent of the global economy say they will "continue work on resolving a limited number of remaining issues" that prevented a final agreement in Hawaii.

"After decades of worsening diets and sharp increases in obesity, Americans' eating habits have begun changing for the better," says the New York Times.

China is in the final stages of a 15-year drive to relocate millions of nomadic herders into life in town, says the New York Times, which called it "one of the most ambitious attempts made at social engineering."

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city's Health Commission unveiled a plan that would require restaurant chains and movie theaters to label items as "high in sodium" if they contain more than 2,300 milligrams of salt, says the Fooducate blog of the New York Times.

The administration launched an update of its multi-agency system of regulating food and agricultural biotechnology with a goal of writing the new version of its "coordinated framework" by July 2016.

NASA research shows 21 of the world's 37 largest aquifers, from Asia and Europe to California's Central Valley, "have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study," says the Washington Post.

Trade officials from United States and Japan are to meet in Tokyo “to complete a bilateral agreement over access to Japan’s automotive and agricultural markets,” said the New York Times. The long-sought agreement is part of the wrap-up of the mammoth Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact that …