NPR

Michael Schläppi, a molecular biologist at Marquette University, "is experimenting with growing rice in the Midwest," says the NPR blog The Salt.

As sales of non-GMO foods zoom, competitors are watching, says the NPR blog The Salt. "The demand for these foods falls under what the industry calls the 'health halo,' the perception that a food is healthy," even if they might not be.

"Could the next big thing in alternative proteins be a something tiny and green?" asks NPR. "Several companies see a bright future for plant protein, and for microalgae in particular."

Astronauts on the International Space Station are the first people to eat food grown in space, says NASA.

Blueberries are a popular fruit grown around the world. Production has tripled in the past 10 years, says NPR in a story from Whitesbog, in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, where the blueberry was "brought in from the wild" a century ago

Topsoil and subsoil moisture levels continue to decline in the Pacific Northwest, where streamflows have shriveled to record or near-record lows, says the weekly Drought Monitor.

The State Water Resources Board proposed a $1.5 million fine against the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District in northern California for "unauthorized diversion and use of water," the first such action against a senior rights holder, reports the Los Angeles Times.

There is evidence that bumblebees, a wild pollinator of crops and wildflowers, "are getting squeezed by our planet's changing climate," says the NPR blog The Salt.

Rudy Mussi, who farms in the Sacramento Delta, "is not the California farmer you've been hearing about," says the NPR blog The Salt. "He is not fallowing all his fields or ripping up his orchards due to a lack of irrigation water."

Livestock farmers around the world will use nearly 106,000 tonnes of antibiotics by 2030, an increase of 67 percent in two decades, a team of scientists estimated.

The Obama administration will announce today "grants to 10 states looking for a better way to get food-stamp recipients back to work," says NPR. The pilot projects are the result of a compromise by lawmakers over food stamp cuts in the 2014 farm law.

Seed company Monsanto says it has competed a field trial of genetically engineered corn in India, and aims to submit data within a year to the government for use in deciding whether to approve the strain, according to Reuters.

The Agriculture Department approved cultivation of two apple varieties that are genetically engineered to resist browning. Developed by Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc., the apples will be marketed as Arctic Granny and Arctic Golden.

"It's like a science project," says Alice Doyle, of appropriately named SuperNaturals Grafted Vegetables, in a story at NPR's blog The Salt about the Ketchup 'n' Fries plant that yields both cherry tomatoes and potatoes.

Efforts by drugmaker Merck to re-introduce its growth-promoting drug Zilmax to the market are "stuck in a kind of veterinary purgatory," says the NPR blog The Salt.

"In an age when consumers have become increasingly suspicious of processed food, the Internet has become a powerful platform for activists who want to hold Big Food accountable," begins a story at the NPR blog The Salt about Vani Hari...

Food stamp enrollment totaled 46.5 million people, or nearly one in seven Americans, for three months in a row, say USDA data. That's down by 1.2 million recipients, or 2.5 percent, from a year ago.

Independent Greg Orman campaigned in typically Republican rural Kansas with the argument incumbent Pat Roberts doesn't keep the state's agricultural interests in mind, says the Associated Press.