The Guardian

"A massive toxic algae bloom has closed shellfish fisheries along the West Coast," says the Portland Oregonian. Beaches were closed to clamming and oyster harvesting along the Oregon and Washington State coastlines.

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 big-name international food companies "are in the position of having to rework, reshape and re-imagine themselves" in response to consumer demand for fresh, local and organic foods, says the Guardian.

With California headed for a fourth year of drought, the outlook for the growing season is grim. "But our situation is not hopeless," says Helene Dillard, dean of agriculture at UC-Davis.

Climate change could create a new kind of empty calories, by indirectly reducing the nutrition content of food crops, says the Guardian.

Vietnam has muscled into the top tier of rice exporters and produces vast amounts of shrimp from man-made ponds across the Mekong Delta, bringing prosperity to its farmers, says the Guardian.

China Tuna Industry Group Holdings has withdrawn its application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to become a publicly traded company because of adverse publicity, says Undercurrent News.

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.

A large Chinese fishing company declared in a draft document "that it intended to circumvent international conservation limits on tuna – by simply ignoring them" with little fear of discipline for it, says the Guardian.

As many as 2 million rural Californians rely on household wells for their water, says NPR. "Some of those people are among the hardest hit by the state's severe drought, as wells across the state's Central Valley farm belt start to go dry."

Several hospitals in San Francisco are working together "to add more fresh, organic and sustainable foods to their patient and cafeteria trays," writes Ingfei Chen at The Guardian.