Agriculture

"Pigweed, with its ability to quickly adapt genetically, has developed Roundup herbicide resistance nearly as quickly as the crops altered by scientists to do so."

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) finalized a new rule Monday that will require all producers of raw ground beef to keep records of where the meat has come from."

"In the U.S., even chicken that has passed all federal food safety requirements still can make people sick."

"U.S. sales of medically important antibiotics approved for use in livestock rose by 23 percent between 2009 and 2014, federal regulators said on Thursday, fueling concerns about risks to humans from antibiotic-resistant bacteria."

"Labels on Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice and four of its brand siblings will begin carrying early next year an increasingly familiar certification — the butterfly seal conferred by the Non-GMO Project, a nonprofit group that verifies products as being free of genetically engineered ingredients."

"In Ecuador’s Amazon region, above the banks of the swirling Aguarico River, Luis Chamba grows cacao - the basis of chocolate and cocoa butter - on his family’s tiny finca."

"Ethiopia's government has increased to 10.1 million the estimated number of people who desperately need food aid because of a drought."

"When Monsanto genetically engineered corn and soybeans to make them immune to its best-selling weedkiller, the company pitched the technology as a way to reduce overall use of herbicides and usher in an environmentally friendly era of farming."

""The world has lost a third of its arable land due to erosion or pollution in the past 40 years, with potentially disastrous consequences as global demand for food soars, scientists have warned."