Agriculture

"Drought conditions are likely to continue across more than half of the continental United States through at least June, straining water supplies and increasing the risk of wildfires, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Thursday."

"Nearly 7 million chickens and turkeys in 13 states have been killed this year due to avian influenza, prompting officials and farmers to acknowledge that, despite their best efforts, stopping the disease from infecting poultry is incredibly difficult."

"It has not rained on Habiba Maow Iman's farm in southern Somalia for two years. Her animals are dead; her crops failed."

"Detected deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached a record high for the month of February following a similar record the prior month."

"Seven months after a divided federal appeals court partially upheld the first of Iowa's "ag-gag" laws, a judge has ruled the state's second such law is unconstitutional."

"State and federal agriculture officials have confirmed deadly bird flu in a flock of commercial layer chickens in southwest Iowa’s Taylor County, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced Friday."

"U.S. ethanol producers are betting heavily on carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to lower their greenhouse gas emissions and secure a place for the corn-based fuel in a climate-friendly future, according to industry groups and executives."

"The Green Revolution helped feed a surging global population, but at the cost of impoverishing crop diversity. Now, with climate change increasingly threatening food supplies, the need for greater agricultural resilience means restoring endangered crop and food varieties."