An emerging group of farmers and growers in Chile, known as seed guardians, aim to protect the traditional crops of their ancestors, keeping them safe from industrial agriculture and genetic modification.

Chile’s ‘seed guardians’ grow and protect forgotten food varieties

Winter wheat conditions to worsen in central Russia and Volga, weather agency says
Conditions for winter wheat crops will worsen in Russia's Central and Volga areas in January as warmer-than-usual weather and excess moisture causes sprouts to keep growing during the winter, the state weather agency said on Saturday.

U.S. livestock: Cattle futures rise on strong beef, cash cattle markets
Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live cattle futures ended higher on Friday, buoyed by rising wholesale beef prices and firm cash cattle markets, traders said.

U.S. grains: US corn futures climb to 6-month top, wheat firms, soy sags
U.S. corn futures hit a six-month high on Friday on stronger-than-expected weekly export sales data and supportive chart signals, analysts said.

COMMENT: How honeybees can help us monitor pollution across Canada
The honey produced by the tireless work of the honeybee is nothing short of an untapped goldmine of environmental data that could help us better understand the spread of environmental pollutants.

China investigates beef imports as oversupply squeezes prices
China will launch an investigation into beef imports, the commerce ministry said on Friday, as the world's biggest meat importer and consumer grapples with an oversupplied market that has sent domestic prices to multi-year lows.

Bird flu virus shows mutations in first severe human case in US, CDC says
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday its analysis of samples from the first severe case of bird flu in the country last week showed mutations not seen in samples from an infected backyard flock on the patient's property.

ICE canola futures jump on speculative buying
Canola's rise comes as buyers have moved in while farmers have backed off sales. Farmers tend to sell less in the last weeks of December if their fiscal year ends on Dec. 31, and then sell more heavily in early January.

U.S. livestock: CME lean hogs end flat, demand for US pork underpins prices
Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures finished flat on Tuesday as strong demand for U.S. pork underpinned the market a day after federal data showed the nation's herd was slightly bigger than expected, analysts said.

U.S. grains: Soy futures extend recovery from four-year low hit last week
Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures finished higher on short covering on Tuesday as the market extended a rebound from a four-year low reached last week.