Sara Wyant

WASHINGTON, January 11, 2012 -A familiar cast of anti-biotech activists is gearing up efforts to thwart approval of a new corn trait that Dow AgroSciences has engineered to withstand the 2,4-D herbicide.

The Farm Service Agency’s office in Campbell County, S.D., may boast the most colorful history of the 131 local offices to be closed or merged this year in USDA’s belt-tightening exercise.

In one of the most closely-followed congressional races in the farm policy community, Democrat Christie Vilsack has built a financial lead in her challenge to incumbent Rep. Steve King

Data from the DOE's Energy Information Administration through the first three quarters of 2011 shows renewable energy sources continue to grow rapidly and are outpacing the growth rates of fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Market prospects for the year ahead provided little reason to worry that a significant downturn in crop and livestock prices was on the horizon.

The largest U.S. farm organization will turn its lobbying focus in Washington, DC in the year ahead on Obama administration rules and regulations the group says could have the potential to restrict the ability of farmers and ranchers to run their operations as they see fit.

After chronicling droughts, flood, global economic turmoil and then the ups and downs associated with writing a new farm bill package in a hyper-partisan Congress in 2011, it’s hard to believe that 2012 won’t offer some new glimmers of hope.

An alliance of livestock and poultry producer groups, the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union is urging the House Agriculture Committee leaders to reject legislation that would codify an agreement between United Egg Producers and the Humane Society of the United States to

McDonald’s is featuring farmers and ranchers in its 2012 advertising campaign in an effort to promote local sourcing from family operations.

A New York federal judge granted Monsanto’s request for oral arguments on the seed company’s motion to dismiss an organic coalition’s lawsuit against the biotech seeds and traits leader.