Agriculture

"Personal injury law firms around the United States are lining up plaintiffs for what they say could be "mass tort" actions against agrichemical giant Monsanto Co that claim the company's Roundup herbicide has caused cancer in farm workers and others exposed to the chemical."

"The Sooner State is part of a trend toward leaving farmland untilled to tackle runoff and climate change, but some remain wary of associated pesticide use".

"The risk of food scarcity among countries important to the United States is likely to rise over the next decade, putting some places at risk of social and political unrest, according to a study from U.S. intelligence agencies."

"At homes and day care centers throughout Central Washington, children play in yards contaminated with lead and arsenic."

"Increasing incidences of pest outbreaks, prolonged periods of drought, change in the pattern of rain distribution, and rising number of hailstorms are harbingers of climate change for the already struggling tea industry sector."

"Nineteen EU member states have requested opt-outs for all or part of their territory from cultivation of a Monsanto genetically-modified crop, which is authorized to be grown in the European Union, the European Commission said on Sunday."

"For the first time since 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has updated the pesticide protections it requires for the more than two million people who plant and harvest our food. The new protections, which will go into effect in early 2017, could be a game-changer for American farms and workers."

"Some 60 million people across sub-Saharan Africa are already going hungry and the situation could deteriorate dramatically as climate phenomena hike the risk of drought, the Red Cross said Monday."

"A Harvard Kennedy School professor wrote a widely disseminated policy paper last year in support of genetically modified organisms at the behest of seed giant Monsanto, without disclosing his connection, e-mails show."

"Bulgaria has told the European Union it will ban the cultivation of crops with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) under EU rules that allow member states to opt out of GMO cultivation, the agriculture ministry said in a statement on Thursday."