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(CNN) -- Vermont's governor on Thursday signed a bill into law that will require the labeling of genetically modified foods -- hailing it as the first such law in the nation. Under the new law, food offered for retail sale that is entirely or partially produced with genetic engineering must be labeled as such by July 2016. "Vermonters take our food and how it is produced seriously, and we believe we have a right to know what's in the food we buy," said Gov. Peter Shumlin. "More than 60 countries have already restricted or labeled these foods, and now one...

Ethanol Impact on Feed Prices Written By: Renewable Fuels Association Fueled by its desire for conflict, and a well-funded and organized public relations blitz by food and livestock industries, the media has spent a great deal of time in the past two years trying to portray an epic battle between America’s need for renewable alternatives to gasoline and its role as breadbasket to world. Despite unsupported and hysterical claims, the battle between ethanol production and food and feed resources is not a battle at all. In fact, it is a symbiotic relationship that promises to provide long term financial gain...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Biofuels made from the leftovers of harvested corn plants are worse than gasoline for global warming in the short term, a study shows, challenging the Obama administration's conclusions that they are a much cleaner oil alternative and will help combat climate change.</p>

Corn Prices Are Popping Rob WileMar. 31, 2014, 12:15 PM    Corn prices are surging after U.S. farmers said they expect to plant the lowest corn acreage since 2010. That's because inventories in the world’s biggest grower and exporter jumped 30 percent from a year earlier. Acreage is estimated to hit 91.691 million, down from 95.365 million a year earlier, according to a survey of more than 84,000 growers released today in Washington, Bloomberg said. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated 93.014 million, on average. Here's how corn reacted to the news:

The United Nations will officially warn that growing crops to make “green” biofuel harms the environment and drives up food prices, The Telegraph can disclose. A leaked draft of a UN report condemns the widespread use of biofuels made from crops as a replacement for petrol and diesel. It says that biofuels, rather than combating the effects of global warming, could make them worse.

Unassuming from the road, this farmstead served as the headquarters for a ring of international thieves bent on embezzling U.S. seed. The FBI thwarts a ring of Chinese national thieves. Crouched on his hands and knees under an Iowa sky, Mo Hailong quickly dug in the rows of freshly planted seed corn. Just the day before, May 2, 2011, he and coworker Wang Lei, vice chairman of Kings Nower Seed of China, stopped at this same field near Tama, Iowa. The farmer told them he was planting seed corn. With each shovel, Hailong found pay dirt: DuPont Pioneer’s latest parent...

<p>Ethanol requirements for U.S. gasoline appear to be losing friends and influencing the wrong people, with calls growing to reform or scrap the government mandates altogether.</p> <p>The Environmental Protection Agency in November proposed reducing the amount of renewable fuels, including corn-based ethanol, that oil refiners must blend with gasoline. The rule is a centerpiece of government efforts to curb carbon emissions, while jump-starting alternative forms of energy.</p>

Federal authorities have filed charges for six Chinese nationals in an alleged scheme to steal valuable corn seeds from U.S. seed manufacturing companies for the benefit of their China-based seed companies. Mo Hailong, Li Shaoming, Wang Lei, Wang Hongwei, Ye Jian and Lin Yong each have been indicted on conspiring to steal trade secrets from U.S. seed companies, according to an indictment filed on Tuesday in the U.S. Southern District Court of Iowa. Mo was detained last week, but the others remain at large, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Southern District Court.

Six Chinese nationals have been charged with conspiring to steal US trade secrets in an alleged plot to obtain bioengineered corn seed from American seed companies and send it to their own company in China. The case was revealed in a one-count, 21-page indictment unsealed Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. According to documents filed in federal court, the Chinese company officials allegedly drove through rural areas of Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana to dig up freshly planted seeds or collect samples of grown corn to obtain specimens of the valuable engineered seed stock. The seeds represent years of work by American...

Expectations for a record corn harvest in 2013 have helped lower corn prices since this summer, improving ethanol production margins and spurring an increase in the supply of ethanol. During the 2012 corn-growing season, the United States experienced the most severe and far-reaching drought since the 1950s. By late August 2012, approximately 85% of the corn grown in the United States was located in a drought area, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) World Agricultural Outlook Board. A projected 2012 record crop of 14.8 billion bushels of corn dwindled to a final production level of 10.8 billion bushels by...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of 10 U.S. Senators introduced a bipartisan bill on Thursday to eliminate the corn ethanol mandate, arguing that current law raises the cost of food and animal feed and damages the environment. The bill, introduced by Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat; Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican; and eight cosponsors, faces an uphill battle as many lawmakers from agricultural states support the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)that dictates that rising volumes of ethanol made from grains, including corn, be blended into motor fuel. Feinstein said the bill supports development of advanced biofuels, including those from made from...

According to the Worldwatch Institute, the US Department of Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, is pushing for an increase of the current maximum of 10.2% ethanol in gasoline to 15-20%. Much of that is supposed to come from corn and, later, from cellulose (wood). Under the current federal “Renewable Fuel Standard” the US is already slated to increase its use of biofuels from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022. That standard does not even include the proposed increase of the ethanol content of common gasoline. The proposed revision would be a really bad idea and let...

After fomenting fears of fracking and fossil fuels, the administration's campaign to put food in our gas tanks has wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies. Ethanol was supposed to save the earth and pave the way to energy independence. It has done neither. We are getting closer to energy independence but it is thanks to the technology known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that has unleashed our vast reserves of oil and natural gas formerly trapped in shale formations underneath much of the U.S. Fracking was supposed to be environmentally dangerous, a...

Omega-6-rich oils don't have same benefits as canola, soybean and olive oils, studies show The Canadian Press Posted: Nov 11, 2013 1:46 PM ET Last Updated: Nov 11, 2013 2:10 PM ET In 2012, Health Canada agreed to let manufacturers of cooking oils containing either omega-6 or omega-3 fatty acids claim on their product labels that these oils help reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol. (iStock) A pair of Canadian scientists are challenging the fact that manufacturers of some cooking oils are entitled to make health claims about the products. They argue that new evidence suggests oils...

GM Debate Not Settled, Say European Scientists Controversy erupts after World Food Prize awarded to Monsanto By Justina Reichel, Epoch Times | October 24, 2013 In the wake of biotech giants Monsanto and Syngenta being awarded the World Food Prize, a European coalition of scientists is challenging claims that the debate around genetically modified foods is settled and that GM foods are safe. The European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility, which consists of more than 90 scientists, academics, and physicians, released a statement Monday in response to “sweeping claims” that GM products are safe. “We strongly reject...

Could global warming be a boon to farmers? A recent study found that rising carbon dioxide concentrations bestow an additional $11.6 trillion in benefits from crop production between now and 2050. The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change found that while many studies focus on the costs of rising carbon emissions, few studies focused on whether or not more carbon in the atmosphere could be beneficial to society. In fact, the Obama administration recently raised its social-cost-of-carbon estimate from $21 per metric ton to $35 per metric ton to the ire of global warming skeptics and...

With two words, the U.S. environment regulator may be handing oil refiners the biggest win of a long battle to beat back the seemingly inexorable rise of ethanol fuel. In a leaked proposal that would significantly scale back biofuel blending requirements next year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the blend wall - the 10 percent threshold of ethanol-mixed gasoline that is at the crux of the lobbying war - is an "important reality". The agency's rationale for a cut in the volume of ethanol that must be blended echoes an argument the oil industry has been making for...

Harvest is in full swing across the country, and farmers in many states are surprised at the abundance of corn they’re getting from their fields. Dairy farmer Ben Steffen, who also grows corn, soybeans and wheat on 1,900 acres near the southeastern Nebraska town of Humboldt, said his first corn field brought in 168 bushels an acre, above the average of 140. … The best crops in the U.S. are in areas that received adequate rain combined with cooler temperatures at the time corn pollinated, a welcome sight after last year’s dismal harvest due to the drought withering corn and...

The government mandated blend of ethanol in every gallon of gasoline is a full-fledged disaster and neither Congress, nor the Environmental Protection Agency shows any indication of either repealing or abandoning it. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial said, “A strong candidate for the most expensive policy blunder of recent years would have to be the mandate to blend corn ethanol and other biofuels into the nation’s gasoline supply. Last month even the Environmental Protection Agency essentially acknowledged that the program is increasingly unworkable and costly to consumers. The EPA just won’t do much to fix it.” Some future historian...

Family TraditionSciple's Water Mill has been all in the family for nearly 200 yearsBy Nancy Dorman-Hickson Photography by Meg McKinney The honor box says a lot about Sciple’s Water Mill in De Kalb, Miss. Attached to a stand that’s filled with the mill’s stone-ground whole-wheat flour, fish fry mix, grits, and meal, the honor box means visitors won’t leave empty-handed even if the mill is closed. “Most people are honest,” says Eddie Sciple, the mill’s operator and owner. “Usually if meal is gone, there is money or an I.O.U. in the box.” People have been coming to the mill...