A shipment of 36 million pounds of soybeans sailed late last year from Ukraine to Turkey to California. Along the way, it underwent a remarkable transformation.The cargo began as ordinary soybeans, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Like ordinary soybeans, they were fumigated with a pesticide. They were priced like ordinary soybeans, too.But by the time the 600-foot cargo ship carrying them to Stockton, Calif., arrived in December, the soybeans had been labeled “organic,” according to receipts, invoices and other shipping records. [node:read-more:link]

Bowing to public uproar and deeply skeptical council members, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has scrapped proposals for a far-reaching set of animal regulations that would have decidedly cramped the style of cats, dogs and chickens in the nation’s capital. Bowser included the rules in legislation attached to her proposal for next year’s budget. But the mayor’s office had not reckoned with the public reaction to measures that included a ban on backyard chickens, a requirement that all cats be licensed and a provision that seemed to outlaw leaving dog feces in a private yard for more than 24 hours. [node:read-more:link]

A federal judge rejected an attempt by attorneys to pry more information out of a retired EPA scientist embroiled in a bitter battle between Monsanto Co. and thousands of cancer victims. The judge also criticized lawyers at a recent hearing for mounting a public relations campaign against the agrichemical giant.U.S. [node:read-more:link]

The opioid epidemic has killed tens of thousands over the last two years and driven major reforms in state and local law enforcement and public health policies for people with addiction. But another deadly but popular drug, methamphetamine, also has been surging in many parts of the country. And federal officials say that, based on what they learned as opioids swept the U.S., methamphetamine is likely to spread even further. [node:read-more:link]

Approximately 225 independent milk producers in the Mideast marketing order have until Nov. 30 to find a new home for their milk. The dairymen received letters from Dairy Farmers of America’s Dairy Marketing Services, dated May 15, informing them that the cooperative will no longer market the independent producers’ milk. The farmers will receive a six-month notice of termination. The farmers will have the option of joining DFA or finding another market by Nov. 30, 2017. [node:read-more:link]

Over the past month, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection focused on finding a short-term solution for the dozens of Wisconsin dairy farm families who suddenly lost their milk market. Thankfully on May 1, 99 percent of the milk had found a new home, at least temporarily. While we will continue to assist farmers through the Wisconsin Farm Center, it is now time for us as an industry to keep the conversation going and look long-term. [node:read-more:link]

In a recent study, researchers with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture found the overall health of honey bees improved in the presence of agricultural production, despite the increased exposure to agricultural pesticides. [node:read-more:link]

"I think the tears are gone," Susan said. "It had gotten to the point that we had accepted it. I think it somehow became easier to do what we had to do," she said, of losing her family's entire herd of cattle due to bovine tuberculosis."We battled it day by day finding positive things to think about. We went to the Lord," she says. [node:read-more:link]

U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism of the protected Canadian dairy system has emboldened American farm groups to tackle other longstanding agriculture irritants, as the countries move toward rewriting trade rules.U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Last December, Adrian Card ruined grocery shopping for me. Card is the CSU extension agent to Boulder County, and was the lead author of "Economic, Environmental and Social Implications of Cropping Systems in Boulder County," a 2015 briefing paper for the county commissioners. [node:read-more:link]