Scientists at NASA say two key climate change indicators — global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent have bnroken numerous records through the first half of 2016. Each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest respective month globally in the modern temperature record, which dates to 1880, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. The six-month period from January to June was also the planet’s warmest half-year on record, with an average temperature 1.3°C (2.4°F) warmer than the late nineteenth century. [node:read-more:link]

Sanderson Farms is going on the offensive against consumer perceptions antibiotic-free birds are better than conventionally raised animals. Sanderson Farms wants consumers to know the truth about chicken. On August 1, the Laurel, Mississippi, integrator announced the launch of an advertising campaign taking on the concept that broilers treated with antibiotics are inferior to antibiotic-free birds. [node:read-more:link]

No matter who wins this November’s presidential election, one of the first items facing a new Secretary of Agriculture will be developing a 2018 Farm Bill, a process sure to begin early in 2017. [node:read-more:link]

President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law a bill that requires a mandatory labeling system of genetically modified organisms (GMO) for all 50 states. The law pre-empts Vermont bill and requires the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to determine which food products and ingredients should be labeled as GMO. Those products will be labeled by text, symbols or a bar code that can be scanned with smartphones. The USDA will have two years to develop the rules and regulations for the nationwide labeling program. [node:read-more:link]

The comment period for the FDA’s probe into ‘natural’ claims has closed, leaving the agency with the unenviable task of sifting through a mammoth pile of submissions from thousands of stakeholders weighing in on the most contentious word in food marketing.   [node:read-more:link]

El Paso Electric has become coal-free and no longer is using the fossil fuel to power its generators, making it the only electric utility in Texas and New Mexico to have no coal-fired power generation. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a letter reminding retail establishments that sell medically important antimicrobials for use in feed or water for food animals that the marketing status of those products will change from over-the-counter to prescription (Rx) or to veterinary feed directive (VFD) at the end of calendar year 2016. Once the changes are in place, distributors of those medically important antimicrobials will need to comply with appropriate requirements for Rx and VFD drugs when dispensing these products. [node:read-more:link]

In a letter sent out yesterday, anti-GMO activist Jeffrey Smith says "Labeling GMOs was never the end goal for us. It was a tactic. Labels make it easier for shoppers to make healthier non-GMO choices. When enough people avoid GMOs, food companies rush to eliminate them. Labeling can speed up that tipping point—but only if consumers are motivated to use labels to avoid GMOs. Although this is clearly a defeat in our campaigns for getting mandatory labeling in the United States, we are still winning the bigger, more important effort to ELIMINATE GMOs from the market altogether." [node:read-more:link]

A new decree by Venezuela's government could make its citizens work on farms to tackle the country's severe food shortages. In a vaguely-worded decree, Venezuelan officials indicated that public and private sector employees could be forced to work in the country's fields for at least 60-day periods, which may be extended "if circumstances merit." [node:read-more:link]

EPA's Environmental Appeals Board ha s upheld the cancellation of flubendiamide, a Bayer CropScience insecticide sold under the trade name Belt, but will allow existing stocks to be sold by retailers. [node:read-more:link]