Senators have a bipartisan deal to require labeling of genetically modified ingredients nationally, a week before a labeling law in Vermont goes into effect.  The deal announced Thursday by the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee would require the nationwide labeling of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, in packaged foods for the first time. But it would be more lenient than Vermont's law, allowing food companies to use a text label, a symbol or electronic label accessed by smartphone. [node:read-more:link]

For more than 40 years, UK farmers have relied on subsidies from the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) and significant export markets in Europe with free access to 500 million consumers.  But the dramatic outcome of the referendum has created huge uncertainty about the future of farm support, regulation and access to the single market and migrant labour, which UK agriculture heavily depends on. Polls carried out by Farmers Weekly have consistently shown strong farmer support for the “leave” campaign. [node:read-more:link]

EU antitrust authorities will decide by July 28 whether to allow the $130 billion merger of U.S. chemical company Dow Chemical Co and its rival DuPont, one of several large agribusiness deals. The EU competition enforcer can approve the deal with or without concessions or it can open a full-scale investigation of about five months should it have serious concerns about the merger's impact on consumers and rivals. [node:read-more:link]

The number of trees in California's Sierra Nevada forests killed by drought, a bark beetle epidemic and warmer temperatures has dramatically increased since last year, raising fears they will fuel catastrophic wildfires and endanger people's lives, officials said. Since 2010, an estimated 66 million trees have died in a six-county region of the central and southern Sierra hardest hit by the epidemic, the U.S. Forest Service said. Officials flying over the region captured images of dead patches that have turned a rust-colored red. [node:read-more:link]

Agriculture’s 24/7 workload poses special issues for payroll. Most farmers assume they are not required to pay overtime for any farm work performed by their employees, points out Paul Neiffer, a CPA with CliftonLarsonAllen in Yakima, Washington. But given the new rules imposed by the Department of Labor starting December 1, you need to carefully review that policy and the impact on your labor expense, he advises.  The Department of Labor announced final regulations on new overtime rules May 18, greatly expanding who qualifies for overtime treatment. [node:read-more:link]

New York's Farm Bureau announced this week it will fight to block bargaining rights for tens of thousands of agricultural workers. The group hopes to intervene in a court battle over the issue sparked by a labor dispute here in the North Country.  Farm Bureau president Dean Norton argued farming is different from other industries that have unions and collective bargaining. "Mother Nature decides our schedule for us," Norton said on the public radio program Capital Pressroom. "When we have to get our crop in the ground, we may have only a certain window of time to get it in. [node:read-more:link]

Dupont and Bayer AG have teamed up to invest in a new fund that will back agricultural technology startups, becoming the latest companies to pile into the multibillion-dollar industry as farm profits shrink. The two chemical and seed companies along with venture capital firm Finistere Ventures and two others have launched a $15 million accelerator fund, called Radicle, that will back early-stage agricultural-tech companies. Of the $15 million, $6 million has been initially committed but the fund did not identify which companies would receive the monies. [node:read-more:link]

Considering that dogs are already sleeping in their owners’ beds, shaping family vacations, and spending time in the workplace, it would seem their integration into human society is complete.  But not quite. Like children before them, a growing number of dogs are being enrolled in enrichment programs — undergoing a formal education in a way once reserved for show dogs. [node:read-more:link]

Four mothers whose children have food allergies raised $10 million to get the project started. [node:read-more:link]

A federal judge has struck down the Obama administration's rules for hydraulic fracturing on public lands, a victory for oil and gas producers and state regulators who opposed the rules as an egregious overreach.  The ruling, which the White House vowed to appeal, halts the administration's efforts to address what it sees as safety concerns in the industry and reverses what producers had seen as a first step toward full federal regulation of all fracking activity.  The U.S. [node:read-more:link]