July 10 (Reuters) – People in the United States and other
advanced nations consume an average of 1,200 calories per day
more than those in low-income countries, but even in these
wealthy nations food supplies lack enough micro-nutrients,
according to a report issued on Tuesday.

The “Global Food Security Index” found that the United
States, Denmark, Norway and France led the world in food
security thanks to ample supplies, high incomes, low costs for
food relative to other expenditure and significant research and
development concentrated on food production.

BLOOMING GROVE, Texas (Reuters) – Texas cattle rancher Gary Price knows what it is like to worry about water.

With 2,500 acres of rough range land situated about an hour south of Dallas, Price relies on rain-fed soils to provide the hearty grass forage he needs to fatten his cattle. When the animals are sold at grocery meat counters, every pound of flesh spells potential profit for Price’s family.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – Global agribusiness Monsanto Co (MON.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday as net revenue grew 17 percent to $4.2 billion on gains in sales of seeds and genetic traits and surprising strength in herbicides.

Sales of corn seed and genetic traits jumped 35 percent in the third quarter, which ended May 31, while soybean sales rose 15 percent to $698 million, the company said.

DALLAS, Texas (Reuters) – A mystery is ahoof in Texas farm country where cattle have dropped dead while grazing, puzzling scientists who say it appears an unusual combination of circumstances have turned pastures toxic.

Texas animal scientists said a type of grass known as “Tifton 85″ bermuda grass is to blame for the poisoning of 15 head of cattle on an 80-acre ranch east of Austin. The animals went into convulsions and were dead within hours of being released into the pasture to graze. Only three cattle in that small herd survived.

June 21 (Reuters) – Another U.S. ethanol maker is moving to
diversify its revenue stream as the industry continues to suffer
depressed margins as costly corn supplies dwindle.

On Thursday, California-based Pacific Ethanol Inc
said it was installing corn oil separation technology at one of
its plants and planned to include its three other plants by the
first quarter of 2013. The company said its corn oil business
should start generating revenue in the first quarter of 2013.

CHICAGO/KANSAS CITY, June 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. ethanol
industry is hunkering down for another spell of deep losses,
with a second producer temporarily shutting a Nebraska plant on
Tuesday as diminishing corn supplies and lackluster gasoline
demand crush profit margins.

Valero Energy Corp is idling its 110 million gallons
(500 million liters) a year plant in Albion, Nebraska, but
expects it to resume operations before the autumn corn harvest,
when prices should start to ease and supplies become more
plentiful, spokesman Bill Day said.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, is suing chief rival DuPont, accusing DuPont and its agricultural crop subsidiary of treading on Monsanto’s technological turf by copying key new plant breeding innovations.

Monsanto’s suit claims that a “seed chipping” invention, which it unveiled in 2007 as a way to speed up plant breeding, has been duplicated by DuPont in a “laser-assisted seed selection” tool introduced in 2008. Monsanto claims its business is suffering “irreparable harm” as a result.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – It takes a bundle of cash to raise a bundle of joy in the United States. New parents can expect to spend more than a quarter of a million dollars raising a child, according to a government report issued on Thursday.

A middle-class family with a child born in 2011 can expect to spend about $234,900 in the next 17 years on food, shelter and other necessities. And that’s before a family adds in the cost of college.

CHICAGO, June 7 (Reuters) – Global conglomerate BASF is
rolling out a series of new plant science and plant protection
products for farmers in the United States as it aims to increase
its share of fast-growing markets, executives of the German
chemical giant said.

South America is also a target as BASF shifts its
agricultural emphasis — and millions of dollars in research and
development –away from Europe to markets more accepting of the
genetically modified crop technology it says will be key to food
security as world population grows.

June 5 (Reuters) – New genetically altered corn aimed at
helping farmers deal with drought offers more hype than help
over the long term, according to a report issued on Tu esday by a
science and environmental advocacy group.

The Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS) said the only
genetically altered corn approved by regulators and undergoing
field trials in the United States has no improved water
efficiency, and provides only modest results in only moderate
drought conditions.