By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – Shares in global agricultural giant Monsanto Co. (MON.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) jumped more than 3 percent after the world’s largest seed company said on Wednesday it expected fiscal 2012 earnings to grow 25 percent over last year, with continued strong growth into 2013.

Company Chairman Hugh Grant said that the company is raising 2012 earnings per share guidance to the range of $3.65 to $3.70 on an ongoing basis and $3.73 to $3.78 on an as-reported basis.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – A damaging global dry spell is wilting wheat crops in Kansas, threatening exports from Russia and slowing sowing in Australia, serving a timely reminder to hedge funds that a new era of surplus grain is far from assured.

In their biggest surge since 1996, Chicago wheat prices jumped by more than 17 percent last week and reached a nearly 9-month high of more than $7 a bushel on Monday, a rally stoked by short-covering among big speculators — a group that had amassed a near-record short position betting on falling prices.

May 18 (Reuters) – A group of U.S. seed, chemical and
equipment companies will invest at least $150 million over the
next few years into African agricultural projects and products,
the companies said on Fri day.

The investments pledged by DuPont, Monsanto,
Cargill and others are part of an overall $3 billion
effort by companies around the world announced by President
Barack Obama.

May 17 (Reuters) – The promise of a bumper U.S. hard red
winter wheat crop is eroding by the hour as scorching
temperatures and high winds in key growing areas of the U.S.
Plains sap soils of needed moisture, wheat experts said on
Thursday.

In Kansas, the nation’s top producer of the favored
bread-making hard red winter wheat, harvest is slated to begin
next week, about three weeks earlier than is typical.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – George Siemon has milk on his mind. “Grassmilk” to be specific.

As the co-founder and chief executive for Organic Valley, a La Farge, Wisconsin-based cooperative that is the largest provider of organic milk in the United States, Siemon is on the hunt for new offerings for a growing market.

, May 15 (Reuters) – Sprint Nextel Corp
shareholders voted to re-elect Chief Executive Dan Hesse
as a director, defeating a push by one key shareholder to get
the executive off the wireless service provider’s board of
directors.

According to Sprint, a preliminary count showed that 90
percent of votes cast were in favor of Hesse’s re-election; the
percent of votes in favor of re-electing other directors ranged
from 98 percent to 89 percent.

May 14 (Reuters) – Financial services group TIAA-CREF, which
is a major agricultural investor, said on Monday it is
partnering with Canadian and European money managers to form a
$2 billion global farmland investing company to capitalize on
the growing demand for grains and other agricultural products.

U.S.-based TIAA-CREF, which also provides retirement
services and has about $487 billion in assets under management,
said it and several international institutional investors had $2
billion in commitments to invest in farmland in the United
States, Australia and Brazil, all key grain exporters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A fast-spreading plague of “super weeds” taking over U.S. farmland will not be stopped easily, and farmers and government officials need to change existing practices if food production is to be protected, industry experts said on Thursday.

“This is a complex problem,” said weed scientist David Shaw in remarks to a national “summit” of weed experts in Washington to come up with a plan to battle weeds that have developed resistance to herbicides.

May 4 (Reuters) – A Kansas City woman who
converted from Christianity to Islam has been awarded $5 million
in punitive damages by a jury who found the telecommunications
giant AT&T created a “hostile work environment” after her
conversion, according to a judge’s order issued Friday.

Susann Bashir, a 41-year-old married mother, sued AT&T unit
Southwestern Bell for what she said was a pattern of offensive
and discriminatory conduct by her supervisors that began when
she converted to Islam in 2005, six years after she started
working for the company as a network technician.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – A California initiative to require labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients appeared headed for the ballot in November after organizers said on Wednesday they had gathered nearly 1 million signatures in favor of the measure.

The hotly contested proposal is similar to measures being pushed in other U.S. states and at the federal level as GMO opponents demand more transparency in food products.