By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – A federal judge has ruled in favor of global seed giant Monsanto Co, dismissing a lawsuit brought by a consortium of U.S. organic farmers and seed dealers who said their industry is at risk from Monsanto’s growing market strength.

U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Buchwald, for the Southern District of New York, threw out the case brought by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) and dozens of other plaintiff growers and organizations, criticizing the groups for a “transparent effort to create a controversy where none exists.”

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – Monsanto Co said on Friday that it had settled a long-running legal battle with residents of West Virginia who claimed they suffered environmental and health problems tied to pollution from a former Monsanto chemical plant.

St. Louis-based Monsanto, which has shifted from a concentration in the chemical business to agricultural seeds, said it would commit to more than $90 million in clean-up, remediation and medical monitoring to resolve a series of class action lawsuits involving a plant once located in Nitro, West Virginia.

* Western U.S. sees drought spread as Texas improves

* Northern Plains eyed with concern, moisture needed

By Carey Gillam

Feb 23(Reuters) – Drought kept a tight grip on large
sections of the United States, but recent rains put some of the
most hard-hit areas on the road to recovery, a report from
climate experts said Thursday.

Recent rains and snowfall boosted soil moisture and started
to replenish ground water supplies in key areas of the U.S.
South that suffered historic drought in 2011.

KANSAS CITY (Reuters) – Catholic leaders in Kansas City covered up years of sexual abuse of several young children by a priest who led a Christian organization for youth, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by four brothers who say they were victimized as children.

The lawsuit, one of more than two dozen pending in Kansas City alleging abuse by area priests, was filed in Jackson County Circuit Court in Kansas City, Missouri. It names Father John Tulipana and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph as defendants, alleging molestation dating to the 1970s and 1980s.

DES MOINES, Feb 16 (Reuters) – China’s
leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, gathered with U.S. agricultural
officials in America’s grainbelt on Thursday and stressed their
shared interests in fostering increased trade in farm goods.

Extending his visit to the top U.S. soybean- and
corn-growing state of Iowa, Xi and Chinese Minister of
Agriculture Han Changfu met with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom
Vilsack in Des Moines to kick off what was billed as the
first-ever U.S.-China Agricultural Symposium.

DES MOINES (Reuters) – China’s leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, and U.S. agricultural officials in a gathering in America’s grainbelt on Thursday stressed their shared interests in fostering increased trade in farm goods.

Extending his visit to the top U.S. soybean- and corn-growing state of Iowa, Xi and Chinese Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu met with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in Des Moines to kick off what was billed as the first-ever U.S.-China Agricultural Symposium.

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – China’s leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping received a warm welcome in the U.S. heartland on Wednesday, moving from Washington and talks on contentious international issues to Iowa, where the Chinese vice president was hailed as an old friend and a boost for billions of dollars in agricultural trade.

Before leaving Washington, Xi offered deeper cooperation with the United States on trade and security, citing Iran and North Korea, but called on Washington to heed Beijing’s demands on contentious “core interests” such as Tibet. Xi is almost sure to become China’s next president in just over a year.

DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb 15 (Reuters) – A Chinese trade
delegation signed agreements with U.S. grain companies on
Wednesday to buy 8.62 million tonnes of soybeans from the United
States and will ink more deals on Thursday for a record-setting
purchase topping 12 million tonnes.

Watched over by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, Chinese
powerhouses like COFCO Co Ltd, the country’s largest state-owned
grain trading house, and Sinograin, which manages state grain
reserves, signed deals in Des Moines, Iowa, with Archer Daniels
Midland, Bunge Ltd, and Cargill Inc,
among others.

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – China is half a world away from the 2,300-acre family farm in east-central Iowa where John Weber and his son plant corn and soybeans.

But 62-year-old Weber is among a number of Iowa farmers who are benefiting as rising incomes in China lead to demand for billions of dollars of American farm goods.

Feb 7 (Reuters) – Farmers in developing nations will
sow more biotech crops than those in the industrialized world
for the first time this year, with Brazil leading the charge,
according to a report issued on Tuesday that showed
steady growth in the use of genetically modified seeds.

Globally, the area planted with biotech crops rose 8 percent
last year to a record 160 million hectares, or 395 million
acres, slowing slightly from a 10 percent rise in 2010, said the
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech
Applications (ISAAA) in its annual report on biotech seed use.