KANSAS CITY, Feb 21 (Reuters) – The heavy winter snowstorm
sweeping across the U.S. midsection was a welcomed event for
U.S. winter wheat farmers worried that their drought-stricken
fields were too parched to produce a healthy crop this year.

Nearly a foot or more of snow fell across key growing areas
in Oklahoma and Kansas in the last 24 hours, and more was
coming.

Feb 19 (Reuters) – Developing countries accounted for the
first time last year for more than half the global biotech crop
area, though the United States remains the primary nation making
use of genetically altered crops, according to an industry
report.

“The developments we will see over the next five years will
be in favor of developing countries. That is where the mouths
are that we have to feed,” said Clive James, chairman of the
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech
Applications (ISAAA), which issued the report.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – A 75-year-old Indiana grain farmer will take on global seed giant Monsanto Co at the U.S. Supreme Court next week in a patent battle that could have ramifications for the biotechnology industry and possibly the future of food production.

The highest court in the United States will hear arguments on Tuesday in the dispute, which started when soybean farmer Vernon Bowman bought and planted a mix of unmarked grain typically used for animal feed. The plants that grew turned out to contain the popular herbicide-resistant genetic trait known as Roundup Ready that Monsanto guards closely with patents.

CHICAGO/KANSAS CITY, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Open-outcry grain
trading at the 156-year-old Kansas City Board of Trade will go
quiet in June as new owner CME Group moves the
once-raucous pits to Chicago.

CME, owner of the Chicago Board of Trade, bought the Kansas
City wheat exchange last year, cementing its dominance in global
grain trading after a challenge from rival
IntercontinentalExchange.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – The unrelenting drought gripping key farming states in the U.S. Plains shows no signs of abating, and it will take a deluge of snow or rain to restore critical moisture to farmland before spring planting of new crops, a climate expert said on Thursday.

“It’s not a pretty picture,” said climatologist Mark Svoboda of the University of Nebraska’s Drought Mitigation Center.

KANSAS CITY, KANSAS (Reuters) – General Motors Co (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Monday said it will invest $600 million at its assembly plant in Kansas City, Kansas, to build a new paint shop and make other upgrades.

The investment is part of the U.S. automaker’s previously announced plan to spend $1.5 billion on its North American plants this year, up from the $436 million last year. GM invests $8 billion annually on its operations globally.

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (Reuters) – A convicted felon pleaded guilty to dealing in hundreds of firearms without a license from his wife’s beauty salon using the promotional slogan “where beauty and bullets collide,” authorities said on Thursday.

The couple operated a combination hair salon and sporting goods shop that featured massages and manicures as well as rifles and revolvers, authorities said. The couple set up a website with the url www.beautyandbullets.com.

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) – Crop-killing drought deepened in Kansas over the last week, further jeopardizing this season’s production of winter wheat, a key U.S. crop.

Kansas is generally the top U.S. wheat-growing state, but the new crop planted last fall has been struggling with a lack of soil moisture. Without rain and/or heavy snow before spring, millions of acres of wheat could be ruined.

Jan 18 (Reuters) – A controversial new biotech corn
developed by Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical,,
will be delayed at least another year as the company awaits
regulatory approval amid opposition from farmers, consumers and
public health officials.

Dow AgroSciences officials said Friday that they now expect
the first sales of Enlist for planting in 2014. Previously
officials had set the 2013 planting season as a target, but U.S.
farmers are already buying seed for planting this spring, and
Dow has yet to secure U.S. approval for Enlist.

Jan 18 (Reuters) – A controversial new biotech corn
developed by Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical,,
will be delayed at least another year as the company awaits
regulatory approval amid opposition from farmers, consumers and
public health officials.

Dow AgroSciences officials said Friday that they now expect
the first sales of Enlist for planting in 2014. Previously
officials had set the 2013 planting season as a target, but U.S.
farmers are already buying seed for planting this spring, and
Dow has yet to secure U.S. approval for Enlist.