CHICAGO, April 30 (Reuters) – A federal appeals court
cleared the way for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to proceed
with plans to blow up a Mississippi River levee to control
flooding, a U.S. government official said on Saturday.

“They denied the motion by the state of Missouri so we have
permission to move forward if we need to,” said Bob Anderson, a
spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley
District.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A federal appeals court cleared the way for the Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with plans to blow up a Mississippi River levee to control flooding, a government official said on Saturday.

“They denied the motion by the state of Missouri so we have permission to move forward if we need to,” said Bob Anderson, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley District.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. agricultural economy is the healthiest in years as rising farm income allows farmers to pay off debt and buy land and machinery to meet booming demand for crops and livestock.

So why worry?

Because historically low interest rates and rising land values heighten concern about speculative bubbles, a debt binge and all the risks associated with seesawing commodity prices, according to one federal official.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Agribusiness and trading giant Cargill Inc CARG.UL said quarterly earnings rose 30 percent, lifted by its grain processing business.

Minneapolis-based Cargill, one of the world’s largest privately held corporations, on Wednesday reported $763 million in earnings from continuing operations for the quarter ended February 28, up from $588 million a year earlier.

CHICAGO, April 13 (Reuters) – U.S. agribusiness and trading
giant Cargill Inc [CARG.UL] said quarterly earnings rose 30
percent, lifted by its grain processing business.

Minneapolis-based Cargill, one of the world’s largest
privately held corporations, on Wednesday reported $763 million
in earnings from continuing operations for the quarter ended
Feb. 28, up from $588 million a year earlier.

CHICAGO, April 8 (Reuters) – U.S. crop insurers appear set
to reap a bonanza this year with premium income expected to
jump about 45 percent to a record $11 billion amid soaring
prices for the main row crops like corn, soybeans and cotton.

But with record premiums and high commodity prices, comes
big risk if bad weather harms the nation’s crops and farmers
cash in on the policies.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Severe drought conditions across eastern Colorado and the western half of Kansas and Oklahoma are worsening the outlook for more wild fires in the region, climatologists said.

“When you have the kind of dry pattern we had over the winter, that’s when we really get concerned,” said Mary Knapp, state climatologist for Kansas. “Unfortunately, the outlook is for drought to persist in the west and expand eastward.”

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Almost half the United States — the North Central region, the Midwest and the Northeast — faces a high risk of spring flooding over the next two weeks, government forecasters said on Thursday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its spring forecast that the stage was set for potential widespread, record flooding, particularly in the North Central United States for the third year in a row.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill, further expanding beyond its traditional commodities-based businesses, says its latest product will make a splash in beverages.

“It’s a capability that allows us to take sugar or other materials out of products and replace the sugar with other materials that maintain the flavor, the sweetness and the body,” Kerr Dow, Cargill’s vice president of global food technology, told the Reuters Food Summit on Wednesday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Higher food prices are here to stay.

A rising tide of global forces is supporting the surge in prices for important food staples like meat, dairy and grains, commodity experts said at the Reuters Global Food and Agriculture Summit on Tuesday.

“This is a pretty sustainable increase … A number of factors have been building over time in terms of the commodity increase: world economic growth, rising crude oil prices, increased Chinese import demand all have conspired,” said Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, a commodity analytical firm based in Omaha, Nebraska.