Just five crops (corn, cotton, rice, soybeans, and wheat) receive 93 percent of payments for commodities, which have averaged about $20 billion a year. This artificial "gigantification," though, has encouraged dependency, pushed out small farmers, and raised land prices such that new farmers are finding it hard to get started. The subsidies also distort global agricultural markets, putting the US at odds with its trading partners and hurting poor farmers abroad. One of its most promising...

Nonetheless, organic cotton represents less than 1 percent of all the cotton grown in the world, and organic cotton often costs 50 to 100 percent more than conventionally grown cotton, Messura said. On a table in the women's apparel section of the Concord outdoor gear store REI lie piles of soft organic cotton T-shirts in assorted colors. Now people can find a variety of clothing made from materials such as organic cotton, recycled fibers and bamboo that are not much different from their...

The federal agency also generally doesn't track where such crops are grown, only where farmers conduct initial tests of such crops in their fields. Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, has introduced a bill, AB 541, that would require farmers to notify local county agricultural commissioners within 30 days of planting or testing genetically altered crops. Only about 600,000 of those acres mostly devoted to corn, cotton and alfalfa are in California, according to state farm bureau estimates.

Growers planting nitrogen-gobbling corn needed to make the alternative fuel are causing prices for fertilizer to spike and farmers of many crops to grumble. Farmer Guido Ventresca checks the level of liquid nitrogen fertilizer that he puts into his almond orchard's water supply near Biola on Thursday afternoon. That appetite has helped push the nation's corn crop toward a record this year -- with farmers possibly planting as much as 90 million acres, or an area about the size of Montana,...

In India, for example, GM cotton has increased yields by around 150 per cent, trebled small farmers' profits, and reduced pesticide volumes by 80 per cent. Ten years after the first GM crops were planted, evidence is mounting that the technology can increase crop yields with apparently little environmental impact, particularly in developing countries. Anti-GM groups, however, argue that in many developing countries, GM crops are now grown mainly for export by big farmers, not for local...

Monsanto (Ticker: MON) produces seeds for large-acre crops such as corn, cotton and oilseeds (soybeans and canola), as well as for small-acre vegetable crops. The company also offers some of the leading in-the-seed trait technologies aimed at protecting crop yields. Streetwise: Monsanto plants seeds of success. Stocks outperform other investments because businesses retain earnings, which they reinvest in the business to generate still more earnings, while often increasing dividends in the...

We are pleased to be able to work with BASF in order to enhance our ability to identify and commercialize new traits that have the potential to bring substantial value to farmers, said Robb Fraley, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Monsanto. dBusinessNews :: Daily Business News Delivered to Your Desktop. We are pleased to be able to work with BASF in order to enhance our ability to identify and commercialize new traits that have the potential to bring substantial...

The big focus in today's statement was its update on Myconate, a novel seed dressing technology that helps crops to develop larger root mass so they can prosper under stressful conditions; and Harpin, comprising naturally occurring proteins that activate a plant's intrinsic ability to protect itself, resulting in improved crop quality, yield, and shelf life. The big focus in today's statement was its update on Myconate, a novel seed dressing technology that helps crops to develop larger...

Leaders of the cotton and rice producer groups have balked at stricter payment limitations, calling them an attack on their way of life because the cost of production per acre is higher for their crops. Also, as the person who often tries to bring state and national Farm Bureau members together, he knows there are big regional differences in perspective. BROOKLYN -- Craig Lang is acutely aware of the challenges facing farmers as they begin talking about the next farm bill. As farmers, we...