A Farm Bill amendment would streamline the approval process for producers of organic ingredients and components, such as plastics and starches, and create a larger marketplace for organically produced “bio-based” goods.

Archer Daniels Midland Co. hit a bump in the road last quarter, but that shouldn’t discourage long-term investors. Commodity costs are high, but the company is refocusing on overseas investments after shedding a disappointing domestic venture.

Rising global demand for agricultural products is a sweet deal for Archer Daniels Midland Co., but the rising cost of inputs such as corn? Not so much.

Despite a soggy start to the planting season, many Illinois farmers were able to overcome record rainfall in April to finish getting their crops into the ground in time.

This year’s corn planting progress is 7.5 days ahead of the normal schedule, according to Allendale Inc., and the current pace implies an upward revision of approximately 400,000 corn acres by the USDA.

This week on Money Talks, your chatty hosts Joseph Freeman and Siddhartha Vaidyanathan speak with our seasoned agriculture reporter, Bridget Macdonald. Climate-change legislation has been proposed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, but Illinois agricultural groups are up in arms, saying the bill has the potential to raise input costs rather [...]

BY BRIDGET MACDONALD - MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

More than 400 people flocked to Chicago’s Harold Washington Library Center Monday evening, hungry for kernels of wisdom from watchdog food writer Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.”

In the program, a conversation with [...]

BY BRIDGET MACDONALD - MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

In the wake of a succession of food safety scares over the past few years involving the likes of tomatoes, spinach and peanuts, the House Agricultural Committee is taking a preemptive strike against food contamination in the expanding field of organic production.

The subcommittee on

BRIDGET MACDONALD – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Although the ethanol market has been flooded with surplus over the past several months, forcing many producers to idle production or drop out of the business entirely, the industry is showing signs of life in the Corn Belt.

Six of the 11 ethanol plants in Illinois [...]

(KateMonkey/FLICKR)

BY BRIDGET MACDONALD – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Wet April weather has stalled spring planting for many farmers in the Midwest, but home gardeners are already anticipating their harvests.

While sales of cut flowers and potted plants have wilted over the past year according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s