In the wake of Peregine Financial and MF Global scandals, many farmers are losing faith in commodities brokerages they used to rely on. Regulators and futures industry leaders are hoping to restore confidence with increased oversight and account insurance.
Freak weather in Michigan has annihilated orchards of sour cherries, meaning you should expect to see cranberries replacing them in your trail mix soon.
The heat wave is cooling off. But in parts of the Midwest, that is little consolation to farmers whose crops have been badly damaged by the heat, as well as a drought that's being called the worst in decades.
Hill City, Kansas, has been seeing temperatures reach as high as 115 degrees for several days. Ace Billups, a farmer there, talks about the heat's impact on his business.
Last fall, a listeria outbreak in cantaloupes traced to a Colorado farm killed 30 people around the country. The economic fallout from the tragedy has been far reaching.
The case of Mad Cow in California put a few South Korean retailers off of buying U.S. beef temporarily. But Canadian and Japanese importers haven't flinched.
It's the fourth such cow found in the U.S. food chain in the past nine years, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture says there's no reason consumers should worry.
For now, the Farm Bill has stalled in Congress. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack talks about why the bill is vital to farmers, and the agriculture industry as a whole.
