Some nations like Saudi Arabia, with more money and less arable land compared to much of the world, are seeking to outsource food production by buying up farmland in less-developed parts of the world like Africa.

"The rapid adoption by U.S. farmers of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton has promoted increased use of pesticides, an epidemic of herbicide-resistant weeds and more chemical residues in foods, according to a report issued Tuesday by health and environmental protection groups."

"As many as 25 percent of the American farmers growing genetically engineered corn are no longer complying with federal rules intended to maintain the resistance of the crops to damage from insects, according to a report Thursday from an advocacy group."

"Over the last century, the intensive use of chemical fertilizers has saturated the Earth’s soils, waters, and atmosphere with nitrogen. Now scientists are warning that we must move quickly to revolutionize agricultural systems and greatly reduce the amount of nitrogen we put into the planet's ecosystems."

"Food and consumer groups say the practice increases the risk of cattle becoming infected with mad cow disease. A beef industry trade group say a ban isn't needed."

"As scientists race the clock to increase food production worldwide, new trials to plant genetically-modified maize have stoked anger in Mexico, the cradle of corn."

"Many experts think pig farming presents a serious and overlooked risk to public health. Proof of that assertion -- indirect but indisputable, in the opinion of virologists -- is the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza."

"In the prairies of Kansas lives Wes Jackson, a man who has spent his long and rich career trying to invent a new kind of agriculture -- one that will last indefinitely."

A big-money rancher alumnus caused Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to change a scheduled lecture by best-selling sustainable food writer Michael Pollan -- raising questions about academic freedom.

To get to the root of the obesity epidemic, one Canadian reporter went in search of a junk food farm. There were no fields of Dorito bags waving in the breeze. "What you do see are vast operations growing the raw materials for junk food: soybeans and corn."

Right now, America's Bread Basket relies on an aquifer that's nearly drained. And, many say, it will dry up if farmers keep pumping water from it at the current rate. The Environment Report's Devin Browne reports the government plans to pay farmers as one way to get them to cut water use.

The Local Food Hub in the Charlottesville, Va., area is an example of a new trend: nonprofit distribution enterprises that aggregate food produced by small-scale local farmers and move it quickly to local customers such as restaurants, schools, and retirement homes.

"If you've been waiting all season for that quintessential taste of summer -- a juicy, ripe tomato from the garden -- you might be disappointed. This year a tomato blight has swept across the Northeast and is moving into Midwestern gardens and farms."

"Milk may have a wholesome commercial image, but the dairies that produce most of the nation's supply aren't always healthy places to work. Dairy workers are injured at a much higher rate than other workers in the U.S." Most of the West's 50,000 dairy workers are immigrants with families to feed, many undocumented. Government rules to protect them are as weak as skim milk.

"Recently, six states have changed their laws to require better conditions for farm animals. But there’s a battle brewing in one state that’s putting a new spin on the debate."