"Dow AgroSciences LLC is asking the Department of Agriculture to sign off on a new genetically engineered corn seed that is resistant to not only glyphosate, but also 2,4-D, a World War II-era chemical that has been associated with a host of serious health problems."

"Dozens of conservation groups and nearly 100 scientists voiced opposition on Thursday to an Obama administration proposal they say would make it much harder for imperiled creatures to qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act."

"Scientists and ecotourists visiting the continent are bringing in thousands of seeds, scientists say, that have a better chance of taking root as temperatures warm. Pristine ecosystems are at risk."

"YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon -- Three African countries - Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya - are taking up arms against elephant poachers, who have killed hundreds of elephants within the past few weeks."

"Monsanto Co., the world's largest seed company, has won the dismissal of a lawsuit by growers of organic crops ... seeking to have its patents for genetically altered seeds invalidated."

"Federal wildlife investigators in California and other states say they have cracked an international smuggling ring that trafficked for years in sawed-off rhinoceros horns, which fetch stratospheric prices in Vietnam and China for their supposed cancer-curing powers."

New York state legislators are considering banning shark fin sales, something several other states have done.

"Ships entering the Great Lakes should be made to kill all the creatures that hitch a ride in their ballast tanks, environmental groups said on Tuesday, challenging as too lax a proposed government standard to combat invasive species."

"LONDON -- More than 145 food products derived from whales, dolphins and porpoises are for sale on Amazon Japan, the wholly owned subsidiary of Internet marketplace giant Amazon Inc., according to a new report by the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency."

"Bird flu experts meeting in Geneva ruled that controversial research on a mutant form of the virus potentially capable of being spread among humans should be made public."

"A slew of pathogens typically found in livestock and domestic animals is increasingly being found in marine mammals, including in the Strait of Georgia off Vancouver."

"Maryland biologists study­ing box turtles rescued from the bulldozers on the Intercounty Connector construction site have made a grisly find: An alarming number of the tiny turtles later died, and biologists say their demise appears to be unrelated to the highway."

"The California Department of Fish and Game intends to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over its policy banning trees on levees."

"In the village of Pithauli, surrounded by ripening mustard fields, a woman hauls a cow carcass on a trolley, drops it in an open field, then runs and hides in a nearby hut as dozens of vultures swoop down."

"Silent in flannel shirts and ponytails, farmers from Saskatchewan and South Dakota, Mississippi and Massachusetts lined the walls of a packed federal courtroom in Manhattan last week, as their lawyers told a judge that they were no longer able to keep genetically modified crops from their fields."