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.

"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."

"The United Farm Workers union sued California’s occupational health and safety agency on Thursday, accusing it of doing too little to prevent farm laborers’ deaths from heat illness."

"The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has quietly approved a new genetically engineered corn with eight different insect- and weed-fighting traits, but farmer and environmental groups in Canada say the approval was rushed and environmental risks ignored."

"A growing interest in sustainable food is luring children back to their parents' farms."

A massive sweep by drug enforcement agents in Fresno County offered new evidence of how illegal marijuana plantations on public lands are scarring the Sierra landscape.

"Imported insects have been deployed as foot soldiers in the fight against invasive bugs and plants that cause billions of dollars in damage each year. But some of those imports are proving to be pests themselves that upset the balance of nature and threaten native species."