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The Department of Agriculture is awarding more than $5.6 million in grant payments to 220 advanced-biofuel companies under its Advanced Biofuel Payment Program. The agency is also handing out $4 million in grants to bioenergy projects under its National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The grants are part of the Obama administration's "all-of-the-above" approach to U.S. energy policy, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Food company Dannon has pledged to work with its dairy farmer partners and their suppliers to improve sustainable agriculture practices, increase the use of natural and non-GMO ingredients across its 3 flagship products, and more.

Genetically modified crops - that can feed 9 billion by 2050 and tolerate heat, drought and disease - are the future of sustainable agriculture, writes David Rotman, editor of MIT Technology Review.

Walmart launched a new sustainable agriculture strategy emphasizing locally sourced produce, sustainability training for farmers, and supply-chain environmental assessments. The company will also seek to reduce food waste in stores, purchase sustainable palm oil, and avoid Brazilian beef linked to Amazon deforestation.

the creator of the sports-nutrition snacks began executing his commitment to organic agriculture and a sustainable supply chain. One of Erickson's first moves was to hire Elysa Hammond, a former classmate with whom he worked on issues involving hunger, agriculture and the environment during their college days. As the vision of sustainable food production came into focus, Hammond assumed the title of director of environmental sustainability.In May, 24 years after Clif bars, gels, trail mixes and other products first appeared, the company had a palette with which to paint a picture of sustainable manufacturing. The central design principle was biophilia - literally love of life, the concept of humanity's connection with nature and love of other living organisms.

Conducting due diligence on the environmental and social practices of small and growing agricultural businesses yields financial benefits to lenders that partially or fully offset the costs involved, according to nonprofit agriculture lender Root Capital.

The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform, a group helping food and drink companies to achieve sustainable production and sourcing of agricultural raw materials whose members include McDonald's Europe and Unilever, has announced the development of its Principles for Sustainable Beef Farming, what it is calling the most complete guidelines developed for beef production to date.

Research published in the American Journal of Primatology earlier this month finds that the overall Western Chimpanzee population declined by six percent annually between 1990 and 2014, a total decline of 80.2 percent. The main threats to the Western Chimpanzee are almost all man-made. Habitat loss and fragmentation driven by slash-and-burn agriculture, industrial agriculture (including deforestation for oil palm plantations as well as eucalyptus, rubber, and sugar cane developments), and extractive industries like logging, mining, and oil top the list. In response to the finding that the Western Chimpanzee population has dropped so precipitously in less than three decades, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) elevated the subspecies' status to Critically Endangered on its Red List of Threatened Species.

Recent studies show that the soil in organic farms is up to 44% more effective at trapping carbon that conventionally farmed soil. This discovery is just one of many reasons the UN Food and Agriculture Organization is calling on the world to embrace more sustainable farming practices

The first crop-land agricultural credits were introduced to the carbon market this summer, but the biggest functioning U.S. cap and trade market - California's - hangs in limbo.

Purpose-driven US outdoor clothing giant Patagonia is calling for business leaders to back regenerative organic agriculture, claiming that certain textile standards are "not going far enough

PepsiCo, Unilever, Heineken and other members of the Cool Farm Institute have launched an online tool to help farmers assess and improve the environmental and economic performance of their businesses.

Unsustainable agricultural methods have caused the planet's soil to release up to 70% of its carbon into the atmosphere -- and scientists say that restoring soil conditions might help to reabsorb that carbon and slow climate change. "If we treat soil carbon as a renewable resource, we can change the dynamics," says carbon-cycle expert Thomas Goreau

A WRI analysis shows how much tension exists between essentail resources; food and water.

The Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops partnered with The Sustainability Consortium to align the measurement and reporting of on-farm sustainability associated with specialty crops including fruits, nuts, and vegetables.

We've all heard of the troubling mass extinction of animal life, so it may come as a surprise to hear that seeds are in even deeper trouble. Since the turn of the century, 93% of US seed varieties have gone extinct and with them the diversity of our meals.  As clearly shown in the infographic (left) published by National Geographic's John Tomanio, nature's tastiest gifts have dramatically disappeared across the past century. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (the FAO), 75% of the world's food is now generated from only 12 plants and five animal species.

Mexico's pine forests are under threat from avocado farms, with producers expanding their orchards to meet burgeoning demand. The water-intensive orchards and increasing use of agricultural chemicals pose a threat to surrounding ecosystem, experts say.

Bordering Myanmar on the southeast and the Indian states of Tripura on the north and Mizoram on the east, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is one of these areas. Characterized by semi-evergreen forest that is considered part of the highly endangered Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot, CHT is a refuge for at least 26 globally threatened species, making it a critical conservation priority. But conservation efforts in the region have historically been challenged by the very remoteness and political instability that have helped protect it from deforestation seen in other parts of Bangladesh. That protection is now disappearing with the influx of settlers from other regions who are increasingly clearing forests for agriculture, logging trees for timber and firewood, and hunting wildlife. In other words, time is running out for Bangladesh's last rainforest and its traditional tribes.

A partnership of 12 organization is set to launch an online hub for information and solutions to reduce food waste, "Further With Food: Center for Food Loss and Waste Solutions," at FurtherWithFood.org. The site is intended to help realize the national goal to halve food waste by 2030, announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in September 2015.

Brazil's conservative National Congress has rushed to pass a wave of legislative initiatives, which taken all together, would dismantle much of the nation's body of law protecting the environment and indigenous people - an effort likely to escalate in 2017. The latest attempt occurred last week, just before the parliamentary recess. The agricultural lobby unexpectedly put forward three bills, known as Decretos Legislativos (PDCs), which are laws promulgated by the President of the Senate over which the country's President does not have the right of veto. If eventually passed, as seems likely, the bills will allow industrial waterways (requiring many dozens of new dams) to be built without the proper assessment of environmental and social impacts. The waterways would be used by agribusiness as a cheap means of exporting soy and other commodities.