Senate Agriculture Committee leadership has applauded MF Global Trustee Louis Freeh for dropping any possible plan to pay bonuses to MF Global executives. MF Global's bankruptcy last year, the eighth largest in U.S. history, resulted in a loss of as much as $1.6 billion of the firm's customer’s money....More

Sen. Debbie Stabenow releases draft of 2012 farm bill, pledges deficit reduction and stronger crop insurance-based safety net for producers....More

Love the volatility. Well — maybe not. Commodity price volatility is not exactly something that all producers enjoy. Volatility makes marketing decisions difficult and stirs up emotions almost as much as not getting any rain for a month. For the last 18 months, there has been no lack of extreme volatility in corn, soybeans or cotton. As a matter of fact, the same could be said for rice, crude oil, gold and the stock market....More

While New York futures will be the benchmark by which U.S. merchants set local cash prices, global cotton trade and prices may be affected to a large extent by government policies in China and to a lesser extent by policies in India....More

The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) has issued its preliminary recommendations for safeguarding the sanctity of customer funds in the aftermath of the MF Global bankruptcy....More

A soy check-off study shows a European Union renewable-energy policy would ultimately cost U.S. soybean farmers money by lowering U.S. soybean prices....More

Louisiana farmers have been informed that the Port Allen facility near Baton Rouge will not be accepting grain from this year’s wheat or fall harvests....More

2012 may just not be cotton’s year in Arkansas, as pigweed and prices push acres toward soybeans and corn. The industry will know Friday when the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service issues its “Prospective Plantings” report, providing the season’s first comprehensive look at the nation’s row crop landscape for 2012....More

A resolution opposing bonuses for MF Global executives is being introduced in the Senate....More

The U.S. government will appeal a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) breaks trade rules....More

The Senate Agriculture Committee has urged Louis Freeh, the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of MF Global Holding Ltd., not to award bonuses to top executives, “who should be held accountable for the failure of their company.”...More