VIDALIA Concordia Parish s risk for the deadly soybean rust will increase over the next few weeks, agriculture experts say. Because it needs living tissue to survive, rust often makes it through the winter by using kudzu one of more than 80 plants the parasitic spores infect as a host. The disease, which can be detected in early stages when lesions form near leaf veins, needs wet conditions with temperatures between 59 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Asian soybean rust causes plants to drop...

most weekdays this summer, a crew of food service employees will gather at Sharpstein Elementary to begin preparing hundreds of lunches. As summer nears each year, Angela Potts begins the lengthy paperwork and application process that makes the free lunch program possible in Walla Walla. Food service expected to serve 23,000 meals this summer This summer would mark the most children served to date. Free lunches have been served in Walla Walla during the summer months for about 12 years,...

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BARRE TOWN Since 2005, high prices for agricultural commodities have been helping farmers, but they are now putting the squeeze on another group the hungry. Nationwide, the amount of "bonus" commodities that the United States Department of Agriculture bought for the program has shrunk by 80 percent since the 2004-2005 fiscal year. But since 2005, farm prices have been high and the USDA has lacked the legal authority to buy commodities in excess of the $140 million appropriation. TEFAP...

farmers planted 19 percent more corn this year than last, topping a government forecast in March, as they cut back on crops such as soybeans and wheat to take advantage of record demand for ethanol and animal feed. Today's USDA report is based on a survey of about 88,000 farmers during the first two weeks of June, after crops were planted. crop, may eventually reduce costs for ethanol processors such as Archer Daniels Midland co. and livestock producers like Tyson Foods inc., which use the...