Historically, the university has had crop-share arrangements with its tenant farmers, meaning the farmers and the university share the cost of getting crops in the ground and harvesting them. As a consequence, farmers say land leases in counties where this happens will become more expensive, and long-term farmers like the Thurmans could lose their leases. While he was in the hospital fighting infection and trying to recover, his family and neighboring farmers steered their combines toward...

Corn prices have shot up because energy companies are buying the grain to produce ethanol. While America this year produced about 200 million barrels of the clear, clean biofuel, the process withdrew 10 per cent of supplies from US grain stores. The turkey, cranberry sauce, green beans, ingredients for the pastry for pumpkin pie, ice-cream on top, and the cheese to go with crackers, have all soared in price. A global shortage of dairy produce and a doubling of the price of corn in the past...

After generations of reliance on the rain, the soil and the University of Illinois to guide their planting and harvesting decisions, the state's farmers are threatening to drop their support for the school over its decision to rent thousands of donated acres to the highest bidders instead of its longtime tenants. After generations of reliance on the rain, the soil and the University of Illinois to guide their planting and harvesting decisions, the state's farmers are threatening to drop...

FARMERS should be allowed to choose whether to grow genetically engineered grain crops, the National Farmers Federation says, following a report showing they are being kept out of a $157 million industry. National Farmers Federation chief executive Ben Fargher said such potential benefits were one reason farmers should be given the choice of growing genetically modified crops. Grain growers were missing out on $157 million a year in canola and wheat crops because of the states' moratoriums...

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