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Although there are fewer hungry people, the United Nation said last year that about 870 million people, or one in eight in the world, are chronically undernourished. The global number of hungry people declined from 18.6 percent to 12.5 percent of the world’s population.

The Iowa attorney general has launched a formal investigation into the business practices of an Illinois company accused of gouging customers for biohazard cleanup. Bill Brauch, who heads the office’s Consumer Protection Division, said he cannot comment on the investigation of Aftermath Inc.

Congress should use the final hours of debate on the next Farm Bill to limit spending on crop insurance and shovel more money to conservation programs, advocacy groups said.

A DuPont executive said a push by critics to undermine the country’s renewable fuels mandate has not deterred the company from investing in the next wave of ethanol production: cellulosic.

Some people praise genetic advancement for giving farmers the opportunity to feed a growing world like never before, but not all farmers want to adopt the technology. Instead some producers are seeing a growing demand for naturally grown foods.