President Barack Obama kicked off the legislative year on Tuesday with a State of the Union address largely focusing on the economy, taxes and foreign affairs, but also incorporating key ag policy priorities including trade and renewable energy.

New federal school meal standards ramp up the grain servings students eating breakfast and lunch will receive and, for the first time, will require they all be from whole grain-rich sources.

Those who believe agriculture isn’t a serious academic subject and farmers are an uneducated lot may be enticed to expand their views based on the farm community’s reaction to a Jan. 19 article declaring agriculture degrees “useless.”

A year of testing by a federal interagency committee has unanimously determined there “appear to be no practical solutions or mitigations” to GPS interference caused by LightSquared’s broadband technology.

Efforts to recruit and educate the next generation of plant scientists were top of mind and the agenda at the recent Triticeae Coordinated Agricultural Project (T-CAP) annual meeting.

A briefing this week held by the commodity futures industry’s trade association shed little light on how MF Global misplaced nearly $1 billion before its bankruptcy.

The deadline for early bird registrations for the 2012 Commodity Classic is tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 20.

Members of Congress are headed back to Washington, D.C., from a holiday break, but how much they will accomplish before leaving in early August for full-time campaigning remains very much in question.

Field to Market, The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, launched a new and updated version of its Fieldprint Calculator this week at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting.

The Idaho Wheat Commission announced late last week it will create two faculty research endowments at the University of Idaho’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and participate in a public-private partnership that also includes the College and Limagrain Cereal Seeds.

The NAWG Foundation recently announced the members of its 2012 Wheat Organization Leaders of the Future (WOLF) leadership training class.