Dan Charles

Over the past century, small-town seed businesses have given way to global enterprises. The story of one small seed company in Nebraska helps explain what drove the transformation.

A modern broiler, or meat chicken, grows incredibly fast. The bird suffers as a result, and some critics say its flavor does too. Now Whole Foods wants its suppliers to shift to slower-growing breeds.

In the coming weeks, major brands including General Mills, Kellogg and Mars will start labeling foods produced with genetic engineering. That's all because of a Vermont law set to take effect July 1.

March is a pivotal time in the world of strawberries. Production shifts westward, to California. In Florida, thousands of men and women who pick strawberries are moving on to other work.

For the past several years, a scientist in Brookings, S.D., has been engaged in an escalating struggle with his employer, the USDA's Agricultural Research Service. The scientist, Jonathan Lundgren, says that he has been persecuted because his research points out problems — including harm to bees — with a ...

Chances are, you've never heard of flubendiamide. It's not among the most toxic insecticides, and it's not among the widely used chemicals, either. In recent years, it has been used on about a quarter of the nation's tobacco and 14 percent of almonds, peppers and watermelons.

But flubendiamide is now ...

Here's an exercise in deductive logic, with implications for our food supply.

Fact: Insects such as bees and butterflies are helpful, and sometimes essential, for producing much of our food, including a majority of our fruits, vegetables and nuts.

Fact: Many of these pollinators, especially wild ones such as ...

Millions of people want caffeine removed from their coffee. Millions more want caffeine added to their soda. Little-known caffeine factories, scattered across the world, satisfy both desires.

Chipotle Mexican Grill certainly is not the first company to face lawsuits and subpoenas because its food made people sick. Other companies, in fact, have faced far worse: Companies like Blue Bell, Dole and Earthbound Farms have been linked to disease outbreaks that actually killed people.

But it's difficult to ...

Deep in the heart of the arcane laws that give farmers a helping hand, there's something called "crop insurance." It's a huge program, costing taxpayers anywhere from $5 billion to $10 billion each year.

It's called an insurance program, and it looks like insurance. Farmers buy policies from private companies ...

It took Sen. Ted Cruz to finally persuade me to answer a riddle that's bothered me for years. Suppose somebody yanked away the law that currently props up the nation's ethanol industry, as Cruz has proposed. What would actually happen?

Before we get to the answer, let me mention why ...

The USDA says it will prevent 50,000 cases of illness each year. Skeptics say the agency needs to take a different approach to the salmonella problem because the current one has not worked very well.

Farm subsidies don't lack for critics. Free-market conservatives and welfare state-defending liberals alike have called for deep cuts in these payments to farmers. After all, farmers, as a group, are wealthier than the average American. Why should they get tens of billions of dollars each year in federal aid?

Two ...

Most workers who are picking oranges in Florida are temporary "guest" workers from Mexico. They have signed contracts to work only for growers who arranged their visas and provide their housing.

The majority of American egg producers, when they order new chicken houses, are choosing cage-free systems. That's a sea change driven by consumer demand for cage-free eggs.

The Cavendish banana and other beloved varieties are threatened by a fungus that's spreading around the world. Scientists are trying to find new varieties that will be resistant to the disease.

The fight over genetically modified food, or GMOs, has long resembled battles on the Western Front in World War I. Pro-GMO and anti-GMO forces have aimed plenty of heavy artillery at each other, but neither well-entrenched side has given much ground.

This week, though, for perhaps the first time, a ...

Some food companies, hoping to gain consumer trust, are disclosing more information about what is in their products, and how they were made. But how much will they be willing to reveal?

When lawmakers — and lobbyists — use the budget bill as a vehicle to slip in new policies or upend regulations, it reminds me of my kids at the grocery store.

They ask for Nutella. I say "No." But when I'm not looking, they slip it into the cart. And ...

If you go by their declarations and promises, meat producers are drastically cutting back on the use of antibiotics to treat their poultry, pigs and cattle. Over the past year, one big food company after another has announced plans to stop using these drugs.

But if you go by the ...