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The World Health Organization is set to examine a widely used pesticide and agribusiness is bracing for bad news, less than three months after the group classified another popular herbicide as "probably" cancer-causing.Twenty-four scientists representing WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) are set to analyze scientific findings regarding links between cancer in humans and the herbicide known as 2,4-D at a June 2-9 meeting in Lyon, France.

U.S. environmental regulators on Thursday proposed a rule that would create temporary pesticide-free zones to protect commercial honeybees, which are critical to food production and have been dying off at alarming rates.The restrictions would cover times when specific plants are in bloom and when commercial honeybees are being moved through certain areas, EPA officials said.

Monsanto Co, the world's largest seed company, is also known for the popularity of its Roundup herbicide, a weedkiller beloved by farmers and homeowners alike for its speed and deadly assault on tough weeds.But Monsanto's ongoing efforts to try to take over Swiss agrochemicals firm Syngenta, a rival whose product portfolio offers an array of agricultural chemicals, could spark a sell-off or de-emphasis of a product line that last year brought in roughly $5 billion, or a third of total revenues for Monsanto, according to industry sources.

Monsanto Co., the world's largest seed company, said on Wednesday it plans to divest all of Syngenta Ag's seeds and traits businesses as well as some overlapping chemistry assets to get regulatory approval for a takeover of its Swiss rival.Monsanto President Brett Begemann said in a statement that U.S.-based Monsanto sees an acquisition of Syngenta as a move toward "redefining the future of agriculture," and is confident it can address regulatory concerns about a combination of the two agrichemical and seed giants.

Monsanto Co, the world's largest seed company, said on Wednesday it plans to divest all of Syngenta AG's seeds and traits businesses as well as some overlapping chemistry assets to get regulatory approval for a takeover of its Swiss rival.The $45 billion transaction would create an industry giant with combined sales of over $31 billion before any divestitures and a market capitalization of nearly $100 billion, based on current share prices. It would likely attract scrutiny from regulators in Europe and the United States.

As seed and chemical maker Monsanto Co. woos Swiss agrochemicals firm Syngenta, Monsanto also is trying to win over consumers in key international markets, rolling out social media and marketing campaigns.U.S.-based Monsanto said it has recently launched interactive consumer-oriented websites in China, France, India, Argentina and Brazil, in addition to a lead site launched for U.S. consumers late last year.

Honey bees, critical agents in the pollination of key U.S. crops, disappeared at a staggering rate over the last year, according to a new government report that comes as regulators, environmentalists and agribusinesses try to reverse the decline.Losses of managed honey bee colonies hit 42.1 percent from April 2014 through April 2015, up from 34.2 percent for 2013-2014, and the second-highest annual loss to date, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report issued on Wednesday.

The Environmental Protection Agency has wrapped up its review of the world's most widely used herbicide and plans to release a much-anticipated preliminary risk assessment no later than July, the regulator's chief pesticide regulator told Reuters. The EPA review of the health and environmental impacts of glyphosate comes at a time of intense debate over the safety of the chemical, and after the World Health Organization's cancer research unit declared in March that glyphosate was "probably carcinogenic to humans."

Backers of mandatory labeling for genetically modified foods on Wednesday launched a campaign aimed at turning back food company lobbying against labeling, and the first target is PepsiCo.The move comes as U.S. lawmakers are eyeing federal legislation that would nullify mandatory state labeling laws, such as one that takes effect next year in Vermont, and proposed in other states.

An advocacy group seeking a ban on the world's most widely used herbicide said Wednesday it is launching a U.S. public testing project to gather data on detectable levels of the herbicide in drinking water, human urine and breast milk.The project, backed in part by organic organizations and critics of genetically modified crops, is the latest move in a brewing battle pitting agribusiness interests against consumer and environmental groups over the fate of the weed-killer called glyphosate.