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A class of insecticides popular with corn and soybean farmers in the U.S. Midwest but feared as a factor in the decline of U.S. honey bee colonies and other crop pollinators, has been found to be widespread through rivers and streams in Iowa, according to a government study released on Thursday. The study, released by the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, marks the first broad-scale investigation of multiple neonicotinoid insecticides in waterways in the Midwestern U.S., and is one of the first conducted within the entire United States, according to the government scientists.

Farmers in important crop-growing states should consider the environmentally unfriendly practice of deeply tilling fields to fight a growing problem with invasive "superweeds" that resist herbicides and choke crop yields, agricultural experts said this week. Resistance to glyphosate, the main ingredient in widely used Roundup herbicide, has reached the point that row crop farmers in the Midwest are struggling to contain an array of weeds, agronomists say.

California regulators violated the law by approving expanded use of pesticides that have been shown to hurt honeybees needed for pollinating key American crops, according to a lawsuit filed against the state by environmental groups on Tuesday. The lawsuit seeks an injunction prohibiting the state Department of Pesticide Regulation from approving any new neonicotinoid products or new uses of those products unless it completes a required re-evaulations of the pesticides.

A Chinese woman has been arrested and charged with trying to steal patented U.S. seed technology as part of a plot to smuggle types of specialized corn from farm fields in the U.S. Midwest for use in China, authorities said on Wednesday. The woman, Mo Yun, is married to the founder and chairman of a Chinese conglomerate that runs a corn seed subsidiary. She and her brother, Mo Hailong, worked together and with others to steal the valuable corn seed from Iowa and Illinois, according to law enforcement officials. Mo Hailong was indicted and arrested in December.

A long-running battle over coal-fired energy in Kansas continued Friday as the Sierra Club environmental group filed a legal challenge to the state's issuance of a permit intended to give a green light to a controversial new power plant. The complaint, filed in the Kansas Court of Appeals, names the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and its secretary, Robert Moser, as defendants, and claims the permit for the new power plant does not meet federal and state requirements.

Every summer millions of American families head for beaches, but few stop to think of the possibility that the water they swim in may harbor enough bacteria to cause stomach flu and a host of other illnesses. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found that 10 percent of water quality samples collected from nearly 3,500 coastal and Great Lakes beaches in 2013 contained levels of harmful bacteria that exceeded "safe to swim" thresholds recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Home Depot and other U.S. companies are working to eliminate or limit use of a type of pesticide suspected of helping cause dramatic declines in honeybee populations needed to pollinate key American crops, officials said on Wednesday. The moves include requiring suppliers to label any plants treated with neonicotinoid, or neonic, pesticides sold through home and garden stores. Atlanta-based Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, is requiring its suppliers to start such labeling by the fourth quarter of this year, said Ron Jarvis, the company's vice president of merchandising/sustainability. Home Depot is also running tests in several states to see if suppliers can eliminate neonics in their plant production without hurting plant health, he said.

Monsanto Co reported a 6 percent drop in quarterly profit on Wednesday, but shares jumped more than 5 percent as the world's largest seed company beat forecasts, improved its near-term outlook and said it planned to double earnings over the next five years. The company, known for its genetically engineered corn, soybeans and other crops as well as the popular Roundup herbicide, also announced authorization of a $10 billion share repurchase and cited strong progress on a new farm data business platform.

Questions about Roundup, the world's most popular herbicide, are on the agenda at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday when regulators meet with a group of mothers, scientists, environmentalists and others who say they are worried about Roundup residues found in breast milk. The meeting near Washington D.C., follows a five-day phone call blitz of EPA offices by a group called "Moms Across America" demanding that the EPA pay attention to their demands for a recall of Roundup.

Voters in a small Oregon county were considering on Tuesday a controversial measure that would ban cultivation of genetically engineered crops within their boundaries. The measure in Jackson County in southern Oregon, has drawn national attention and more than $1 million in campaign funding to the community, which has only 117,650 registered voters. "It is drawing a lot of attention," said Jackson County Clerk Chris Walker. "There is so much buzz about it." The ban is supported by a coalition of more than 180 farmers and community members, who have been pushing for the vote on the issue for more than two years.