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Both sides of the costly and high-stakes GMO labeling battle in Washington state say they see an even bigger national fight ahead despite the apparent defeat of the mandatory labeling measure by Washington state voters this week. The measure died 47.05 percent to 52.95 percent, according to results updated Thursday night by the Washington Secretary of State's office as results continued to trickle in. The likely loss followed a similar defeat last year in California when a ballot initiative there also failed to pass.

DuPont Pioneer, the agricultural seed unit of DuPont, said Friday that it has aligned with farm machinery company Deere & Co in a race against rival Monsanto Co to provide farmers with enhanced "precision agriculture" analyses aimed at maximizing crop production. The programs these companies will roll out next year will give farmers guidance on a number of field management decisions, including planting, crop treatment, pest control and even the best time to harvest.

A lobbying group for major U.S. food manufacturers continues to run afoul of campaign finance laws in the way that it has contributed funds to block a measure that would require labeling of genetically modified foods in Washington state, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the state's attorney general. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said he will amend a lawsuit filed October 16 to raise the total amount he alleges the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) illegally concealed to $11 million, from the $7.2 million in the original complaint.

Major U.S. food and chemical companies are pouring millions of dollars into efforts to block approval of a ballot initiative in Washington state that would make it the first in the United States to require labeling of foods containing genetically modified crops. Despite early strong support for the measure, a recent poll suggests sentiment against the measure, known as I-522, is growing amid an onslaught of corporate-financed advertising ahead of the Nov. 5 referendum. Voters will decide whether many common grocery items containing ingredients from genetically altered crops should be labeled as such.

A lobbying group for major U.S. food manufacturers has violated campaign finance laws in its attempt to block a measure that would require labeling of genetically modified foods in Washington state, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the state's attorney general. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson alleges that the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) illegally collected and spent more than $7 million while shielding the identity of its contributors.

Monsanto Co, the world's largest seed company, reported a deeper quarterly loss on Wednesday as seed sales slipped, and announced the acquisition of a high-tech climate data firm that it touted as a "transformational" growth engine. Investors initially appeared unimpressed with the $930 million purchase of Climate Corp and instead eyed Monsanto's 2014 profit forecast and a drop in gross profit in its key corn and soybean seed business in the latest quarter. Monsanto shares were down 1.4 percent to $103.58 in mid-morning trading.

A food-safety advocacy group demanded on Friday that the U.S. government investigate how a Washington state alfalfa crop became tainted with a genetically modified trait that was illegal when the seed was purchased. The Center for Food Safety said it was basing its legal petition on evidence that the seed used by farmer Joseph Peila to plant the crop was purchased in the year before the biotech variety was granted final regulatory approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2011.

On the windswept prairies of the Oklahoma Panhandle, the hog barns of Prestage Farms are lined up like military barracks. The 20,000-sow operation near the Texas border stands at the front lines of a months-long battle to contain a virus that has already killed some 1.3 million hogs in the United States. Since June, when Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus, or PEDv, first hit, Prestage workers have quarantined the area, scrubbed vehicles and sprayed buildings with antiseptic. But those precautions have not stopped a virus that can kill 80 percent of piglets that contract it.

Six people and three companies, including an Indiana operation claiming to make biofuel from chicken fat and vegetable oils, were charged with defrauding investors and consumers out of more than $100 million, prosecutors in Indianapolis said on Wednesday. The indictment alleged four men operating E-Biofuels of Middletown, Indiana and two others with New Jersey-based Caravan Trading Co and CIMA Green conspired to exploit a government incentive program that offers tax credits for biofuel use.

The detection of a small amount of genetically modified material in a Washington state farmer's non-GMO alfalfa crop constitutes a "commercial issue" only and does not warrant any government action, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday. The Washington state farmer had complained in late August to state agricultural officials that his alfalfa hay had been rejected for export sale because of the presence of a genetically modified trait that makes the crop resistant to herbicide.