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Another U.S. ethanol maker is moving to diversify its revenue stream as the industry continues to suffer depressed margins as costly corn supplies dwindle. On Thursday, California-based Pacific Ethanol Inc said it was installing corn oil separation technology at one of its plants and planned to include its three other plants by the first quarter of 2013. The company said its corn oil business should start generating revenue in the first quarter of 2013.

The U.S. ethanol industry is hunkering down for another spell of deep losses, with a second producer temporarily shutting a Nebraska plant on Tuesday as diminishing corn supplies and lackluster gasoline demand crush profit margins. Valero Energy Corp is idling its 110 million gallons (500 million liters) a year plant in Albion, Nebraska, but expects it to resume operations before the autumn corn harvest, when prices should start to ease and supplies become more plentiful, spokesman Bill Day said.

Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, is suing chief rival DuPont, accusing DuPont and its agricultural crop subsidiary of treading on Monsanto's technological turf by copying key new plant breeding innovations. Monsanto's suit claims that a "seed chipping" invention, which it unveiled in 2007 as a way to speed up plant breeding, has been duplicated by DuPont in a "laser-assisted seed selection" tool introduced in 2008. Monsanto claims its business is suffering "irreparable harm" as a result.

Global conglomerate BASF is rolling out a series of new plant science and plant protection products for farmers in the United States as it aims to increase its share of fast-growing markets, executives of the German chemical giant said. South America is also a target as BASF shifts its agricultural emphasis -- and millions of dollars in research and development --away from Europe to markets more accepting of the genetically modified crop technology it says will be key to food security as world population grows.

New genetically altered corn aimed at helping farmers deal with drought offers more hype than help over the long term, according to a report issued on Tu esday by a science and environmental advocacy group. The Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS) said the only genetically altered corn approved by regulators and undergoing field trials in the United States has no improved water efficiency, and provides only modest results in only moderate drought conditions.

Shares in global agricultural giant Monsanto Co. jumped more than 3 percent after the world's largest seed company said on Wednesday it expected fiscal 2012 earnings to grow 25 percent over last year, with continued strong growth into 2013. Company Chairman Hugh Grant said that the company is raising 2012 earnings per share guidance to the range of $3.65 to $3.70 on an ongoing basis and $3.73 to $3.78 on an as-reported basis.

A damaging global dry spell is wilting wheat crops in Kansas, threatening exports from Russia and slowing sowing in Australia, serving a timely reminder to hedge funds that a new era of surplus grain is far from assured. In their biggest surge since 1996, Chicago wheat prices jumped by more than 17 percent last week and reached a nearly 9-month high of more than $7 a bushel on Monday, a rally stoked by short-covering among big speculators -- a group that had amassed a near-record short position betting on falling prices.

A group of U.S. seed, chemical and equipment companies will invest at least $150 million over the next few years into African agricultural projects and products, the companies said on Friday. The investments pledged by DuPont, Monsanto, Cargill and others are part of an overall $3 billion effort by companies around the world announced by President Barack Obama. Along with companies from India, Israel, Switzerland, Norway and the United Kingdom, and 20 companies from Africa, the corporations have committed some $3 billion for projects to help farmers in the developing world build local markets and improve productivity.

George Siemon has milk on his mind. "Grassmilk" to be specific. As the co-founder and chief executive for Organic Valley, a La Farge, Wisconsin-based cooperative that is the largest provider of organic milk in the United States, Siemon is on the hunt for new offerings for a growing market. The latest idea - milk from cows that primarily eat grasses, but never corn, soybeans or other supplemental grains commonly fed to dairy and beef cattle - was launched in April and is available in 200 stores in six western U.S. states. The milk has an earthy flavor that is a twist for the milk market.

Financial services group TIAA-CREF, which is a major agricultural investor, said on Monday it is partnering with Canadian and European money managers to form a $2 billion global farmland investing company to capitalize on the growing demand for grains and other agricultural products. U.S.-based TIAA-CREF, which also provides retirement services and has about $487 billion in assets under management, said it and several international institutional investors had $2 billion in commitments to invest in farmland in the United States, Australia and Brazil, all key grain exporters.