The National Potato Council has joined a group that hopes to expand trade with Cuba. They are now one of more than 100 organizations in the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba. Other produce industry members include the Cherry Marketing Institute, the Michigan Apple Association, the Michigan Potato Industry Commission and Sun-Maid Growers of California.

Bloomberg reports that Syngenta is confident they will close the deal with ChemChina by end of year. Syngenta, which has agreed to be taken over by China National Chemical Corp., said talks with regulatory authorities to win approval for the deal have been constructive, and the Swiss company is confident they can close on time.

And Texas A&M University confirms that scientists at the school are a step closer to achieving a cattleman’s dream: a herd of cattle that consistently produces the highest quality beef, and more of it per animal by cloning. In the beef industry, conventional wisdom holds that the quality of beef suffers as the yield — the amount of boneless, closely trimmed retail cuts — increases and vice-versa. But the initial results of this research involving cloned cattle found that it is possible to improve both simultaneously.

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