Dedicating time to cultivate your garden — whether that’s indoors, in your yard, or in a community plot — has obvious benefits like vases full of flowers and bowls full of tomatoes. But what about the “invisible” perks that you can’t eat or smell? Longtime gardeners have known this secret forever: Gardening is good for the soul. (Allrecipes

A Glenview family-owned farm was featured on The History Channel last weekend as a representative of the “future of food.” (Chicago Tribune)  

Missouri is taking a hard-line approach to tackle a troubling increase in the state’s black vulture population. It’s part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pilot program allowing some livestock owners to kill the birds, which have been moving north in recent years and causing problems. (St. Louis Public Radio)  

The world’s biggest agricultural commodities traders are gearing up to profit from a boom in the American renewable diesel industry. The traders are targeting the growing market as refiners including Phillips 66, Marathon Petroleum Corp., HollyFrontier Corp. and Valero Energy Corp. jump on the green diesel bandwagon. (Bloomberg)  

 Even though soybean prices have risen more than corn, which gained 24.7% in the same 11 months, farmers are increasingly opting for the yellow grain in the weeks before planting. Their reasoning includes the importance of crop rotations to maintain long-term soil health, strong export demand and an improved outlook for corn-based biofuel. (Reuters)

NASA Harvest (NASA’s Food Security and Agriculture Program) and CropX, a global leader in soil analytics for agriculture, today announced a strategic partnership that will give NASA Harvest unprecedented soil insights for its global agricultural monitoring efforts. (Food & Beverage Magazine