How we got to this point is a complicated — and sometimes tragic — story. However, understanding where we’ve been is critical to understanding where we can go.

Bloomberg is reporting that farmers around the world are increasing their cotton crops by the largest amount in six years in response to rising cotton prices. The price of cotton has gained 92 percent in the last six months, making "cotton the most expensive relative to corn and soybeans since 2006," Bloomberg reports.  Cotton prices are about 12 times more than corn and 5 times more than soybeans.

“We are going to make a monster crop,” said Sharon Johnson, a senior cotton analyst at First Capitol Group LLC in Atlanta. The large crop will likely push cotton futures down as much as 21 percent by the end of the year, according to Johnson. Still, the prices are so good for cotton now that U.S. farmers are likely to increase their crops by 29 percent.

A drought has reduced cotton crops the past few years, but soil moisture is up in Texas and production should increase. In the past few years farmers have favored corn and soy beans over cotton.

The Department of Justice is collecting comments on "agriculture and antitrust enforcement issues in our 21st century economy." The DOJ is trying to decide if companies are violating the nation's monopoly rules and has asked any and everybody for their thoughts. The DOJ receives comments and posts them here. 

It can make for interesting reading. For instance, there are seven state attorneys general investigating whether Monsanto's stranglehold on genetically modified seeds violates antitrust laws. Not so Kentucky AG Jack Conway, a Democrat who is now running for the U.S. Senate. Conway has written a letter to the DOJ that asks the government to further protect the intellectual property of firms like Monsanto. "(T)hese companies can produce these types of results only if they know their intellectual property rights are assured," Conway wrote. We assume this means Conway won't be joining any anti-Monsanto suits.

Bryan Wolfe, a dairy farmer in Rome, Ohio, tells how the markets for his milk have been reduced since 1992, leaving him with only one buyer for his product. The National Chicken Council tells us that the contracts signed by farmers in the chicken-raising business have been good for growers. Jon McConaughy, a beef producer, laments the lack of a local slaughter house. And Monsanto has submitted a 89-page brief.

The case of the disappearing bees is endlessly fascination, and the Washington Post has an update on colony collapse disorder (CDD), the malady affecting the nation's hives. Post reporter Adrian Higgins tells us that the losses have continued. Research has found that bee loss has stabalized at around 30%, but that figure was based on last winter's data. Reports from some beekeepers peg the losses this winter at 50% or more. 

"I am very concerned about this year based on what we have seen in California and other parts" of the United States, said Jeffery S. Pettis, research leader for the Agricultural Research Service's honey bee laboratory. There is no single cause of CDD, or at least none that researchers have found. "With the condition, foraging worker bees don't return to a hive even if a full brood is waiting to hatch," Higgins wrote. "One theory is that the foragers, knowing they are sick, fly off to die rather than compromise the hive."

The cause could be pesticides or the strain of travel. (Bees are trucked from one end of the country to another where they are put to work pollinating crops.) Bee keepers used to make their money on honey. Now, however, they make most of their income on pollination fees.