Wealthy nations will be directed to encourage their citizens to eat less meat as part of the agenda at COP28, the United Nations’ annual climate change conference, Bloomberg reports.

Climate change activists have long pushed for people to switch to plant-based diets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the overconsumption of meat.

But there are doubts about COP’s ability to effect meaningful change in global meat consumption patterns and for such recommendations to actually be adopted by developed countries like the U.S.

For the first time, U.S. regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves.

The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the U.S. to sell meat that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals — what’s now being referred to as “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates.

Arizona, California and Nevada have agreed to take less water from the drought-strained Colorado River, a breakthrough agreement that, for now, keeps the river from falling so low that it would jeopardize water supplies for major Western cities like Phoenix and Los Angeles as well as for some of America’s most productive farmland.

Seven U.S. states that depend on the overused Colorado River on Monday reached agreement to cut consumption from a river that provides drinking water for 40 million people and irrigation for some of the country's most bountiful farmland.

In the agreement with the Biden administration, announced by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Arizona, California and Nevada will take 3 million acre-feet (3.7 billion cubic meters) less from the river through the end of 2026, an amount equal to 13% their allotment.

The Biden administration reached consensus Monday on a historic Colorado River Basin conservation deal after securing agreement from California, Arizona, and Nevada.

The agreement with the three states, which together make up the river's Lower Basin, is slated to last through the end of 2026, the Interior Department said in a statement on Monday. It will also conserve at least 3 million acre-feet of water.

Hungary has joined Poland in banning imports of grain and other foods from Ukraine that have hit their domestic agriculture industries hard, in a diplomatic setback for Kyiv that may also have repercussions for the future of the Black Sea grain deal, a key wartime agreement.

Torrential rain has resurrected Tulare Lake, a lost lake in California, and it could take farmers years to recover from the subsequent floods, causing a potential agricultural crisis.

One of the nation's largest automakers has some big construction projects in the pipeline, and the Tennessee state government isn't going to let anything stand in the way—even the private property rights of black farmers.