Ashur Mohammed, 60, checks his land in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, on July 9. Below-average rainfall and insufficient water in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers — something the Iraqis have blamed on dams in neighboring Turkey and Syria — have left Iraq bone-dry for a second straight year.
Hadi Mizban/AP
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Baker Bertrand Houlier with the sweet treats and breads he sells at the Montgomery Farm Women's Cooperative Market in Bethesda, Md.
Marisa Penaloza/NPR
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President Obama meets John Roos (left), U.S. ambassador to Japan, in the Oval Office at the White House on Aug. 6. Roos is a Silicon Valley lawyer who had not been to Japan before his appointment — and who raised money for Obama's presidential campaign.
Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
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A farmer plants soybeans in an untilled field. No-till farming, in which crops are planted into last year's field stubble without plowing, has gained acceptance in the past two decades as a way to build organic matter, reduce erosion and control pesticides and fertilizers.
J.D. Pooley/AP
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