Wally Santana / AP

Opposition party legislator Lee Chun-yi sleeps on a blockade of the legislature floor entrance in Taipei, Taiwan during a protest against the voting on a controversial beef import law on June 15, 2012.

Opposition lawmakers have piled furniture at the entrance to Taiwan's parliament in a dispute over a controversial beef import law.

The occupation of the chamber, which began on Monday, is aimed at preventing a vote which could pave the way for imports of US beef treated with ractopamine, an additive used in animal feed to promote lean meat. 

-- The Associated Press and Agence France Presse contributed to this report

Related content:

• Taiwan destroys US meat laden with growth-boosting drug
• Dispute over drug in feed limiting US meat exports

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Sam Yeh / AFP - Getty Images

Legislators from the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) display placards during a demonstration at the parliament in Taipei on June 15, 2012.

Jose Miguel Gomez / Reuters

A farmer harvests coffee beans at a farm near Sasaima city in Colombia.

Jose Miguel Gomez / Reuters

A farmer harvests coffee beans at a farm near Sasaima city on Monday.

John Vizcaino / Reuters

Workers prepare roses at Elite greenhouse in Facatativa on Monday.

John Vizcaino / Reuters

A worker checks on Gerbera flowers at Elite greenhouse in Facatativa.

Albeiro Lopera / Reuters

An employee arranges a bundle of cotton material inside a workshop of textile factory Fabricato in Bello, Antioquia province on Monday.

Albeiro Lopera / Reuters

An employee pushes bundles of cotton inside a workshop of a textile factory.

Stringer/Colombia / Reuters

A panoramic view of the port of Cartagena on Monday.

Stringer/Colombia / Reuters

A crane operator moves a container at the Port of Cartagena.

Colombia Reports quotes an Oxfam report saying that the free trade deal will "bankrupt small farmers and increase poverty in rural Colombia:"

According to the report, the deal with Colombia’s leading trade partner will hit the poorest farmers the hardest, arguing that 400,000 of those already making below minimum wage, currently set at $328.08 a month, will lose between 48% to 70% of their income.

To make up for the loss, the report said that farmers are "likely to take up coca cultivation" for illegal armed groups. The other option for farmers will be to “migrate to urban areas to join some 5 million Colombians – over 10 percent of Colombia’s total population –  who have been forcibly displaced from the countryside over the last 12 years and the great majority of whom live in extreme poverty,” it claimed.

The Colombian government has denied that the FTA will harm key agricultural sectors.

“I do not personally believe, nor does the government believe that an apocalyptic shadow is rising over the Colombian countryside, agriculture and livestock industries that will wipe out everything that has been built in the country,” the Agriculture Minister, Juan Camilo Restrepo has said.

Read more...

See more images from Colombia in PhotoBlog.

John Gress / Reuters

Keith Haarer, a breeding unit manager, moves a newborn piglet to a sow so she can suckle, at Whiteshire Hamroc farm in Albion, Indiana, March 16, 2012. Pictures made available April 19, 2012.

John Gress / Reuters

Haarer inspects three-and-a-half month old hogs, many of which are bound for China.

Reuters reports — Inside a dimly lit barn in northeast Indiana, where the air smells faintly of corn and earth, the future of China's food supply is squealing for attention. 

A farmhand shuffles through the crowd of pigs inside pen 7E3, patting their fleshy pink backs and checking their water trough. The animals here at the Whiteshire Hamroc farm have been bred for one purpose: to be flown halfway around the world, on a journey fueled by China's appetite for food independence. 

Video: Bringing American BBQ to Beijing

In a country where pork is a culinary staple, the demand for a protein-rich diet is growing faster than Chinese farmers can keep up. While Americans cut back on meat consumption to the lowest levels seen in two decades, the Chinese now eat nearly 10 percent more meat than they did five years ago.

China's solution: to super-size its supply by snapping up millions of live animals raised by U.S. farmers as breeding stock - capitalizing on decades of cutting edge agricultural research in America. Read the full story.

John Gress / Reuters

Three-and-a-half-month-old hogs at Whiteshire Hamroc farm.

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Lee and Obama are visiting Michigan to tout a long-delayed trade pact between South Korea and the U.S. Obama says the agreement will open South Korean markets to more U.S. goods. He says it will increase exports by $11 billion and support 70,000 jobs.

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama gestures towards South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak following a tour of the General Motors Orion Assembly plant, Oct. 14, 2011 in Lake Orion, Mich.

ClickonDetroit.com reports:

South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak said he and President Barack Obama are both kept awake at night by one problem: the search for jobs.

Lee spoke to local workers after touring a General Motors assembly plant outside of Detroit with Obama, a rare joint appearance out of Washington for a U.S. president and a visiting head of state. Obama warmly introduced Lee as a leader who knows the auto industry well.

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama and South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak listen to plant manager Alicia Boler-Davis during their tour.

Related story: Obama hails South Korea trade deal as win for both countries

More White House coverage

More auto industry coverage

Eitan Abramovich / AFP - Getty Images

A contestant pours coffee for the judges during the World Barista Coffee Championship in Bogota on June 2, 2011. The competition is taking place, for the first time, in a major coffee producing country, hosted by the Colombian Coffee Federation and the Speciality Coffee Association of Colombia and held within the 4th Annual Expoespeciales trade show.

Eitan Abramovich / AFP - Getty Images

A contestant pours coffee for the judges during the World Barista Coffee Championship in Bogota.

Fernando Vergara / AP

Pilly Pollen, a barista from Australia, prepares coffee during an exhibition as a part of the World Baristas Championship in Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, June 2, 2011.

At a time of high coffee prices, Here's an article about Colombia hoping to steer Asian consumers from tea to coffee.

Odds are good that if you eat chocolate, you've had some that passed through this port in Ivory Coast. For more on recent political turmoil there, see this story.

LUC GNAGO / Reuters

Workers stand on a ship, with cocoa beans loaded, at the port of Abidjan January 17, 2011. EU-registered vessels have been barred from all new financial dealings with Ivory Coast's two main cocoa-exporting ports, EU sources said on Monday, as part of sanctions imposed after November's contested election.

LUC GNAGO / Reuters

Workers gather bags of cocoa at the port of Abidjan January 17, 2011.