ST. LOUIS, Mo. (AP) — A coalition of farm and food safety groups wants federal regulators to quash the proposed sale of Smithfield Foods to a Chinese conglomerate in what would be the largest such takeover of a U.S. business.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported 17 groups sent a letter to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States asking it to oppose the pork processor’s sale to Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. Coalition members, which include the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Food & Water Watch and the Nebraska Farmers Union, say the deal could weaken domestic food safety, cause economic damage in rural communities and harm national security.

“The White House should reject the sale of America’s food supply,” said Tim Gibbons, of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. “The Smithfield purchase turns over American farms to a consolidated, globalized meatpacking industry that leaves rural communities to clean up the waste while China gets the meat.”

China is the United State’s third-largest pork export customer, buying more than 500,000 metric tons a year. In 2012 the U.S. exported nearly a quarter of its pork, and about 12 percent went to China, where a growing middle class has increased demand for proteins.

Smithfield executives have said the deal is about increasing such exports, not paving the way for the domestic sale of Asian pork. Smithfield CEO Larry Pope testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee in early July in a bid to assuage similar concerns among federal lawmakers.

Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) called for more government oversight from additional agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the USDA.

SIDNEY, Ill. (AP) — A 55-year-old man died after an accident in a central Illinois grain bin.

Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup said Roy L. McCarty died the afternoon of July 17 when he was buried beneath corn in a sweltering Sidney grain bin. Temperatures inside the bin were about 120 degrees.

Firefighters said the Sidney man was working at Premier Cooperative when the accident took place. An autopsy was expected Thursday. Authorities say the accident is under investigation.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Environmental groups pushing the federal government to take over enforcement of Clean Water Act regulations in Iowa say Gov. Terry Branstad has lobbied the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on behalf of farmers, ignoring the fact that water in Iowa’s rivers is worsening due to manure spills and farm runoff.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement said last week it had obtained a letter from Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds through a Freedom of Information Act request. The letter shows Branstad and Reynolds wrote to top EPA officials in Washington in May, stepping over the EPA’s regional office in Kansas City, which is negotiating with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources about stricter livestock enforcement.

Branstad and Reynolds expressed “strong concern” about proposed increased farm regulation. The EPA has been pushing Iowa for stricter enforcement for a year.

TEMPLETON, Ind. (AP) — Several homes in a small northwestern Indiana town have had their water wells go dry, perhaps because of irrigation at a nearby farm.

Those living in about a dozen homes in the Benton County town of Templeton have been relying on bottled water and water brought in by a tanker truck since July 13. Ozzy Bower told the Journal & Courier he was trying to fix his home’s pump before realizing neighbors also had no water.

Mark Basch of the state Department of Natural Resources said the farm irrigation might be lowering the ground water level below the reach of the town’s older, shallow wells. The farmer told WLFI-TV he’s not sure he’s responsible for the wells going dry in the town about 20 miles northwest of Lafayette.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Electrical Examining Board is expected to decide Aug. 15 whether Iowa farm buildings must be inspected.

The Des Moines Register said the board weighed conflicting opinions on the matter at a hearing Thursday. A judge had ordered the board to reconsider rules adopted after electrical regulatory legislation was passed by the state legislature in 2007. The judge said the board had gone too far in requiring the inspections.

Some farmers and their supporters object to the inspections as a power grab by the board. Other farmers and their supporters say the inspections are needed for safety. State records say that since 1994, Iowa has had 15 farm deaths from electrocution.