A few months after the US Department of Agriculture gave the all
clear for processors to use activated lactoferrin, a milk protein,
to fight disease-causing bacteria arrives the endorsement from the
US Food and Drug Administration.
A new report suggests that the pressure on Europe's food supply
chain could soon become too great for it to bear, leaving the
continent facing severe ecological problems such as
desertification.
As European politicians make hesitant steps towards sustainable
agriculture through reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy
(CAP), scientists assert that the main focus of agricultural
research has shifted from production to assessing...
The beginning of a new era? An historic moment? Or a plain old
compromise? All have been used to describe yesterday's agreement by
EU farm ministers to approve hotly disputed reforms to the Common
Agricultural Policy.
With a production value of over €600 billion, the responsibility of
up to 3 million employees, and the main user of Community
agricultural produce, the European food and drink industries this
week encouraged ministers to back CAP...
Dr Franz Fischler, the leading light behind reform proposals to the
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), continued on his crusade to
guarantee the quality of food in Europe with a persuasive speech at
an informal meeting of EU Ministers...
A new chickpea variety called Sierra has been released by
Agricultural Research Service scientists and their co-operators in
the US. Sierra's high yield and disease resistance to Ascochyta
blight are expected to appeal to the...
Entente cordiale between leaders in France and Great Britain
may well have been strained in recent weeks over the war in Iraq,
but elsewhere, in laboratories in the UK and France, scientists
have shown a united front in their aim...
The debate on the yield superiority of traditional crops over
organic crops is set to continue as a recent study reveals that
corn and soybeans were only minimally reduced when organic
production practices were used instead of conventional...
Food safety is in the limelight this week with the United Nation's
Food and Agriculture Organisation advocating a new approach to
ensure that the food we eat is free from food-borne hazards.
New legislation to tighten the 'origin of labelling' for food
products in the US continues to incite reactions with a coalition
of consumer and agricultural organisations this week claiming that
the United States Department...
In a bid to limit the contamination of food crops by pharmaceutical
plants the US Department of Agriculture has issued a new guidance
to tighten the rules covering the permittance process for companies
to plant and produce plant-made...
Are organic foods really better for us? The debate continues this
week with new findings from food scientists in the US that suggest
fruits and vegetables grown organically have higher levels of
antioxidants than conventionally grown...
A plant pathologist with the American Phytopathological Society has
largely dismissed rumours that bananas could face extinction within
the next decade.
Responding to recent media reports that bananas may be extinct
within ten years, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
has urged producers to promote greater genetic diversity in
commercial bananas.
As agriculture and environment ministers at a European and national
level discuss the potential impact of proposed changes to the
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) - and in particular the efficacy
of initiatives to encourage sustainable...
The US-based Agricultural Research Services has devised a method of
detecting fecal bacteria in fresh produce, which it claimed could
reduce the chances of contamination to zero.
After the 11 September attacks and the outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease in the UK, the world's food supply chain remains vulnerable
to bioterrorism and naturally occurring food poisoning outbreaks, a
panel of US scientists...
Rice grains with less phytic acid could mean improved nutrition for
the world's malnourished, more nutritious animal feed and less
potential for water pollution from manure, reports the US
Agricultural Research Service (ARS)...
Large-scale Chinese food companies will set the direction for the
development of China's food industry in the next few years, an
international exhibition in Beijing shows.
The incorporation of genes from other organisms into food plants
has raised concerns about possible health risks and environmental
consequences. A new report from the American Academy of
Microbiology (AAM) looks at the case of a bacterium...
Overcapacity has hit the British organic meat sector with
significant volumes of organic lamb and organic beef set to be sold
as conventional meat products this year, according to UK market
researchers Organic Monitor.
The Confederation of the food and drink industries of the EU (CIAA)
has given the thumbs up to a radical mid-term review of the Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP) as outlined by European Agriculture
Commissioner Franz Fischler this...
A new report issued by the US National Center for Food and
Agricultural Policy (NCFAP) quantifies significant increases in
farm income, food production and reductions in pesticide use that
may resultfrom wider use of agricultural...
Although the yields from organic agriculture are lower than those
of conventional production, in the long term it is a much more
efficient method of farming, Swiss research has shown.
The European Union's Council of Ministers has agreed to sign the
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture, which is designed to help protect the world's most
important agricultural plant species...
Advances in genetic engineering and the success of 'functional
foods', suchas calcium-fortified juice, are, according to this
story, spawning a new,exotic generation of agricultural products:
bananas that produce a choleravaccine,...
Organic farming could account for 3 per cent of all farmland in
Ireland by 2006, if the recommendations of a new report are
implemented quickly, said Noel Davern, the Irish junior agriculture
minister.
The world needs to conserve its variety of plants for future
generations by investing in "gene banks" which can be deployed in
the war on hunger and disease, a prominent scientist said on Monday
Agricultural biotechnology is arguably one of the most
controversial scientific issues of recent decades. Agbiotech
products might have the potential to feed an increasingly hungry
world, but it is also weighed down by doubts over...
A trend away from pesticides and towards organic production could
be placing our health at risk, claim food scientists in the US this
week. The claim that fruit and vegetables grown on manure could be
harbouring unseen pathogens that...
With close to 800 million people suffering from hunger the
developing world is embracing innovative agricultural techniques
that promise increased food production.
In his budget proposal for fiscal year 2003, President Bush will
include $131 million (€152m) in new spending to protect the
nation's food supply from animal and plant pests and diseases,
strengthen food safety programs and support...
Environment groups say Britain is at risk of tainting conventional
and organic crops with gene-modified varieties if the new field
trial sites announced yesterday go ahead, reports Reuters.
U.S. farm income will drop by almost 20 per cent this year compared
with 2001 due to large reductions in government assistance and
higher production costs, the Agriculture Department forecast last
week.
ConAgra Foods' recent move to separate financial results of its
branded foods from agricultural businesses might be more than a
bookkeeping shuffle, and could prepare the ground for an eventual
spinoff or sale of the company's...
On July 17, British and German agriculture ministers said they
would push for radical restructuring of the European Union's
agricultural policy to take account of the environment as well as
food production.
The U.N. world food body reached a landmark agreement on July 1 to
try to save the world's diversity of agricultural crops. The pact
followed an anguished...
