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Large-scale commercial agriculture has been the main driver of deforestation in the tropics, new research shows. Clearings for large-scale agricultural expansion were responsible for an increasing proportion – in some places, more than half – of all observed forest loss across the tropics between 2000 and 2012, according to a study published in the journal […]

The global area planted with genetically modified crops reached 185.1 million hectares in 2016 – at least according to the annual report of the GMO-friendly organisation “International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA)”. The global hectarage is up 3% from the 179.1 million hectares in 2015, when the area decreased for the first

The World Bank Group has indirectly financed projects that fuelled land grabbing, displaced thousands of people and caused deforestation and environmental damage worldwide. These are the findings of an investigation conducted by the human rights organization Inclusive Development International, which are summarized in the report “Unjust Enrichment: How the IFC Profits from Land Grabbing in

The European Parliament has called for urgent action to combat the concentration of agricultural land and to provide access to land for small and medium farmers. On April 27, it adopted a resolution and approved with a large majority an own-initiative report that recognizes the problem of land concentration in the EU and demands adequate

Short food chains and local markets, where farmers and producers sell directly to the consumer, can improve farmers’ income and product quality, according to an article published by Euractiv. The article, which is part of a special report dedicated to the topic of “Farmers under pressure”, draws on a recently released study of the European

More than 500 organisations have called on the President of the European Commission to develop a legally binding framework for the protection of soils. Ahead of Earth Day on April 22, People4Soil, a coalition of European NGOs, research institutes, environmental groups and farmers associations, sent an open letter to Jean-Claude Juncker, asking him to put

Small and medium farms are essential to sustain the quality of global food supply, according to a new study published in the journal “The Lancet Planetary Health” that maps global nutrient production from farms across the world. The researchers found that farms smaller than 50 hectares produced more than half of the food globally and

The European Patent Office (EPO) continues to grant patents on conventionally bred plants despite strong opposition from the EU and civil society organisations. According to new research by No Patents on Seeds!, an initiative supported by over 300 NGOs and farmers’ organisations worldwide, the EPO green-lighted 40 patents on plants derived from conventional breeding in

Around 11% of non-renewable groundwater used for irrigation is embedded in international food trade, new research shows. Scientists at the University College London and NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies found that Pakistan, the US and India are the countries exporting the most crops that depend on non-renewable aquifers. The study, published in the journal

Around 108 million people in the world faced severe food insecurity in 2016, according to new global report on food crises. The Food Security Information Network (FSIN), a global collaboration between the EU and USAID, regional food security institutions and UN agencies, says the figure is up 35% compared to 2015, when almost 80 million