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In 2015, Swiss agrochemical giant Syngenta was granted a patent on a tomato derived from classical breeding but a broad coalition of organisations has now started a joint opposition in an effort to achieve the revocation of the patent. The European Patent Office (EPO) granted Syngenta a patent for a tomato with a higher content […]

One tenth of global greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture could easily be avoided in the future by putting an end to food loss and waste, scientists said on Thursday. The new study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) provides food loss estimates at national and global level while also calculating the associated

The UN General Assembly has proclaimed a ‘Decade of Action on Nutrition’ that will run from 2016 to 2025 in an effort to reduce hunger and malnutrition. World governments adopted a resolution in New York on April 1. The decade has the aim of providing an umbrella for a wide group of actors and initiatives

The growing production of biofuels is leading to increased competition for land and water that could otherwise be used for food production, new research shows. According to a study published in March in the Nature journal “Scientific Reports”, the arable land and water now used for the production of bioethanol and biodiesel could produce sufficient

Wild relatives of vital food crops, which have useful traits that could help farmers adapt to climate change, are poorly represented in seed banks, new research shows. In a paper, published in the journal Nature Plants on March 21, an international team of scientists warns that more needs to be done to collect and conserve

The Italian parliament has approved a new law aimed at reducing food waste. The bill, which was passed on Thursday with an overwhelming majority of 277 votes in favour, will make it easier for supermarkets and farmers to donate to charities. “The main objective of the new law is to give incentives to save food

Britain will introduce a sugar tax on soft drinks in an effort to prevent childhood obesity. The new tax will enter into force in 2018, Chancellor George Osborne announced on Wednesday. The levy, which will be imposed on companies that produce or import soft drinks, is expected to raise 520 million pounds a year (about

Food waste in the United States amounts to a staggering 63 million tons per year. A new report released last Wednesday now shows an achievable path to a 20% reduction of food waste within a decade through 27 cost-effective, feasible, and scalable solutions. Published by ReFED, a collaboration of business, nonprofit, foundation and government leaders

Agricultural systems in sub-Saharan Africa need to undergo urgent transformations as climate change will pose a significant threat to key food crops, according to new research published on 7 March in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study examines the likely effect of different climate change scenarios on nine staple food crops that constitute 50%

The European Union has postponed a decision on relicensing glyphosate after a dispute over whether the controversial weedkiller ingredient causes cancer. A vote on authorising glyphosate for use in the EU for another 15 years by a standing committee for the European Commission was put off on Tuesday due to opposition from a number of