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About 795 million people in the world, or one in nine, suffer from hunger, according to new estimates published on Wednesday by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP). The vast majority of the world’s hungry – 780 million – live in developing […]

Supermarkets in France will be forced to give away unsold food to charities in an effort to tackle food waste. On Thursday, the French national assembly voted unanimously to pass the legislation which forms part of a larger environmental bill. Under the new law, supermarkets measuring 400 square metres or more would be forced to

New research suggests that organic farming increases the biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. A study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B- Biological Sciences shows that organic fields have a higher diversity of wild plants, offsetting the loss of biodiversity on surrounding conventional farms. The researchers at Swansea University compared organic

Water is key to food security and nutrition. However there are many challenges in the wider context of the nexus between water, land, soils, energy and food, given the objectives of inclusive growth and sustainable development. This is the main message of a new report, launched on Friday by the High Level Panel of Experts

A proposed merger of agribusiness giants Monsanto and Syngenta could further advance the global concentration of the seed market, consolidating the power of a handful of companies over our food system, according to Canada-based civil society organisation ETC Group. If Monsanto succeeds in buying its Swiss rival Syngenta, the very basis of food production could

Soil erosion, combined with the effects of climate change and the loss of agricultural land to urban sprawl, will threaten global food security unless drastic action is taken to preserve the fertility of the world’s farmland, warns a paper published on May 7th in the journal Science. Soil provides the basis for agriculture, improves water

Europe will face an obesity crisis of enormous proportions by 2030 unless immediate action is taken, according to latest projections released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday. At a congress in Prague, the WHO’s Regional Office for Europe presented the results of an obesity forecast which was undertaken with the UK Health Forum.

New studies suggest one in six animal and plant species on the planet could face extinction if nothing is done to mitigate climate change. A study published Thursday, in the journal “Science” found that, extinction risks will accelerate with rising temperatures. Dr Mark Urban, an ecologist at the University of Connecticut, performed a meta-analysis of

France is to adopt new measures with the goal of cutting food waste in half by 2025. In a report presented to the French government on April 14th 2015, Socialist MP Guillaume Garot put forward 36 proposals to prevent the mass disposal of food. His suggestions could soon be transposed into national law. The ideas

Environmentalists and farmers’ organisations have heavily criticised the White House’s decision to award a humanitarian prize to the scientists who invented vitamin-enriched “Golden Rice”, describing it as a “hoax”. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced Professor Ingo Potrykus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and Peter Beyer of the