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On 17th January, almost 50,000 people came together in Germany’s capital to call for a change of course in Europe’s agricultural policy. Farmers, consumers and activists took to the streets of Berlin to protest against factory farming, genetic engineering and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement between the EU and the United States. […]

Monsanto has received final U.S. approval to introduce soybeans and cotton that have been genetically modified to survive spraying with several herbicides, including dicamba. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced on Thursday that the cotton and soybean plants have been granted “non-regulated” status. This approval follows that of 2,4-D

The free trade agreement currently under negotiation between the EU and the U.S. threatens to lower standards of protection from toxic pesticides, according to a new report published last week by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). The study analysed a joint proposal from the American and European pesticide lobby groups CropLife America and

Deforestation and intensive agriculture can accelerate erosion so dramatically that in just a few decades as much soil can be lost as would naturally occur over thousands of Deforestation and intensive agriculture can accelerate erosion so dramatically that in just a few decades as much soil can be lost as would naturally occur over thousands

Across the United States, farmers are getting older and fewer young operators are entering the agricultural workforce than in the past, according to a new study published in the December issue of the journal Rangelands. The authors write that the family farms that once dotted the landscape and employed nearly half the U.S. workforce have

Britain’s second-biggest food retailer, Asda, has agreed to sell misshapen but perfectly edible fruit and vegetables at a discounted price in an effort to reduce food waste. The new ‘Beautiful on the Inside’ range will be sold in stores for a third less than perfect produce, in a bid to support farmers who might otherwise

After 40 years, the U.S. corporation Dole Food Company has agreed to compensate more than 1,700 former banana workers from Nicaragua who were exposed to the banned pesticide Nemagon, suffering severe health problems. “The payments will be made soon”, said Humberto Hurtado, Dole spokesman, in a statement on Friday. Between 1973 and 1980, Dole used

Civil society networks and farmers’ organisations have submitted an Open Letter to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Iowa State University expressing fierce opposition to human feeding trials involving genetically modified, beta-carotene-enriched bananas intended for Africa. The letter was published last week by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), a Pan-African platform

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has paved the way for the introduction of Monsanto’s dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybeans. On Friday, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service published its final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on varieties of cotton and soybeans that have been genetically modified to survive spraying with several herbicides, including dicamba, concluding

A new study comparing organic and conventional farming shows that organic yields are much higher than previously thought. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that organic crop yields were only 19.2% lower, on average, than those from conventional crops. Using agricultural diversification practices such as crop rotation and multi-cropping (growing several crops together