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Bird populations across Europe have experienced a sharp decline over the past 30 years due to modern farming methods and the loss of habitats, according to a new study that brought together data on 144 species from thousands of scientific surveys in 25 countries. The study, published in the journal “Ecology Letters”, suggest that bird […]

The European Patent Office (EPO) has already granted several thousand patents on plants and seeds, with an increasing number of patents on plants and seeds derived from conventional breeding, according to a new report published by the international coalition “No Patents on Seeds!” If politicians don’t ensure that these kind of patents are prohibited, our

A Dutch team has developed a potato crop through traditional breeding methods that is tolerant to salt water. Their project beat more than 500 competitors from 90 countries to win an award sponsored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Inspired by sea kale, Dutch farmer Marc van Rijsselberghe set up Salt Farm Texel

The world’s food security and environmental sustainability depend on the more than 500 million family farms that form the backbone of agriculture in most countries. This is the key message of a new report published today by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on the occasion of World Food Day. According to “The State of

The UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the central and most inclusive intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder platform for food security and nutrition, yesterday adopted the Principles on Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (RAI). UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the endorsement, praising the principles as a “new point of reference for all, providing guidance

Global food security and the human right to food remain seriously threatened by the concentration of land ownership and corporate domination of food systems, according to a new report launched last week. The “Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2014” was officially presented at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome with the

An African civil society group has expressed concerns about the recent acquisitions of African seed companies by multinational biotech giants, warning against a “neo-colonial occupation of Africa’s seed systems”. The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) said in a 7 October press release that large parts of SeedCo, one of Africa’s largest home-grown seed

International efforts to meet a set of targets agreed in 2010 to halt the loss of wildlife and habitats are failing miserably, a new UN report found. The Global Biodiversity Outlook, published at the start of a biodiversity meeting in South Korea on Monday, shows that governments are failing to meet most of the 53

In the United Kingdom, the number of vegetarians is increasing. A new survey reveals that 12% of British adults now follow vegetarian or vegan diets – rising to 20% of those aged between 16 and 24. According to research group Mintel, millions more are cutting back substantially on the amount of meat they eat. “The

As the seventh round of EU-U.S. negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement kicks off in Washington today, fears are growing that the proposed trade deal will lead to food contaminated with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) being allowed into Europe for human consumption, despite public affirmations that food safety standards would be