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Between 2003 and 2013, more than a quarter of all farms in the EU disappeared while the average area per agricultural holding increased by 38%. These are the first results of the latest EU farm structure survey published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In 2013, there were 10.8 million farms in the EU, working 174.6 million hectares of land (the utilised agricultural area). Since the area used for farming remained almost stable over the period 2003 - 2013, the decline in the number of farms means increasing agricultural concentration. Farm numbers in the EU have plunged by more than 4 million holdings since 2003, a decline of 27.5% in just one decade. The number of holdings decreased in all EU Member States, except Ireland (+2.9%). Most farms disappeared in Slovakia and Bulgaria, with farm numbers falling by 67.1% and 61.8% respectively. A significant downward trend over this ten-year period was also observed in Italy (-48.6%), Estonia (-47.9%), the Czech Republic (-42.6%), Lithuania (-36.9%), Hungary (-36.5%), Latvia (-35.4%), Poland (-34.2%) and the United Kingdom (-34.0%). Regarding agricultural land, France and Spain account for almost 30% of the utilised agricultural area in the EU, followed by the United Kingdom (9.9%) and Germany (9.6%). The average area per holding growing in the EU grew by 38%, from 11.7 hectares in 2003 to 16.1 hectares in 2013. The largest farms can be found in the Czech Republic with 133.0 hectares and the United Kingdom with 93.6 hectares, followed by Slovakia (80.7 ha), Denmark (67.5 ha), Luxembourg (63.0 ha), France (58.7 ha) and Germany (58.6 ha). In Slovakia, farm size increased from 29.8 hectares in 2003 to 80.7 hectares in 2013. In contrast, average holdings are quite tiny in Malta (1.2 ha), Cyprus (3.1 ha) and Romania (3.6 ha). The farm structure survey also shows that farmers in the EU are growing older. Of the 10.8 million farms, almost 3.5 million (31.1%) were managed by persons aged 65 or over and a further 2.6 million (24.7%) by managers aged between 55 and 64, while those younger than 35 accounted for 6.0% of all farm managers. (ab)

Natural disasters related to climate change have become more frequent and severe over the past three decades, causing damages to the agricultural sector and putting developing countries at risk of growing food insecurity, the UN has warned. Published ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 21, which opens in Paris on Monday, a new study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) sheds light on the impact of disasters on agriculture and food security. Between 2003 and 2013, droughts, floods, storms and other natural disasters caused worldwide damage worth $1.5 trillion. In developing countries, the agriculture sector bears much of the costs. “This year alone, small-scale farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists and foresters - from Myanmar to Guatemala and from Vanuatu to Malawi - have seen their livelihoods eroded or erased by cyclones, droughts, floods and earthquakes,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva. Some 25% of the negative economic impacts hit the crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors alone. In the case of drought, over 80% of the damage and losses affected the farming sector, particularly livestock and crop production. In Kenya, for example, drought between 2008 and 2011 caused significant losses in the food processing industry, especially grain milling and coffee and tea processing. In Asia, crop production losses caused by the 2010 floods in Pakistan directly affected cotton ginning, rice processing and flour and sugar milling, with the agricultural sector bearing half of the $10 billion in total damages and losses. Beyond production losses, the study shows how disasters can cause unemployment and erode incomes for small-scale family farmers, thus threatening rural livelihoods. The floods in Pakistan affected 4.5 million workers, most of them employed in agriculture, and almost 70% of farmers lost more than half of their expected income. These climate-related disasters are leading to increased food insecurity for many of the world’s most vulnerable people, hampering efforts to eradicate hunger and poverty. The FAO therefore calls for more investment in disaster response and in adaptation to climate change to make the farming sector more resilient. Although the livelihoods of 2.5 billion people worldwide depend on agriculture, only 4.2% of total official development assistance was spent on farming between 2003 and 2012, missing a UN target of spending 10% on agriculture. (ab)

An agroecological revolution has been working its way across the African continent, helping to secure farmers’ livelihoods, new research shows. The Oakland Institute, a US-based policy think tank, has released 33 case studies that shed light on the tremendous success of agroecological agriculture in Africa in the face of climate change, hunger, and poverty. “These case studies provide irrefutable facts and figures on how agricultural transformation – respectful of the farmers and the environment – can yield immense economic, social, and food security benefits while ensuring climate justice and restoring soils and the environment,” said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute. The case studies present a large variety of techniques and practices used to achieve these benefits: plant diversification; intercropping; the application of mulch, manure or compost for soil fertility; the natural management of pests and diseases; agroforestry, the construction of water management structures and many other success stories. “We are told over and over that Africa needs a new Green Revolution, more synthetic fertilizers, and genetically modified crops,” said Frederic Mousseau, who coordinated the research. “These case studies debunk these myths and highlight the multiple benefits of agroecology, including affordable and sustainable ways to boost agricultural yields while increasing farmers’ incomes, food security, and resilience.” Published just a few days ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, these case studies show how agroecology can contribute to stopping environmental degradation and fighting climate change. Agriculture, forestry, and other land use are responsible for at least a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. According to the International Panel on Climate Change, emissions from these sectors have almost doubled over the past 50 years. The use of synthetic fertilisers in industrial agriculture is the fastest growing source of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. The Oakland Institute therefore calls for a urgently needed shift towards agroecological practices, a view supported by many farmers and civil society organisations in Africa. (ab)

A Brazilian court has found Swiss agrochemicals giant Syngenta responsible for the murder of a rural farm worker carried out by private armed militia. The 1st Civil Court of Cascavel ruled that the company must pay compensation to the family of Valmir Mota de Oliveira (aka Keno) for the moral and material damages caused, as well as for the attempted murder of Isabel do Nascimento de Souza, another victim. Valmir Motta, a regional leader of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) was killed during protests at a Syngenta research farm in the southern state of Parana back in October 2007. Activists had occupied the farm which they said illegally produced genetically modified crops within an environmental protection zone around the famous Iguacu water falls. Heavily armed militiamen of NF Segurança, a security service used by Syngenta, showed up at the farm, killing Keno and injurying several other protesters. The case was taken to court in 2010 to determine what role Syngenta played in ordering the militia to drive away the peasants. In his sentence, published on November 17 in the Paraná State Official Gazette, the judge found that what happened on Syngenta’s property was “a massacre disguised as repossession of property”. Syngenta claimed that the attack was carried out by militia acting on the orders of landowners rather than the company but the judge ruled that “bad choice in outsourcing security services, as well as the indirect funding of illicit activities, is a factor that generates civil liability”. The sentence was welcomed by social movements as a step forward in holding companies accountable for human rights violations: “Transnational companies currently have considerable freedom to operate on a transnational basis, but there are no national or international norms or mechanisms sufficient to oblige companies to respect human rights or to hold them accountable for cases of human rights violations,” said Fernando Prioste, a lawyer of human rights organisation Terra de Direitos accompanying the case. He described the Syngenta sentence as an exception to this rule. The court sentence is not yet definitive as Syngenta could appeal to the Paraná State Court of Appeals. (ab)

The unnecessary use of antibiotics in food-producing animals is endangering medicine’s ability to treat life-threatening infections in young patients, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warns in a new report. According to the authors, “The overuse and misuse of antimicrobial agents in veterinary and human medicine is, in large part, responsible for the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Approximately 80% of the overall tonnage of antimicrobial agents sold in the United States in 2012 was for animal use, and approximately 60% of those agents are considered important for human medicine.” The report says most of the use involves the addition of low doses of antimicrobial agents to the feed of healthy animals over prolonged periods of time to promote growth and increase feed efficiency or at a range of doses to prevent disease. “These nontherapeutic uses contribute to resistance and create new health dangers for humans,“ the authors warn, since this often leaves the drugs ineffective when they are needed to treat infections in people, especially in young patients. “Children can be exposed to multiple-drug resistant bacteria, which are extremely difficult to treat if they cause an infection, through contact with animals given antibiotics and through consuming the meat of those animals,” said lead author Jerome A. Paulson. According to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 2 million Americans become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections. For most types of infections reported, the highest incidence was among children younger than 5 years old. “Like humans, farm animals should receive appropriate antibiotics for bacterial infections," Dr. Paulson said. “However, the indiscriminate use of antibiotics without a prescription or the input of a veterinarian puts the health of children at risk.” The pediatricians underline that urgent action is needed to make sure that antibiotic agents are used in food-producing animals only to treat and control infectious diseases and not to promote growth or to prevent disease routinely. However, the authors are concerned that a voluntary Food and Drug Administration initiative and measures proposed by members of Congress to reduce the drugs’ nontherapeutic use have met with opposition from the agriculture and farming industry. (ab)

Obesity rates in the United States continue to rise despite national efforts to promote healthy lifestyles and diets. According to a new survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on Thursday, obesity rates climbed to almost 38% for adults in 2013-2014, up from about 32% a decade ago. “This is a striking finding” and suggests that a situation that was thought to be stable is getting worse, said Dr. William Dietz, an obesity expert at George Washington University. The report found that the prevalence of obesity was significantly higher in women (38.3%) than in men (34.3%). Obesity rates for men and women had been roughly the same for about a decade. “That’s kind of a new finding,” said the report’s lead author, Cynthia L. Ogden. “Now, what’s happened is prevalence in women has gone above what it was in men again.” The most striking levels of obesity were found among ethnic minorities. About 57% of black women were obese from 2011 to 2014, followed by Hispanic women at 46% and Hispanic men at 39%. The prevalence of obesity was lowest among Asians, who had a combined rate of about 12%. The good news is that obesity among children at least remained unchanged in 2013 and 2014 – 17% of U.S. Americans aged 2 to 19 were obese, the same as in 2003 and 2004. The new figures comes after years of anti-obesity campaigns to encourage healthy eating and physical activity. The numbers are from a regular government survey with about 5,000 participants that is released every two years and in which participants are actually weighed. Obesity in adults was defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of greater than or equal to 30, a indicator defined as the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in metres. (ab)

The United Nations have launched the 2016 International Year of Pulses to raise public awareness of the benefits of beans, peas and lentils. A ceremony on 10 November in Rome marked the official beginning of a year-long initiative under the slogan ‘nutritious seeds for a sustainable future’, that aims at encouraging the utilisation of pulses throughout the food system, drawing attention to their benefits for soil fertility and adaptation to climate change as well as for combating malnutrition. “Pulses are important food crops for the food security of large proportions of populations, particularly in Latin America, Africa and Asia, where pulses are part of traditional diets and often grown by small farmers,” said José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). He underlined that pulses are a highly nutritious source of protein and vital micronutrients that can greatly benefit people’s health and livelihoods. The FAO chief added that pulses have double the proteins found in wheat and triple the amount found in rice. They are also rich in amino acids and b-vitamins. “Despite strong evidence of the health and nutritional benefits of pulses, their consumption remains low in many developing and developed countries. The International Year can help overcome this lack of knowledge,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message. Pulses are also an alternative to more expensive animal-based protein. According to FAO, protein sourced from milk, for example, is five times more expensive than protein sourced from pulses. On the other hand, farmers can obtain higher prices for pulses than for cereals. Pulses therefore offer an opportunity to lift farmers out of rural poverty. There are hundreds of varieties of pulses grown worldwide, including all varieties of dried beans, such as kidney beans, lima beans, butter beans and broad beans, as well as chickpeas, cowpeas, black-eyed peas and pigeon peas. But pulses are not only good for human health: The FAO also stressed the potential of pulses to improve animal and soil health and support biodiversity: Due to their nitrogen-fixing properties, pulses can improve soil fertility and reduce the dependency on synthetic fertilisers, thus leading to a smaller carbon footprint and less greenhouse gas emissions. By improving soil health, pulses not only help to enhance the productivity of farmland but also promote biodiversity, as they create a rich home for germs, bugs and bacteria of all kinds. In addition, using pulses as cover crops and in intercropping systems can reduce soil erosion. This shows that pulses are closely linked to the topic of the 2015 International Year of Soils. (ab)

Weather-driven concerns about sugar and palm oil supplies have pushed up world food prices in October, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Thursday. The FAO Food Price Index, a trade-weighted index that tracks prices on international markets of five major food commodity groups, reached 162 points in October, up 3.9% from September. Although food commodities were still 16% cheaper than one year ago, the price jump is a reversal of the trend from earlier this year: In July, food prices fell to their lowest level in almost six years. “The overriding issue is the weather,” Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist at the FAO, told Bloomberg. “There is definitely more potential for higher prices in the coming months.” The forecast for global cereal production was slightly reduced to 2.53 billion tonnes, 1.1% below last year’s record output. The UN agency said that the reduction reflects dimmer expectations about maize crops in India and Ukraine and wheat harvests in southern parts of the Russian Federation, mostly due to adverse weather. In addition, drought in Thailand led to a lower seasonal rice harvest projection. FAO predicts that world cereal utilisation in 2015 will be at 2.528 million tonnes, almost reaching production levels. Only 43% or 1096 million tonnes of cereals will be used as food. FAO projects a 1.6% growth in cereal use for animal feed, which will be concentrated in Asia, driven by increases in China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The FAO’s Sugar Price Index mainly contributed to the overall price increase, jumping 17.2% from September due to fears that excessive rains in Brazil and droughts in India and Thailand could destroy sugercane harvests. Another reason for the price jump is a 6.2% increase in vegetable oil prices as concerns intensify over the impact of El Niño on next year’s palm oil supply in Indonesia, coupled with slow progress in soybean plantings in Brazil as a result of bad weather. The FAO Dairy Price Index rose 9.4% from September amid concerns that milk production in New Zealand would decline, whereas meat prices remained stable. (ab)

The United Nations has warned that climate change is a major threat to food security and has called for a shift from industrial agriculture to agroecology. In a press release on Monday, Hilal Elver, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, said that increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather, rising temperatures and sea levels, as well as floods and droughts will threaten food security: “All these climate incidents will negatively impact on crops, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture and on people's livelihoods,” she added. The food expert predicts that the negative impact from climate change on agriculture could subject another 600 million people to malnutrition by 2080. “Those who have contributed the least to global warming are the ones set to suffer the most from its harmful effects,” stressed Ms. Elver. “Urgent action is needed to respond to the challenges posed by climate change,” she added, “but mitigation and adaptation policies should respect the right to food as well as other fundamental human rights.” According to Hilal Elver, responding to the food demand through large-scale production oriented agricultural models is not the right solution. She underlined the “need for a major shift from industrial agriculture to transformative systems such as agro-ecology that support the local food movement, protect small holder farmers, respect human rights, food democracy and cultural traditions, and at the same time maintain environmental sustainability and facilitate a healthy diet.” Her statement comes four weeks ahead of the UN climate change conference COP 21 which will take place in Paris from 30 November to 11 December. The aim of the summit is to achieve a universally applicable legal instrument under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Elver stressed that any agreement must include a clear commitment by all relevant parties to ensuring climate justice and food security for all. In a recent report, presented to the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee in October, the Special Rapporteur also outlined the adverse impact of climate change on the right to food. (ab)

The cancer research arm of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has linked the consumption of processed and red meats to cancer and advised people to moderate meat consumption. In a report published on October 26, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified processed meat “as carcinogenic to humans” (Group 1), based on “sufficient evidence” that the consumption of processed meat increases the risk of bowel cancer. Processed meats such as ham or sausages are transformed through salting, curing, smoking or other processes to enhance flavour or improve preservation. The experts concluded that each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%. “For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed,” says Dr Kurt Straif, Head of the IARC programme responsible for the findings. “In view of the large number of people who consume processed meat, the global impact on cancer incidence is of public health importance.” Eating red meat like beef, pork and lamb was classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2A) because there was “limited evidence” available that the consumption of red meat causes cancer in humans and “strong mechanistic evidence supporting a carcinogenic effect. A working group of 22 experts from ten countries reviewed more than 800 scientific studies in many countries and populations with diverse diets to evaluate the carcinogenicity of red and processed meat. Processed meat is now in the same group as tobacco or asbestos, but the classification is based on the strength of evidence of a link with cancer, not on the risk level. While 34,000 cancer deaths per year worldwide are attributable to diets high in processed meat, cancer due to tobacco smoking is killing one million people per year. The meat industry reacted with outrage to the report and accused the cancer experts of scaremongering. This induced the WHO to clarify that “the latest IARC review does not ask people to stop eating processed meats but indicates that reducing consumption of these products can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer”. The British Nutrition Foundation recommends limiting the consumption of processed meat and eating no more than 500g of red meat a week - equivalent to 70g per day. According dietary surveys, men in the UK eat 88g of red meat per day while women eat 52g. However, around 33% of the population have more than 100g of red meat a day. (ab)