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The European Patent Office (EPO) has granted Swiss agrochemical giant Syngenta a patent on a seedless pepper derived from conventional breeding. The patent also covers the plants, their cultivation, harvesting and seeds. Syngenta’s invention claim relates to a “male sterile hybrid pepper plant which grows normal-looking edible seedless fruits throughout the whole plant, wherein said seedless fruits are characterised by being at least 95% seedless.” The patent, published on October 14 under the number EP 2 166 833 B1, also includes the use of this pepper “as fresh produce, as fresh cut produce or for processing, for example canning.” Non-governmental organisations and organic producers were outraged that the EPA has once again granted a patent on a conventionally bred plant because European patent law prohibits patents on plant varieties and on methods for conventional breeding. Nevertheless, the EPO continues to grant patents on plants and their characteristics, seeds and fruits derived from conventional breeding, serving its own interests since its budget is financed by examining and granting patents. Only just in August, Syngenta was granted a new patent on a tomato derived from classical breeding. “Step by step, patent by patent, the seed giants are taking control of our daily food. In future we might even need permission to cut a pepper into pieces,” said Christoph Then for the coalition of No Patents on Seeds!, “In any case Syngenta can prevent anyone from growing or harvesting this pepper, selling it for food or using it for further breeding.” The NGO coalition calls on European governments to take decisive action and to exert their influence via the Administrative Council of the EPO, which acts as the supervisory body. According to François Meienberg from The Berne Declaration, a member organisation of No Patents on Seeds!, “the Administrative Council of the EPO can decide how to effectively implement these prohibitions and thereby stop further patents on conventional breeding. He says European governments must act immediately to stop the EPO from granting more and more patents on our daily food. (ab)

Thousands of Syrian seeds that were withdrawn from a seed vault in the Arctic in September have been safely delivered to Morocco and Lebanon to regenerate ancient food crops lost during Syria’s civil war. The International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Syrian gene bank that had originally deposited the seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, confirmed on Monday that 128 boxes with a total of 38,073 seed samples were removed. “We are delighted to be able to retrieve these seeds, so that ICARDA can continue to play a vital role providing highly valuable genetic resources to our partners (…) in the ongoing work to preserve crop diversity and meet the challenges we all face – natural and man-made – to feed future generations,” said ICARDA’s Director General Dr Mahmoud Solh. 57 boxes containing forages, faba beans, lathyrus, and the wild relatives of cereals and pulses were sent to Lebanon and 71 boxes containing seeds of cultivated wheat, barley, lentil and chickpea were sent to Morocco. The seeds are copies of those originally held at the gene bank in Aleppo which preserves more than 148.000 seeds of unique varieties of wild species and regional cultivars of barley, wheat, peas and beans, adapted to agriculture in dry areas. Although the gene bank is still operative it is no longer able to make full use of its facilities and recultivate seeds due to the war in Syria. Therefore, each sample will be planted and grown at ICARDA’s research stations in Lebanon and Morocco to provide duplicate seeds, which will be used to re-establish the seed collection and also be returned to the Seed Vault for safekeeping. The seeds will be planted during this and next year’s cropping seasons and also be made available to farmers, scientists and plant breeders in the region. “Out of the terrible adversity that the people of Syria are facing, the retrieval of ICARDA’s seeds from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a welcome piece of good news,” said Marie Haga, Executive Director of the Crop Trust, which manages and funds the ongoing work of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. “This proves that the measures the global community is putting in place to preserve crop diversity for future generations actually work.” The recent shipment is the first such withdrawal since the seed vault opened its doors in 2008. The back-up facility in the permafrost store 860,000 samples of crops from all over the world to protect them from man-made or natural disasters. (ab)

The loss or degradation of key agricultural resources - especially land, water and a stable climate - is leading to a surge in land grabbing, according to a new report published by the Worldwatch Institute in October. The “State of the World 2015: Confronting Hidden Threats to Sustainability” warns that farmland is becoming degraded through erosion and salinisation on every continent and more and more countries depend on international markets for basic food supplies. Aquifers are being pumped faster than they are recharged by rainfall, putting pressure on many food-producing areas. As a result, countries and foreign investors purchase or lease agricultural land, threatening the food security of the people who used the land. The report states that more than 36 million hectares, an area about the size of Japan, have been purchased or leased by foreign entities since 2000, mostly for agricultural use. Today, nearly 15 million hectares more are under negotiation. About half of grabbed land is intended exclusively for use in agriculture, while another 25% is intended for a mix of agricultural and other uses. Over half of the global grabbed land is in Africa, especially in water-rich countries like the Congo. Asia ranks second, contributing over 6 million hectares, mainly from Indonesia. Large-scale purchases often do not consider the interests of smallholders who may have been working the land over a long period. In addition, if poorer countries sell out their land and water resources to foreign investors and governments this also increases their vulnerability, for example in case of misharvests. “Conserving the very base of food production - the land, water, and climate that make crop growth possible - is essential to ensure that the world’s farmers continue to produce enough food for everyone,” writes Gary Gardner, contributing author of the report. He argues that in times of dwindling agricultural resources and a changing climate, greater effort will be needed to conserve resources and to exploit opportunities for greater efficiency throughout the agricultural system. This could be achieved by preventing food waste, increasing water efficiency, conserving agricultural land and reducing the production of meat and biofuels, both of which require large quantities of land and water for grain or crops. Gardner believes that the stress on food systems can be reduced. He calls for the international adoption of the right to food, which has already been integrated in the constitutions of 28 countries, to make sure that food cannot be withheld for political reasons. (ab)

Social protection programmes can help eradicate hunger and break the cycle of rural poverty, especially if they are combined with agricultural policies. This is the main message of „The State of Food and Agriculture 2015“, a report published the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Monday. In poor countries, social protection schemes - such as cash transfers, school feeding and public works - offer an economical way to provide vulnerable people with opportunities to move out of extreme poverty and hunger and to improve their children’s health, education and life chances. “Social protection programs allow households to access more food – often by increasing what they grow themselves – and also make their diets more diverse and healthier,” said FAO’s Director-General José Graziano da Silva in a press release. “These programs can have positive impacts on infant and maternal nutrition, reduce child labor and raise school attendance, all of which increase productivity,” he added. According to FAO, such programmes currently benefit 2.1 billion people in developing countries in various ways, including keeping 150 million people out of extreme poverty. However, the vast majority of the world’s rural poor are yet to be covered. Expanding such programs in rural areas and linking them to inclusive agricultural growth policies would rapidly reduce the number of poor people, the report says. Stronger coherence between agriculture and social protection interventions could help protect the welfare of poor, small-scale farmers, helping them manage risks more effectively and improve agricultural productivity. The report stresses that the notion of social protection reducing people’s work effort is a myth. It rather gives beneficiaries greater choice, they can rely more on home production on their own farms rather than on poorly paid agricultural wage work. Social protection strengthens livelihoods rather than fostering dependency, the FAO says. The findings of the report show that social protection is an investment, rather than a cost. This is also clearly illustrated by Brazil's Bolsa Família, a well-integrated scheme that reaches a quarter of the population and costs only 0.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). According to the FAO, some $67 billion a year in income supplements, an amount equivalent to less than 0.1% of global GDP, would – along with other targeted pro-poor investments in agriculture – allow for the eradication of hunger by 2030. (ab)

The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) has adopted a set of 10 principles to guide the transition to sustainable food systems. The panel is a new initiative that brings together experts from different disciplines to support, inform and advise the policy debate on how to reform food systems across the world. “The shift to sustainable food systems is urgently needed. But this urgency must not lead us to rush headlong into solutions that resolve one problem while worsening another,” said the panel’s co-chairs Olivier De Schutter, former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, and Olivia Yambi, a nutritionist and former UNICEF representative to Kenya. IPES-Food has identified five principles to shape sustainable food systems of the future as well as five principles for the types of knowledge and analysis that are required to support this transition. First, food systems need to become sustainable in all dimensions, including environmental, health, social, cultural and economic dimensions. Sustainable systems should deliver diets that are nutritious, affordable and culturally acceptable and provide food security for all people, including future generation. Second, food systems must be diverse, multifunctional and resilient. This requires a change of course in agriculture and full support for agroecology in order to sustain yields and agro-ecosystems in the longer-term. This needs to be complemented by diversity in supply chains and markets. Third, decision-making in food systems must be democratised in ways that empower disadvantaged actors and help to realise the human rights of all, including the right to food. Fourth, social and technological innovation is to play an important role in the transformation of food distribution and retail practices, as well as modes of production. Fifth, new indicators of progress must be developed in order to capture the benefits of equitable, resilient, diverse, nutrient-rich food systems. The experts also underline the important role of knowledge in transforming food systems. “The knowledge that is brought to bear can sustain existing power dynamics, or help to reverse them,” IPES said. To shape the food systems of the future, knowledge and analysis is needed that is holistic, power-sensitive, transdisciplinary, critically engaged and independent. (ab)

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Berlin on Saturday to protest against planned free trade agreements between the European Union and both the United States and Canada. According to the organisers, 250,000 people took to the streets while police said 150,000 attended. Demonstrators say that the the free trade agreements TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) with the US and a similar deal with Canada, known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), are anti-democratic and could threaten food safety, labour, health and environmental standards. The protest was backed by more than 170 German environmental, farmers’ and development organisations, charities, labour unions, opposition parties and other groups. Several trains and more than 600 buses had been chartered to bring people from the whole country to the German capital. Carrying banners and flags and chanting slogans opposing the trade deals, protesters walked from Berlin’s main railway station and passed the Brandenburg Gate before reaching the victory column where the manifestation ended in a huge event with speeches and concerts. “This is the biggest protest that this country has seen for many, many years,” Christoph Bautz, director of citizens’ movement Campact told protesters in a speech. The organisers were overwhelmed by the large number of people, they had expected some 50,000 participants. “Together we are defending our democracy and taking to the streets for fair trade,” the organisers said. They call for a stop of the TTIP negotiations based on the current mandate and say that the existing CETA contracts cannot be ratified in their current form. Already on Wednesday, a petition with more than 3 million signatures gathered over last year against the two trade deals was submitted to the European Commission. TTIP would create the world’s largest free-trade zone with 800 million consumers and harmonise regulation between the EU and North America in areas ranging from food safety law to environmental rules. Activists fear that regulations could be watered down, for example with regard to genetically modified foods or workers benefits. Campaigners are particularly concerned about a provision in the deal that would allow companies to sue governments in special tribunals. (ab)

Nineteen EU member states have “opted out” of growing genetically modified (GM) crops within all or part of their territories under new EU rules. Commission spokesman Enrico Brivio confirmed to Reuters on Sunday that the Commission had received 19 formal opt-out requests following the expiry of a deadline on October 3. The 19 countries wishing to ban GMOs are: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia, with Belgium asking for a ban in the Wallonia region and the UK for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, leaving only England open to GM crop cultivation. Germany requested a partial opt-out that would allow biotechnology research. The requests are for opt-outs from the approval of Monsanto’s GM maize MON 810, the only crop commercially cultivated in the EU, or for eight pending applications submitted to the EU. Non-governmental organisations welcomed the news: “A clear majority of the EU’s governments are rejecting the Commission’s drive for GM crop approvals,” said Greenpeace’s EU food policy director Franziska Achterberg. “They don’t trust EU safety assessments and are rightly taking action to protect their agriculture and food. The only way to restore trust in the EU system now is for the Commission to hit the pause button on GM crop approvals and to urgently reform safety testing and the approval system.” Under the new EU directive, adopted in March, individual countries can ask biotech companies, whose GM crops have already been authorised for cultivation in the EU or are in the process of authorisation, not to market their crops on their territory. If these companies - such as Dow, Monsanto, Syngenta and Pioneer – refuse these opt-outs requests, member state may ban or restrict the cultivation of the crop for reasons relating to the environment or agricultural policy objectives. (ab)

The European Union has made little progress in halting biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystem services, according to the mid-term review of the EU biodiversity strategy, published by the European Commission on Friday. The report assesses whether the EU is on track to achieve its biodiversity targets in six main areas by 2020. The results show that progress has been slow in most areas and that Member States need to undertake greater efforts. “Nature’s capacity to clean the air and water, to pollinate crops and to limit the impacts of catastrophes such as flooding is being compromised, with potentially significant unforeseen costs to society and our economy”, the European Commission said. When the EU adopted the biodiversity strategy in 2010, up to 25% of European animal species were facing extinction and 65% of habitats were in an unfavourable conservation status. In the meantime, the number of species and habitats with a positive or improved conservation status has increased slightly. While populations of common bird species have started stabilising since 2010, farmland birds have continued to decline. Pollination services are in steep decline with multiple pressures on wild bees, the report warns. In addition, grassland butterflies are declining severely and there is no sign of levelling off. “The key threats to biodiversity – habitat loss (in particular through urban sprawl, agricultural intensification, land abandonment, and intensively managed forests), pollution, over-exploitation (in particular fisheries), invasive alien species and climate change – continue to exert pressure, causing the loss of species and habitats and weakening ecosystem resilience.” The EU-28 footprint is still more than twice its biocapacity, taking a heavy toll on biodiversity outside Europe. With regard to the third target, increasing the contribution of agriculture and forestry to maintaining and enhancing biodiversity, the EU has made no significant overall progress. According to the report, the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) provides a range of instruments that can contribute to supporting biodiversity. However, if the third biodiversity target is to be achieved, these opportunities need now to be taken up by Member States on a sufficient scale. The authors stress that local examples demonstrate successful sustainable agricultural practices, which, if implemented more broadly, could put the EU back on track to achieve the target by 2020. (ab)

A new study reveals that indigenous peoples and local communities lack legal rights to almost three quarters of their traditional lands, hampering efforts to combat hunger and poverty, sparking social conflict and undermining plans to reduce deforestation and the impacts of climate change. The analysis, conducted by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), shows that only 18% of land worldwide is formally recognised as either owned by or designated for indigenous peoples and local communities. Yet they claim or have customary use of as much as 65% of the world’s land area. “This report spells out the catastrophic failure of governments to respect the basic land rights of more than one billion people,” said Andy White, Coordinator of RRI. “While government leaders are negotiating international agreements to end poverty and stop climate change, they are failing to match these commitments at home. Too many governments are still handing out local peoples’ lands for economic developments that exploit natural resources, accelerate climate change and destroy livelihoods.” The study identified the land area in 64 countries that is formally recognised under national statutes as owned or controlled by indigenous peoples and local communities. Special attention was given to 12 countries in the analysis that are included in the World Bank’s list of fragile states, such as Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iraq. In ten of these countries, most of the territory is owned by the government or the private sector and not by the people who live there. According to the authors, progress in recognising community-based land rights is strikingly weak in these fragile states. Only 2% of the land there is controlled by indigenous peoples and local communities, and a fraction of 1% is owned by them, the report said. Past studies have shown that land ownership by indigenous and local communities has many benefits for rural lands and natural resources because they conserve the nature of their territories best, keep the carbon in the trees and ground, thus slowing climate change. Indigenous and local communities today have legal or official rights to at least 513 million hectares of forests, about one eighth of the world’s total. According to the report, these forests store around 37.7 billion tonnes of carbon, 29 times more than the annual emissions of the world’s cars. (ab)

The 193 Member States of the United Nations formally adopted the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with 17 global goals at the start of a three-day special summit in New York on Friday. The new framework, entitled “Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, contains 17 goals (SDGs) and a set of 169 targets that aim to end poverty and hunger, fight inequality and tackle climate change over the next 15 years. “The new agenda is a promise by leaders to all people everywhere. It is an agenda for people, to end poverty in all its forms – an agenda for the planet, our common home,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the opening of the summit which also heard speeches from Pope Francis and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai. Ban Ki-moon underlined that the true test of commitment to the new goals will be their implementation: “The 2030 Agenda compels us to look beyond national boundaries and short-term interests and act in solidarity for the long-term. We can no longer afford to think and work in silos.” The new agenda concludes a negotiating process that began three years ago with the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20. The 17 SDGs will replace the Millennium Development Goals, which will expire at the end of this year. Goal 2 promises to „end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”. It contains targets on ending hunger and malnutrition by 2030, doubling the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale farmers, ensuring sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices, and maintaining the genetic diversity of seeds, plants and animals. FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva reminded world leaders that this second goal must be urgently pursued as ending hunger is a precondition for achieving other goals. Worldwide, 800 million people are still suffering from chronic undernourishment. “We have given ourselves an enormous task, that begins with the historic commitment of not only reducing but also eradicating poverty and hunger in a sustainable way,” da Silva said during his speech. “We need to build more sustainable agriculture and food systems, that are resilient to stresses and better able to cope with - and respond to - climate change impact,” he added. Civil society organisations welcomed the adoption of the ambitious goal 2 but also stressed that decisive action is needed. Greenpeace, for example, critisised that much of the language is vague and fails to address the root and structural causes of hunger and unsustainability. The environmental organisation is therefore concerned that this may result in a “doing more of the same” rather than promoting any real political change. Greenpeace warned that Goal 2 must not be used as a way to promote chemical-intensive agriculture inputs (like pesticides, genetically modified seeds and chemical fertilisers). Instead, these targets should be translated into action through wide-scale support for the uptake of ecological farming to maintain ecosystems and improve soil quality while increasing productivity and resilience to climate change and other shocks. (ab)