The first in a series of monthly blogs by Dr. Benbrook was posted this week to the UK Soil Association’s website. They are a non-profit supporting sustainable and organic agriculture, who also serve as the primary organic certification body in the UK. Dr. Benbrook’s first guest blog is called “U.S. must shift towards agroecology.” It […]
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The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) issued a February 11, 2019 report highlighting information from its post in Berlin. The focus — US exports of mostly fresh organic fruits, vegetables, and milk. Data on processed organic food exports to Europe from the US is not as readily available, so many product categories are not covered […]
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The European sustainable development think-tank IDDRI has a 10 year plan to get the continent on a track towards sustainable agriculture, while producing ample food to provide a healthy diet to 530 million Europeans. Their fascinating new report is entitled “An agroecological Europe in 2050: multifunctional agriculture for healthy eating. Findings from the Ten Years […]
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Two new publications were released in the last week that contribute much new food for thought in the global discussion around the sustainability of the Earth’s food systems. First off, on January 16th the Lancet published a special feature called “Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems.” As Reuters reports, […]
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By Rachel Benbrook The state of kid’s nutrition is getting some renewed attention in the U.K. in response to a new report released by the UK Soil Association‘s Food for Life program. In particular, the British government’s program that provides free, fresh produce to young children in state funded schools, the School Fruit and Veg Scheme, is […]
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Woolworths Supermarkets are a common site Down Under, where locals call them Woolies. They are the biggest grocery realtor in Australia, with over $42 billion in annual revenue. Citing rising demand for organic produce as the reason, the company is launching a $30 million fund that will help farmers “improve the quality, range and volume […]
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While the Farm Bill update hasn’t made it through Congress yet, it’s passage is an eventual certainty, if perhaps broken up into pieces. In an opinion piece in The Hill, economic policy Research Fellow Michael Farren with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University proposes a different and radical option – a full repeal of […]
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The US and Canada closed the deal on an updated NAFTA trade agreement last week. One of the key concessions by Canada is opening their dairy sector to more imports of U.S. milk and dairy products, including some from cows given the genetically-engineered hormone rBST. Canadian dairy farmers and some consumers are less than thrilled. […]
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In a critical decision reported by the BBC, the European Union Court of Justice has ruled that next-gen gene editing techniques are classified as genetic engineering, and will be regulated under Europe’s strict GMO laws. As the EU’s top court, it has final say on whether products produced via CRISPR or other gene editing methods […]
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Reuters and CBC News report that Japan and South Korea have banned Canadian wheat and flour imports following the discovery in the summer of 2017 of a stand of GMO wheat on roadside in Alberta. The wheat, which was identified after it survived herbicide spraying, was a genetic match to a small trial crop of resistant […]
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