BASF employee Bernhard van Ravenzwaay will officially get a professor seat at the Dutch agricultural university in exchange for BASF funding, PAN Europe said in a statement issued on Thursday (2 May).

The environmental organisation said van Ravenzwaay has a track record of studies published with a favourable outcome for the chemicals industry, suggesting his university research will be biased.

By acquiring a professorship in university, BASF might try to buy credibility for the views of industry, PAN Europe claimed.

A majority of EU countries have supported a European Commission proposal to temporarily ban three pesticides suspected of harming bees in a vote on Monday (29 April).

The White House plan, which is included in the 2014 budget proposal, marks a significant shift in US policy and could speed up the response to crises, boost local production and improve the nutritional value of food aid, say campaigners who had long lobbied for the change.

Eric Muñoz of Oxfam called the proposal a “bold step” that has already gained some top-level support in the US Congress.

The World Health Organization identifies obesity as “one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century” and the problem is expected to grow as countries emerge from poverty, although obesity is still overshadowed by headline-making famines and severe malnutrition in developing regions.

Stephen O’Brien is a Conservative member of the British House of Commons. A former international development minister, he is the UK Special Representative for the Sahel and co-chair of the Conservative Friends of International Development. This commentary first appeared here and is reprinted with permission.