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Agriculture & Food

WHO sees Japan food safety situation as 'serious'

WHO sees Japan food safety situation as 'serious'

Tue, 2011-03-22 13:54

China will monitor food imported from Japan for signs of radiation, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the national quality watchdog, while South Korea will widen radiation inspections to dried agricultural and processed food from fresh agricultural produce.

"Japan's nuclear leak has sounded an alarm bell for the international community about the safety of nuclear energy," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in a speech on Monday, a transcript of which was posted on his ministry's website.

China and South Korea announced yesterday (21 March) that they will toughen checks of Japanese food for radioactivity, hours after the World Health Organisation said the detection of radiation in some food in Japan was a more serious problem than it had expected.

European Union

International Organisations

Press articles

No

Brown: 'We are on the edge' regarding food security

Brown: 'We are on the edge' regarding food security

Tue, 2011-03-22 12:24

The world faces a severe food security crisis as a result of climate change, soil erosion and population growth. Food security is a much greater threat to national security than armed aggression, Lester Brown told EurActiv in this exclusive interview on the fringes of the 'Forum for the Future of Agriculture'.

Picture

Lester Brown

Lester Brown

Fri, 2010-05-07 19:31

Lester Russel Brown is an American environmentalist and founder of the Earth Policy Institute. His latest book is called 'World on the Edge'.

He was speaking to EurActiv's Stephanie Friedrich.

In your new book, World on the Edge, you mentioned the challenge that the world is facing in terms of food security. Since the EU is currently discussing reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), how do you think it should food security into consideration?

No
Person
Lester
Brown
Founder
Earth Policy Institute

Reformers left isolated in EU farm policy debate

Reformers left isolated in EU farm policy debate

Fri, 2011-03-18 13:35

The declaration by EU farm ministers was the last chance for governments to spell out their priorities for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) before the bloc's executive makes legislative proposals in October.

European Union governments calling for far-reaching reform of the bloc's farm policy from 2014 were left isolated yesterday (17 March), after 20 EU countries signed a joint declaration opposing radical change.

EU official documents

European Union

Industry federations and trade unions

Press articles

Blogs

No

EU novel food regulation review at risk

EU novel food regulation review at risk

Fri, 2011-03-18 10:27

Discussions on amending the bloc’s novel foods regulation failed at four o'clock on Thursday morning (17 March), after nine hour marathon talks, amid disagreement over whether or not to ban food from clones and their offspring.

The Parliament is calling for the explicit ban of meat produced from cloned animals and their descendants, whereas EU ministers and the Commission back ban on cloning for food production, but reject ban on food from offspring.

As talks between the European Parliament and the European Commission to update an EU regulation on novel foods stumble on cloning, the institutions have now two more weeks to find a compromise agreement before the whole review fails on 30 March.

EU official documents

European Union

Parliament

Political Groups

NGOs and Think-Tanks

Think tanks & Academia

No

Ministers discuss banning GM crop cultivation

Ministers discuss banning GM crop cultivation

Tue, 2011-03-15 13:51

Ministers debated the European Commission's indicative list of grounds upon which member states could restrict or prohibit GMO cultivation.

In a bid to resolve a deadlock over the approval of new genetically-modified (GM) crops, EU environment ministers yesterday (14 March) discussed the grounds for allowing member states to decide individually whether or not to ban the cultivation of transgenic crops on their territory.

European Union

NGOs and Think-Tanks

No

Aviation biofuels: A pie in the sky? [fr]

Aviation biofuels: A pie in the sky? [fr]

First published: 14 March 2011 | Latest updated: 24 August 2012

Airlines have committed to ramping up their use of biofuels in the belief that they can contribute to achieving the sector's pledges on carbon-neutral growth. For 2050, the EU foresees 40% use of "sustainable low carbon fuels" in aviation.

Issues

Airlines aim for 10% biofuels use by 2017

The international aviation industry is committed to achieving "carbon-neutral growth" by 2020, which would allow the sector to grow without increasing its carbon footprint.

In June 2009, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) backed the 2020 carbon-neutral growth target and pledged to improve fuel efficiency by an average of 1.5% per year.

MEPs want to end 'protein deficit' for EU livestock

MEPs want to end 'protein deficit' for EU livestock

Thu, 2011-03-10 09:32

The European Parliament adopted yesterday (8 March) an own-initiative resolution on "the EU's protein deficit," putting forward a series of measures to draw to a close Europe's long-standing dependency on imports for 80% of protein crops for animal feed, primarily from the US, Argentina and Brazil.

The European Parliament has called for current trade agreements on oilseed and protein crops to be reassessed in a drive to put to an end the EU's dependency on imports for feeding its livestock.

EU official documents

European Union

Parliament

Industry federations and trade unions

Blogs

No

EU wants market-based answer to commodities surge [fr]

EU wants market-based answer to commodities surge

Wed, 2011-03-09 15:19

Some EU countries such as France want curbs on what they see as speculators such as hedge funds making quick gains in commodities markets at the expense of consumers.

The tone of the statement, due to be endorsed by the bloc's industry ministers on Thursday (10 March), is cautious on blaming the financial sector, however, and does not call for any radical measures such as the position limits that are being introduced in the United States.

Commodity prices have surged largely due to supply and demand bottlenecks and the European Union's response should be "considered and market-based" rather than rely on mandatory curbs, governments are set to agree.

EU official documents

European Union

Press articles

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women 3

women 3

Mon, 2011-03-07 18:15

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