Category Archives: Farming

EU’s flagship nature laws in jeopardy after voting stalemate

Posted on by

Nature Restoration Law vote tied at 44 in favour and 44 against amid claims of lies and fake news

The future of the EU’s flagship environment laws are again hanging by a thread with a cliffhanger vote, flared tempers and accusations of lies, fake news and manipulation of voting in the European parliament.

Emotions were running high after voting on the European parliament committee steering through the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) ended in a dead heat on Tuesday, with 44 votes in favour and 44 against. It can now progress to a vote of the full parliament in a plenary session in July.

Continue reading...

Campaigners win right to challenge England’s food strategy over climate crisis

Posted on by

Feedback argues ministers’ failure to include measures to reduce production of meat and dairy products was unlawful

Ministers broke the law by failing to make plans to cut consumption of meat and dairy in England, activists will argue in a legal challenge after they were granted permission for a full judicial review of the government’s food strategy.

Overturning two previous decisions, the court of appeal on Friday ruled that the food systems campaigners Feedback could challenge the national food strategy on the basis that it failed to take into account ministers’ duties to cut carbon emissions.

Continue reading...

Maps show how Kakhovka dam collapse threatens Ukraine’s bread basket

Posted on by

Falling water levels in Kakhovka reservoir could imperil canals that feed some vital crop regions

The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam has led to fears that a depleted reservoir will leave three critical regions in Ukraine’s bread basket without a key water supply.

This has led to warnings about the region and wider world’s food supply, with Ukraine accounting for 40% of global trade in sunflower meal, 35% of sunflower oil, and 5% of wheat, barley and corn exports.

Continue reading...

More wildlife-friendly farming needed to stop decline of insects in Britain, says report

Posted on by

Populations of bees, spiders, ground beetles and hoverflies have declined twice as fast on land farmed for crops in the past 30 years, despite funding for more sustainable farming methods

Conservation measures over the past 30 years have failed to stop the decline of insects on British farmland, a new report shows. Populations of bees, spiders, ground beetles and hoverflies have disappeared twice as fast in areas intensely farmed for crops, according to the paper, which looked at citizen science data on more than 1,500 invertebrate species.

Although there was a push to intensify agriculture after the second world war, since the early 90s more sustainable and wildlife-friendly farming practices have emerged, with EU agri-environment funding made available for farmers to plant hedgerows and wild flowers, alongside better regulation of pesticides. However, these have not managed to stem biodiversity loss.

Continue reading...

The multinational companies that industrialised the Amazon rainforest

Posted on by

Analysis shows handful of corporations extract tens of billions of dollars of raw materials a year – and their commitments to restoration vary greatly

A handful of global giants dominate the industrialisation of the Amazon rainforest, extracting tens of billions of dollars of raw materials every year, according to an analysis that highlights how much value is being sucked out of the region with relatively little going back in.

But even as the pace of deforestation hits record highs while standards of living in the Amazon are among the lowest in Brazil, the true scale of extraction remains unknown, with basic details about cattle ranching, logging and mining hard to establish despite efforts to ban commodities linked to its destruction.

Continue reading...

More than 800m Amazon trees felled in six years to meet beef demand

Posted on by

Investigation involving Guardian shows systematic and vast forest loss linked to cattle farming in Brazil

More than 800m trees have been cut down in the Amazon rainforest in just six years to feed the world’s appetite for Brazilian beef, according to a new investigation, despite dire warnings about the forest’s importance in fighting the climate crisis.

A data-driven investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), the Guardian, Repórter Brasil and Forbidden Stories shows systematic and vast forest loss linked to cattle farming.

Continue reading...

Number of ‘coronation meadows’ marking queen’s reign tops 100

Posted on by

Scheme that began to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee in 2012 has thrived, project audit finds

Wildflower meadows planted a decade ago to celebrate 60 years of the late queen’s reign have thrived, with 101 new fields of flowers created since the scheme was launched.

King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, worked with Plantlife and the Wildlife Trusts to launch ”coronation meadows”, identifying 60 species-rich meadows from which to take donor seeds – one meadow for each year of the queen’s reign at the time.

Continue reading...

‘Shops will close’: soaring cost of potatoes batters British chippies

Posted on by

The once humble, low-cost staple more than doubles in price, putting many fish and chip shops at risk

Whether it’s fried, baked or mashed, potatoes have traditionally been a low-cost staple food in the UK – but not any more.

A surge in costs is clobbering high street chippies, while in the supermarket, oven chips and the once humble baking potato are casualties of soaring grocery prices.

Continue reading...

Co-op members and board at odds over AGM vote on chicken welfare

Posted on by

Motion to adopt Better Chicken Commitment carried by 96%, but directors cited need for low prices

Feathers are flying at the Co-operative Group after thousands of its members voted to improve welfare for chickens reared for meat at the annual meeting on Saturday – but were partly overruled by the company’s directors, who said they wanted to keep prices down.

A motion led by the Humane League UK campaign group asked the mutual to adopt the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) – a set of standards adopted by the likes of Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and the Greggs bakery chain – and report on welfare improvements in a year’s time. It was supported by 96% of the 32,000 Co-op members who voted at the AGM.

Continue reading...

No 10 food summit ‘no more than a PR stunt’ and failed to tackle key issues

Posted on by

Rishi Sunak’s Farm to Fork meeting, the first of its kind, failed to address solutions to inflation, soaring costs and food security, say attenders

Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street food summit has been described as “empty" by food and farming industry representatives, who rounded on the prime minister for failing to discuss soaring inflation or set out measures to safeguard British food production.

The Farm to Fork summit, the first meeting of its kind, brought together farmers, food producers and some of Britain’s largest supermarkets.

Continue reading...

Intensive farming is biggest cause of bird decline in Europe, study says

Posted on by

Use of pesticides and fertilisers identified as most significant factor behind loss of 550 million birds from skies

The use of pesticides and fertilisers in intensive agriculture is the biggest cause of the dwindling number of birds in the UK and the rest of Europe, scientists have said.

Compared with a generation ago, 550 million fewer birds fly over the continent, with their decline well documented. But until now the relative importance of various pressures on bird populations was not known.

Continue reading...

Ministers call for immigration and UK food prices to increase

Posted on by

Exclusive: Sunak urged to take urgent action to solve food crisis at meeting with Defra and farmers

Immigration and food prices must increase to solve the food crisis, ministers are to say at a summit.

Rishi Sunak will be joined by ministers from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as well as farmers and industry leaders at the meeting at No 10 on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

US food pesticides contaminated with toxic ‘forever chemicals’ testing finds

Posted on by

PFAS are present at ‘potentially dangerous’ levels in widely used chemicals sprayed on food crops destined for Americans’ plates

Some of the United States’ most widely used food pesticides are contaminated with “potentially dangerous” levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, new testing of the products finds.

The Environmental Protection Agency has previously been silent on PFAS in food pesticides, even as it found the chemicals in non-food crop products. The potential for millions of acres of contaminated food cropland demands swifter and stronger regulatory action, the paper’s authors say.

Continue reading...

Grain trader Cargill faces legal challenge in US over Brazilian soya supply chain

Posted on by

World’s biggest grain trader accused of ‘shoddy due diligence’ on deforestation and alleged rights violations

The world’s largest grain trader, Cargill, is facing a first-ever legal challenge in the United States over its failure to remove deforestation and human rights abuses from its soya supply chain in Brazil.

ClientEarth, an environmental law organisation, filed the formal complaint on Thursday, accusing Cargill of inadequate monitoring and a laggard response to the decline of the Amazon rainforest and other globally important biomes, such as the Cerrado savannah and the Atlantic Forest.

Soya beans bought from third-party traders, which make up 42% of all Brazilian soya Cargill purchases.

Soya beans owned by other companies that passes through Cargill ports.

Indirect land use change.

Soya sourced from the Cerrado savannah.

Soya sourced from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

Continue reading...

More fruit and veg shortages to come as weather in UK and Spain hits crops

Posted on by

Record heat in southern Europe and chilly start to British growing season spell more misery for shoppers

Shoppers have been warned they face more fruit and vegetable shortages, as temperatures in southern Spain soar to unprecedented levels while the UK growing season gets off to a late start because of cold, overcast weather.

Temperatures were expected to reach a new April record of 39C (102F) in parts of Andalucía on Friday amid a long-lasting drought that has affected the production of vegetables in Spain. Córdoba reached a record 38.8C on Thursday.

Continue reading...

UK failing to honour net zero farming pledges, report finds

Posted on by

Exclusive: Projected emissions drop for agriculture and land use 58% below target in original net zero plan

The UK government’s pledges on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farming and land use fall short of promises made in its net zero strategy, analysis has found.

Using figures from the government’s carbon budget delivery plan, analysts from WWF found that the total projected emissions reductions from now until 2037 for agriculture and land use were 58% less than the emissions reductions figures underpinning the original net zero strategy. This gap is equivalent to the emissions of the entire UK building sector.

Continue reading...

EU environmental watchdog criticises calls to stall pesticides cut

Posted on by

European Environment Agency says Ukraine crisis cannot be used to justify delay

The EU’s environmental watchdog has hit back at calls to stall a 50% cut in the use and risks of synthetic pesticides and a 20% cut in fertiliser use by 2030, arguing that the Ukraine crisis provides scant justification for delay.

EU states with the backing of powerful farm unions and centre-right parties have blocked the proposed pesticide reform unless the European Commission completes a second impact study by 28 June to assuage food security fears.

Continue reading...

EU firms accused of ‘abhorrent’ export of banned pesticides to Brazil

Posted on by

BASF among firms selling chemicals to sugar industry despite links to human health risks

Pesticides banned in the EU because of their links to human health risks are being exported and used on farms in Brazil supplying Nestlé, an investigation has revealed.

Europe is home to some of the world’s biggest and most profitable chemical companies, including the Swiss-based Syngenta and the German multinationals BASF and Bayer.

This article was amended on 25 April 2023. Although fipronil and triflumuron have been banned in the EU they have not been identified as potential carcinogens.

Continue reading...

Use of antibiotics in farming ‘endangering human immune system’

Posted on by

Study suggests antimicrobial used to promote livestock growth breeds bacteria more resistant to our natural defences

The blanket use of antibiotics in farming has led to the emergence of bacteria that are more resistant to the human immune system, scientists have warned.

The research suggests that the antimicrobial colistin, which was used for decades as a growth promoter on pig and chicken farms in China, resulted in the emergence of E coli strains that are more likely to evade our immune system’s first line of defence.

Continue reading...

Thieves in Queensland ripping copper from tractors amid high prices, farmers say

Posted on by

Police in Western Downs acknowledge the thefts are likely the work of organised groups

Thieves in regional Queensland are stealing copper wiring from farm equipment as part of a rise in rural crime which the agriculture lobby says appears to be the work of organised groups, not just individuals.

Farmers in the Western Downs region have reported a rise in thefts, particularly of copper. They’re working with police and local government to try to catch the perpetrators.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter

Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community

Continue reading...