Category Archives: Agriculture

Herbicide banned in 70 countries to be pulled from sale in Australia by chemical maker

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Syngenta says it will stop selling paraquat in Australia after new regulations on chemical linked to Parkinson’s disease

Syngenta, the producer of a herbicide banned in more than 70 countries and which has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, will stop selling paraquat in Australia, saying new regulations has made it “commercially unviable”.

The decision to pull the product follows new restrictions on the highly poisonous chemical announced by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority in June.

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Food price fears after Europe’s heatwave destroys estimated €2bn of crops

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Record June temperatures expected to cut grain harvest by 9m tonnes to its lowest level since 2018

The heatwave that swept across Europe in June is estimated to have cost the continent’s grain farmers €2bn (£1.7bn) in lost revenue and destroyed 9m tonnes of crops, sparking concern about the impact on the price of food.

Coceral, the European cereals and oilseeds trade association, made the estimate for the harvest of crops such as wheat, barley, maize and oats following the heatwave.

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Experts warn of ways screwworm could spread in the US and new difficulties in keeping it at bay

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Scientists worry that current eradication efforts won’t be able to contain parasitic infestation pushing into US

When conservationists set up cameras in remote regions of Central American forests, they wanted to monitor illegal cattle movement, which can lead to deforestation. But in recent months, they discovered another alarming development: wildlife rapidly infected with the new world screwworm.

It’s a warning sign of how the fly could spread in the US – and it signals new difficulties in pushing it back south, a process that will probably take years, experts say.

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Mouse plague hits WA grain farmers as numbers surge in SA: ‘You literally can’t get away from them’

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CSIRO researcher says there are reports of up to 4,000 mouse burrows per hectare in parts of Western Australia

Grain growers are on high alert as mouse numbers in Western Australia reach plague proportions and numbers surge in South Australia.

Steve Henry, who researches mice and their impact on the grain industry at CSIRO, says more than 800 mice per hectare is considered a plague.

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Farmers plead for tax breaks, diesel guarantees and help buying fertiliser as national cabinet meets on fuel crisis

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State and federal leaders due to discuss assistance for business sectors but petrol rationing not expected to find backing

Farmers say the federal government must help them with tax breaks and underwriting fertiliser purchases to survive the fuel crisis, with Monday’s national cabinet expected to discuss more assistance to businesses amid ballooning petrol prices.

Federal and state governments have remained tight-lipped about what would be on the meeting’s agenda but state premiers have urged the Albanese government to take a stronger national coordination role in the crisis.

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‘Makes Covid look like a tea party’: Australian food prices could rise for the next year, farmers warn

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Iran conflict could see shortages not just in fuel, but fertiliser and fossil fuel resins – used to make milk bottles

Farmers say Australian consumers could pay more for everyday staples for the next year at least as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran.

But the CEO of dairy farmer cooperative Norco, Michael Hampson, says a six- to 12-month disruption to food supply is likely a best-case scenario, depending on the strait of Hormuz reopening soon and global petrochemical supply chains beginning to stabilise.

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EU agrees to chop meaty names from vegetarian and vegan food products

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Lawmakers will outlaw use of 31 meat-related names as part of efforts to help livestock farmers in food supply markets

EU lawmakers have agreed to ban meaty names such as steak and bacon for vegetarian and vegan foods, but “veggie burgers” and “meat-free sausages” will remain on the table.

Negotiators from the European parliament and EU council of ministers found a recipe for compromise on rules for food names on Thursday, although critics said they were creating needless complexity.

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Australian diet set to worsen as national food policy is drawn up by profit-driven industry, experts warn

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Exclusive: Many industries on new council are ‘associated with significant health harms’, one academic says

Cheap and unhealthy foods are set to become further entrenched in the Australian diet, according to health experts, who warn the federal government is developing a national food policy with heavy influence from profit-driven food and agriculture industries.

Dr Matt Fisher from the University of Adelaide’s Stretton Institute’s health equity department said the policy could “compromise crucial public health considerations”.

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Watchdog rules Red Tractor exaggerated its environmental standards

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The Advertising Standards Authority agrees with River Action that the food safety body’s 2023 advert misled the public

The UK’s advertising watchdog has upheld a complaint that Britain’s biggest farm assurance scheme misled the public in a TV ad about its environmental standards.

The Red Tractor scheme, used by leading supermarkets including Tesco, Asda and Morrisons to assure customers their food meets high standards for welfare, environment, traceability and safety, is the biggest and perhaps best known assurance system in Britain.

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Weedkiller ingredient widely used in US can damage organs and gut bacteria, research shows

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Diquat is banned in the UK, EU, China and other countries. The US has resisted calls to regulate it

The herbicide ingredient used to replace glyphosate in Roundup and other weedkiller products can kill gut bacteria and damage organs in multiple ways, new research shows.

The ingredient, diquat, is widely employed in the US as a weedkiller in vineyards and orchards, and is increasingly sprayed elsewhere as the use of controversial herbicide substances such as glyphosate and paraquat drops in the US.

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Dangerous pesticides and pet flea treatment detected in English rivers for first time

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Exclusive: Wensum and Tone found to have high concentrations of chemicals that are toxic to aquatic life

Dangerous modern pesticides used in agriculture and pet flea treatment have been detected for the first time in English rivers, research has found.

Scientists have called for stricter regulation around high-risk farming pesticides and flea treatments for pets because of the deadly effects they have on fish and other aquatic life when they make their way into rivers.

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Reeves hopes hat-trick of deals shows Britain is open for business

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Impact of agreements on food, energy and defence may not be huge but chancellor believes it will draw investors to UK

Rachel Reeves joked to journalists after Monday’s EU-UK reset that trade deals were coming along “like buses”, given the agreements with India and the US that had also been sealed in the past fortnight alone.

The chancellor described the EU deal as the best that had been secured by any non-member country, but she was also keen to talk about the three successful negotiations as a package.

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Trump tariffs to hit small farms in Maga heartlands hardest, analysis predicts

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Major corporations are best placed to benefit from Trump polices at the expense of independent farmers

The winners and losers of Trump’s first tariff war strongly suggest that bankruptcies and farm consolidation could surge during his second term, with major corporations best placed to benefit from his polices at the expense of independent farmers.

New analysis by the non-profit research advocacy group Food and Water Watch (FWW), shared exclusively with the Guardian, shows that Trump’s first-term tariffs were particularly devastating for farmers in the Maga rural heartlands.

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‘A win-win for farmers’: how flooding fields in north-west England could boost crops

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A ‘wetter farming’ project explores rehydrating peatland to help grow crops in boggier conditions while cutting CO2 emissions

“I really don’t like the word ‘paludiculture’ – most people have no idea what it means,” Sarah Johnson says. “I prefer the term ‘wetter farming’.”

The word might be baffling, but the concept is simple: paludiculture is the use of wet peatlands for agriculture, a practice that goes back centuries in the UK, including growing reeds for thatching roofs.

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Zimbabwe starts compensating white farmers 25 years after land seizures

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Step is requirement for restructuring country’s debt, including new IMF programme

Zimbabwe has started to make compensation payments to white former farm owners, 25 years after Robert Mugabe’s government began confiscating land.

The government paid $3.1m (£2.3m) to a “first batch” of 378 farms, the ministry of finance said in a statement on Wednesday, the first payout under a 2020 agreement to pay $3.5bn in compensation.

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Bird flu reinfections at US poultry farms highlight need for vaccines, experts say

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Aggressive prevention including wider changes to poultry raising needed after at least 56 US farms doubly infected

Scores of poultry operations in the US have been reinfected by bird flu since 2022, costing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal payouts, according to documents obtained by the Guardian.

The recurring outbreaks highlight the need for more aggressive prevention, including poultry vaccination and changes to how poultry is farmed, experts say.

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Pioneering Devon food forest garden at risk after landowner serves notice

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Thousands sign petition to save ‘vital’ Dartington Estate project that teaches agroforestry methods

Even at this time of year when most of the trees are still bare, there is a feeling of abundance in Martin Crawford’s forest garden, close to the banks of the River Dart in Devon.

Crawford, who has nurtured this landmark garden for three decades, is clearly in his element, pointing out the edible plants that flourish in the tangly two-acre patch, stooping from time to time to pick a leaf or green shoot and take a nibble.

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‘All the birds returned’: How a Chinese project led the way in water and soil conservation

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The Loess plateau was the most eroded place on Earth until China took action and reversed decades of damage from grazing and farming

It was one of China’s most ambitious environmental endeavours ever.

The Loess plateau, an area spanning more than 245,000 sq miles (640,000 sq km) across three provinces and parts of four others, supports about 100 million people. By the end of the 20th century, however, this land, once fertile and productive, was considered the most eroded place on Earth, according to a documentary by the ecologist John D Liu.

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Tickled pink: rhubarb growers see explosion in demand for Yorkshire crop

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Despite wet weather hitting yields, supermarkets are reporting a doubling in rhubarb sales compared to last year

It takes a while for the eyes to adjust to the darkness inside the shed. Slowly, the shapes of hundreds of pale stalks emerge from the gloom like an alien species, visible only by the glow cast by a handful of candles.

This candlelit ritual is the harvest of Yorkshire forced rhubarb, being carried out by growers Robert and Paula Tomlinson.

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UK bumblebee numbers fell to lowest on record in 2024, shows data

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Bumblebees declined by almost a quarter compared with the 2010-2023 average, according to conservation charity

Figures show 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees in the UK since records began.

Bumblebee numbers declined by almost a quarter compared with the 2010-2023 average, according to data from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. The researchers said the drop was probably due to the cold and wet conditions in the UK last spring.

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