Farm Bill Perpetuates Market Deregulation and Volatility

The 2008 Farm Bill coming to the House and Senate floor includes incremental gains for conservation, renewable energy, food aid and healthier local food systems.

Biofuels Contributing to Changing Land-Use Patterns, Affecting Biodiversity

Increasing production of crops for biofuels is exacerbating agriculture's impact on biodiversity in many parts of the world, finds a new report by IATP.

Can High Agriculture Prices Spur Development?

Trade ministers gathering in Accra, Ghana for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) should take steps to support agriculture and manage supplies to address price volatility, according to a new paper by IATP.

Global Rules to Shape Biofuel Market

The long-term sustainability of the fast-moving global biofuel market will depend on changes to international trade and investment rules that govern energy, environment, agriculture and rural development, according to a new paper published by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

New WTO Agriculture Text Falls Short ? Again

New draft agricultural trade rules released at the World Trade Organization today fail to repair a deeply flawed negotiating agenda. This latest attempt to save the Doha Round adds nothing new except more loopholes and exemptions to an already complicated text.  

New Baby Bottle Study Spurs Need for State Legislation

Minnesota based Healthy Legacy, co-founded by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, along with environmental health organizations across the U.S. and Canada are calling for an immediate phase out of bisphenol A in food and beverage containers, based on the results of a new study that demonstrates the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) leaches from plastic baby bottles when heated.

Food & Society Policy Fellowship Announces 2009 Class

The Food & Society Policy Fellows program named nine new Fellows with backgrounds in farming, public health, film making and policy research to promote strategies for achieving a more sustainable, healthy and equitable food system.

WTO's Aid for Trade Agenda Raises Questions

Patents Could Play Major Role in Global Biofuels Market

As the fast-growing biofuel market goes global, national and international rules governing patents will play an increasingly important role in how the industry develops and who benefits, finds a new paper by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Perennial Crops Key to Bioeconomy's Future, Science Article

Government policies that support an expansion of perennial energy crops for the new bioeconomy will help diversify Midwest farms and bring a series of economic and environmental benefits, according to an article published in the June 15 edition of Science.