Health

Farm And Lawn Fertilizers From Minnesota Are Killing Marine Life Downstream In The Gulf Of Mexico

What's good for Minnesota's corn and soybeans can be deadly to crabs and shrimp in Louisiana. A national task force meeting in St. Paul last week heard that fertilizer from farm fields washing down the Mississippi River continues to help create a seasonal "dead zone" that this year extends across 5,800 square miles of the Gulf Coast.

Mad Cow 'Firewalls' Just a Smokescreen

It's been seven months since the discovery of a mad cow-infected Holstein in Washington state, time enough for the administration to have developed a comprehensive regulatory response to protect the U.S. beef supply. Indeed, to listen to the rhetoric of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, you'd think the administration had done just that. In

Supachai Backs Indian Farmer

World Trade Organisation director general Supachai Panitchpakdi has said that developed country members have to recognise the sensitivities of developing countries such as India in agriculture if the on-going WTO negotiations are to move forward.

FTAA Nudged From Spotlight By Other Free-Trade Deals

With talks for an Americas-wide free trade pact deadlocked over farm subsidies, executives of companies active in Latin America are increasingly turning attention to opportunities from other smaller, pending free-trade deals. A study released Wednesday found the strongest interest in free-trade talks between Europe and South America's Brazil-led Mercosur group.

FAO Declares War On Farmers, Not On Hunger

The FAO report ("Agricultural biotechnology: meeting the needs of the poor?") was publicly presented on the 17th of May, and in the space of a few weeks more than 650 civil society organisations and 800 individuals from more than 80 countries have drafted and signed this open letter which strongly condemns its bias against the poor, against the environment and