‘Using sheep to trim fields at solar plants benefits everyone’
When the owners of a solar farm near the small town of Kamenica in eastern Kosovo became tired of wasting the plant’s own energy to keep the site tidy, they brought in a flock of sheep to trim the grass.
Dutch livestock farmers to receive payment for halting operations
The EU has approved a €1,5 billion (about R20,23 billion) scheme that will allow the Dutch government to buy out farmers in an effort to reduce nitrogen emissions in that country.
Russian export ban could scupper Black Sea grain deal, G7 warned
There are renewed fears that the deal brokered by the UN and Turkey in July 2022, which guarantees safe passage for grain trapped in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports due to that country’s conflict with Russia, will collapse.
US orange harvest expected to reach 86-year low this season
The 2022/23 orange crop in the US is forecast to be the smallest since 1937, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Italy to clamp down on lab-grown meat
Farmer groups in Italy have welcomed a government-backed bill tabled in that country’s parliament that could ultimately result in the banning of laboratory-produced meat and other synthetic food.
Food security under pressure as Ukraine export corridor deal stalls
The UN-brokered deal that has created a protected sea transit corridor for grain exported from Ukraine's three ports on the Black Sea expires later this month.
Commodity markets jittery as EU deforestation regulation looms
The new EU regulation on deforestation-free supply chains, which comes into effect later this year, has been met with mixed reaction by stakeholders.
‘Doomsday’ seed vault sees the addition of 19 500 new samples
Efforts to secure global food supplies are being ramped up due to growing concern about climate change. As a result, the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, located on Norway's Spitsbergen Island, recently received its most diverse batch of seed donations yet, according to Reuters.
‘Africa must invest more in agriculture’
Rising costs of food and energy, and their impact on food security and the climate, featured widely at this year’s World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland.
Produce shortage prompts rationing of purchases by stores in UK
The shortages of fresh produce currently being experienced in the UK and Ireland can largely be ascribed to extreme weather conditions being experienced in Spain and North Africa, where harvests have been negatively impacted by flooding, snowfall and hail.
Accusations of price gouging as US egg profits soar
The Farm Action organisation in the US has attributed record-breaking increases in the price of eggs not to inflation or avian influenza (bird flu), as claimed by egg companies, but to price collusion among that country’s top egg producers.
Seven-year peak for soil moisture in Brazil’s sugar, coffee regions
Soil moisture levels in those regions of Brazil where coffee and sugar cane are produced are currently at their highest levels in seven years, according to data from Refinitiv, an American-British global provider of financial market data.
