100 posts
MEPs call for urgent and coordinated measures to halve food wastage in the EU
MEPs in Strasbourg have this week called for urgent and coordinated EU-wide measures to halve food waste by 2025 and to improve access to food for needy EU citizens in a resolution adopted on Thursday. It is estimated that almost 50% of edible and he...
Brussels Briefing: Food price volatility
The next Brussels Development Briefing will take place on the 30 November 2011 and will be organised in partnership with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the European...
No EU permit for South African dairy products
In a statement published in allAfrica.com, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) corrected a media statement issued on 16 September 2011, in which exporters were invited to apply for a permit to export the following agricult...
EU grants available for Caribbean food exporters
The Caribbean Export Development Agency is offering European Union-funded aid of up to $3.6 million per applicant for food exporters who need help improving food-safety standards. The money is sourced from the 10th European Development Fund (EDF)...
The last one left standing
Last week East Malling Research kindly invited me to give the annual Amos Memorial Lecture at the research station. My theme was 'Food: Safe, Sustainable, Sufficient?' They videoed the lecture so I will post a link if it becomes available, not that...
Our video guest: Dominique Ristori, Joint Research Centre
Dominique Ristori is the general director of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. In our interview, he speaks about the food security conference organised by the JRC and about the value of research and science in food security.
The European Parliament strengthens the right to food
The European Parliament this week passed a report by German MEP Gabriele Zimmer on global food security in which it gave strong backing to the implementation of the right to food in the EU and in the world. The Parliament thus calls for “urgent...
Somalia ranked as world’s most food insecure country
A new study assessing the availability and stability of food supplies in 196 countries has rated the food security of Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as the lowest in the world, while countries in the drought stricken Horn of Af...
Ce n’est pas la faute de l’UE (cette fois)
La presse Française (au moins) s’enflamme contre l’Union Européenne qui veut, parait-il, affamer nos pauvres. Rétablissons la vérité : il s’agit au départ d’une institution en particulier, la Cour de Justice Européenne,...
Love food. Hate waste.
"Best before", "use by", "sell by" and "display until"... these are the most common labels that a consumer might find on food products that he purchases in a supermarket. Sometimes a product will have more than...
How do you go about buying your fish?
We need to act now to protect marine life, as due to overfishing, there are fewer and fewer fish in the sea and the situation is getting serious. Together, we can help to make sure there will be more fish in the sea. Watch EC video clip on the is...
THE AUSTRIAN EXPERIENCE IN RESTRUCTURING THE FOOD SAFETY SYSTEM, THE ITALIAN REALITY AND THE COMPANIES' POINT OF VIEW
Quartiere Fieristico ModenaFiere, Viale Virgilio, 70/90 - Modena in the framework of the SICURA fair A representative of the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) will discuss the reorganization of the food safety system in Austria and wi...
GMO honey banned in Europe
“Bitter honey for the GMO lobby,” quips the Tageszeitung on its front page following the ban brought down by the European Court of Justice on honey containing traces – even minute ones – of genetically modified organisms. “The ruling is...
Lamy: Trade is vital for food security
Should agriculture be treated like shirts, shoes and tyres and fall under the same trade regime, asks Pascal Lamy?
Waste not! Food is precious
Europeans throw away nearly 20% of the foodstuffs they buy. EuroparlTV looks at ways to prevent waste in the food chain. Watch the video.
E. coli and the tragedy of liberalised food supplies
The European Food Safety Alert System may be at fault, but the problems with Europe's agricultural production could run much deeper - writes Dean Carroll...
Danish Marmite ban – not Pia Kjærsgaard’s next populist plan to keep foreigners away
Today’s Guardian has the story that Denmark is to ban Marmite. As the FT’s Stanley Pignal quipped on Twitter, is this the next step (after new customs controls, despite Schengen) from Denmark’s populist Dansk Folkeparti to keep fore...
Eight-foot scone to be baked to promote Devon Cream Tea bid for EU protected status
To the outsider, it will appear a rather trivial issue, but for those in the Westcountry it is an issue of surprising importance and the subject of a long-standing rivalry: should the cream go on top of the strawberry jam or underneath it in your tra...
The Food Issue
The amount of food that goes to waste each year is staggering, with disposal numbers of 1.3 billion tons each year according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Our “buy one get one for free” lifestyle in Western countries al...
EU urged to 'do more' to tackle rising food prices
Parliament's plenary has been told the EU can become a "world leader" in tackling rising food prices. According to a recent report by the World Bank, food prices are at dangerous levels and have pushed 44 million more people into poverty since J...
EU draft: States can ban GM crops for public order
European Union governments could ban the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops to maintain public order in the face of popular opposition to the technology, the bloc's executive said in a draft document. Bans could also be justified on...
Non-tariff measures affecting agro-food trade between the EU and Africa
CTA would like to point you to a report on the IPTS workshop "Non Tariff Measures (NTMs) affecting agro-food trade between the EU and Africa" held in September 2010 in Seville. The workshop brought together experts from research, policy making and bu...
World food prices reach new historic peak
World food prices surged to a new historic peak in January, for the seventh consecutive month, according to the updated FAO Food Price Index, a commodity basket that regularly tracks monthly changes in global food prices. The Index averaged 231 point...
Webstreamed now: Debate on Geopolitics of Food at the European Commission with speakers from UN, WTO
The Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), DG DEVCO of the European Commission, the ACP Secretariat, CONCORD and other partners invite you to follow a debate on new challenges in the global food system and global policy respon...
Dioxin contamination in Germany: MEPs call for stricter controls, penalties
The EU is considering stricter food security rules following the recent dioxin scandal in Germany. The cancer-causing compound was found in eggs and poultry, some of which were exported to other EU countries. MEPs debated the issue with European Comm...
Global farming food and future report out
An important report led by the Governnment's Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir John Beddington, setting out the challenges facing farming and food supply on a global basis is now available: Farming Future You can hear a Radio 4 discussion on the topi...
The U.S.-EU Beef Over Chicken
A dispute over chicken-cleaning rules is too much for the Transatlantic Economic Council to handle.
Food giants dictate how we live and diet
Junk food is an elixir of capitalism and its terrible twin, war. “The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist,” Thomas Friedman, The New York Times columnist and unofficial White House stenographer, once wrote. “McDonald...
Food safety: Commission seeks ways to improve BTSF
Since 2006, the EU has trained 23,000 professionals worldwide to improve food safety through its Better Training for Safer Food initiative (BTSF). Now, the European Commission is seeking to further improve this initiative. It is launching a dialogue...
EU pressed to act on combating world malnutrition
Former EU commissioner Mario Monti has called for urgent action to combat the rising death toll caused by malnutrition. Addressing a conference in parliament on Tuesday, the Italian said one billion people in the world were undernourished and some 36...
Bananas in the recent trade agreements of the EU
Earlier this year, the EU concluded trade negotiations with Colombia and Peru and, later, with six Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama). Within the resulting agreements - which still await ra...
United Against Hunger
On the occasion of this year’s World Food Day, Pope Benedict XVI, Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda and FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf called for global unity to find resolute and concrete actions against hunger by producing more food in the cou...
2010 World Food Day and the EU
"Ensuring that every citizen has enough food everyday is the first of the eight Millennium Development Goals that the global community promised to reach by 2015. Hunger still affects far too many people and, in the 21st century. It kills more than 3...
Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne v. Unilever
Today's ruling in Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne v. Unilever is interesting exactly for what it assumes rather than deciding. In par. 4.1 we find:Niet in geschil is dat Unilever door het verhandelen van de Champagne shampoo inbreuk he...
Calories and Caffeine Fuel Summit
Caffeine and calories fuel Asian and European leaders meeting in Brussels.
Europe approves € 500 million of food aid for the needy for 2011
Food aid plans submitted by Member States for the 2011 Aid for the Needy Scheme were voted in the Single CMO Management Committee. Next year 20 Member States will use the scheme – with the Czech Republic participating for the first time. Originally...
Trade in Food: Regulatory and Judicial Approaches in the EC and the WTO
By Alberto Alemanno...
GM Milk
Müller-Milch, for milk sold by the Theo Müller Group, is a product name well-known in...
The fight continues...
This week in Brussels I called together a group of health and consumer NGOs who are supportive of using multiple colour coding on food so consumers can ascertain and compare at a glance the nutritional content of food. I convened the meeting followin...
European banana producers meet in Paris to define strategy
The European Association of Banana Producers (APEB) has convened a meeting in Paris for September 7 in order to make a strategy for the negotiation in Brussels of the possible increase of the financial statement of the Posei for the community banana...
Who knew?
George Mobiot recants on his calls to stop eating meat to save the world in...
Recipe corner: Macedonian bean bonanza
Wondering what to cook this weekend? How about beans? If you like beans, Macedonia is the place to be. The small village of Sarchievo, with only four houses and nine inhabitants, last week welcomed ten thousand people who gathered to see the new Gu...
Cameroon can be the leading ACP banana producer
Jean-Yves Brethes: Cameroon can be the leading ACP banana producerThe CEO of Spm announces his company’s objectives after obtaining financing from the African Export Import Bank. Your company has recently obtained financing of almost 2.5 billion FC...
Commission releases €14.9 million for food security to Niger
Given the worsening food crisis in the Sahel, the Commission today agreed to disburse €14.9 million for food security in Niger, the worst affected country in the area. This follows the Commission's recent proposal to resume aid to Niger for €458...
Milk from cloned cow offspring exposes gap in EU food law
Claims that a British farmer has been selling milk from a cloned animal has exposed a loophole in an EU law dealing with putting new foods on the market. Following the original article in the International Herald Tribune last week, British newspapers...
Soy Protein: What’s In It For You?
Panel delivers bad scientific news for soybean producers. But good news for sharks.
Boost Cross-Border Trade for Food Security
Small-scale traders on either side of the Mwami Border Post between Zambia and Malawi are key to meeting local demands that larger importers do not. The kind and quantity of food available on one side of the border is often quite different from just...
Europe Clears Import of New Biotech Corn Varieties
The European Commission on Wednesday approved six genetically modified corn varieties for import to the bloc, another sign of its desire to speed decision-making on the controversial technology.The commission, the executive arm of the European Commis...
Fears over Europe's GM crop plan
After a decade in which just a single genetically modified (GM) crop was approved for commercial planting in the European Union (EU), the European Commission has tried to break the logjam. But its new proposal, which would allow individual member sta...
Links 3 August 2010
Interesting piece by JohnJoe McFadden on the GM milk issue. I was particularly interested to read As far as is known, no one has ever died or even got sick from eating GM food. Why are people so scared of GM ingredients, while cheerfully accepting fa...
EC requests further funding to respond to the worsening food crisis
In response to the worsening food crisis affecting the Sahel and Sudan, Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva announced today that the Commission has proposed an additional €40 millio...
EU invests 20 million euros into COMRAP
The European Union (EU) has invested about 20 million euros into the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African Regional Agro Inputs Programme (COMRAP) meant to help enhance food production and marketing in the region.
Food industry's green efforts may hit price wall
The European food and drinks industry is finalising plans to measure its environmental performance but increasingly price-aware consumers might derail their efforts, the European Commission cautioned. A European round table bringing together the food...
Seen this somewhere before?
Interesting to see that the Daily Mail yesterday ran a story that you read about on Ooh, Brussels! MORE THAN TWO WEEKS AGO. In its typical Europhobic tone, the Mail’s article talked about the £12m “squandered” on the study, as repo...
EU and ACP non-state actors insist on food security as a human right
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and their partners from across Africa met at the 11th Regional Seminar of ACP-EU Economic and Social Interest Groups in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They addressed the revision of the Cotonou Agreement and...
The Great Hunger Lottery: How Banking Speculation causes Food Crises
Last week a British hedge fund bought 250,000 tonnes of cocoa beans, pushing prices up to a record 33-year high. Hedge funds and banks are constantly speculating on food and other commodity prices, but what was unusual in this case is that the hedge...
Questions and Answers on Niger and Food insecurity
Niger is one of the countries of the Sahel region, which also covers parts of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, northern Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Many of the countries in the area are threatened by food insecurity,...
Are potatoes the root of all evil?
The chiropracter sorting my RSI said to me that he wanted to test whether I was sugar sensitive, and that I can’t physically deal with all the stress I’m under at present. Tell me something I don’t know… I should explain, la...
Questions and Answers on Sahel and Food Insecurity
The Sahel is a belt of mainly arid and semi-arid land that stretches across Africa from Cape Verde in the west to Sudan in the east, covering parts of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea...
OGM: débrouillez-vous
(English Version) Le 13 Juillet dernier, la Commission a officiellement annoncée son plan pour une régulation des OGMs – Commentaires Full disclosure: Mon humble opinion: Commençons par un point simple mais nécessaire – qui fera débat pr...
Improving the dairy chain
Creating more balanced contractual links between milk producers and dairies, increasing farmers' bargaining power and developing tools to reduce market volatility were some of the key issues discussed by the Agriculture Council on 12 July as it looke...
BREAKING NEWS: EU says Cornish pasties can’t contain carrots!
Big news today in the field of tasty English snacks. The EU has been asked to protect the status of that delicious potato-and-meat-stuffed pastry, the Cornish pasty. In future, if the EU agrees, it will have to be made in Cornwall if it is to be call...
Parliament calls for EU ban on cloning for food
The European Parliament reiterated its opposition to meat and milk produced from cloned animals (7th July 2010), piling pressure on the European Commission to ban food produced in this way. Voting on Wednesday, the Parliament reaffirmed its first-re...
European Commission considers banning unprocessed cherries
In an unexpected yet already controversial move, the European Commissioners for Health and Consumer Policy, John Dalli, and for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos, have announced a new plan to ban the sell of unprocessed cherries, mandating insteadcher ries...
New EU labelling rules including new EU organic logo came into force
New EU rules on organic food labelling including the requirement to display the new EU organic logo, entered into force on 1 July, 2010. The so-called “Euro-Leaf” will now be obligatory on pre-packaged organic food products that have been produce...
Food prices: new legislation needed
New legislation is needed to ensure fair returns to farmers and transparent prices to consumers, by enforcing fair competition throughout the food supply chain, said Agriculture Committee MEPs. Suggestions as to how to ensure fairness throughout the...
Council conclusions: Six genetically modified maize varieties approved
The 3025th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Luxembourg on 29 June 2010 examined proposals for decisions authorizing the use of six genetically modified maize varieties in food and feed, excluding cultivation, have been presented t...
Where last orders last and last
A new eatery is planning to open its doors on the Place Lux this summer once the echoes of vuvuzelas have faded. In contrast to the sophisticated temporal engineering foreseen by Douglas Adams in the second book of his four-part Hitchhiker’s Gu...
But hold on, we have to eat anyway
Today the EU announced an extra £30 million Euros to be spent on the promotion of agricultural products. The selected programmes cover fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy products, honey, and so on.Now doesn't this look like picking winners? After all...
The Food Standards Agency responds over their EU banning selling eggs by number quote
Following the nonsense over the EU banning selling eggs by number, many have seized on the anonymous Food Standards Agency spokeswoman quoted by the Mail on Sunday as saying “This proposal would disallow selling by numbers. Retailers would not...
ACP Council held in Ouagadougou discussed EPAs and Sugar
The African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Council of Ministers met in Quagadougou, Burkina Faso from the 17th –19th June, 2010. The Joint ACP-EU Council will also hold their Meeting from the 21st – 22nd June, 210. The ACP Council discussed severa...
Fisheries, Aquaculture, Food safety, and Marine Biotechnology projects
In FP7, marine related projects are to be found across all themes of the Specific programme COOPERATION.Theme 2: "Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnologies" plays a key role to support marine related research projects through 3 activities.
More egg-ceptional inaccuracy from the British media
When it comes to the British tabloids, you can assume that if they use the phrase "you couldn't make it up," that probably means they are making it up. At least, that's certainly the case when it comes to the EU. And it isn't just the tabloids. Blata...
More of our money spent on adverts
Still waiting for compensation Just as the British government slashes the amount it spends on information and advertising, the EU announces a two-year €1million (about £850,000) campaign putting up posters and handing out leaflets at railway stati...
Swedes crack smuggling ring: Bit of a whiff in the air
Breaking news in Sweden today about the heroic actions of their customs officials,Swedish customs targets EU garlic smugglersThe excitement grows,A shipment of 22 pallets of the offending onion was recently seized in SvinesundWell I know garlic has i...
Follow up: Crack an egg
Following on the egg controversy, here are two short notes saying why it is plainly not true [1] and [2]. There is also a great post, very clear and well informed by Nosemonkey here: [3] And finally the text adopted by the Parliament (pdf, 85 pages)...
Sweet genes arm banana crops
Scientists in Uganda have developed GM bananas that show promising resistance to the deadly banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) disease. Bananas are Uganda's leading non-cereal crop with some 70 per cent of the population depending on it as staple food. Mo...
You COULD make it up: On abolishing eggs by the dozen
So, the EU is apparently planning to make it illegal to sell eggs by the dozen... "Utter madness!", you cry. "How could anyone possibly be so stupid?"...
First results of the EU 1 bn Food Facility
With more than € 500 million already disbursed and 97 % of funds committed after only one year and a half from its adoption, the € 1 billion EU Food Facility has provided a fast and efficient response in tackling food insecurity.
Our video guest: Mr. Giulio Groppi, EuropeAid
Our video guest this weel is Mr. Giulio Groppi . He is Head of sector at the Training and knowledge Management Unit. Together with Stephane Devaux, he was at the origin of the creation of the Operational Food Security Network (ROSA). The ROSA is an i...
OECD, UN predict 40% rise in food prices by 2020
Growing demand from emerging markets and biofuel production are expected to drive up farm commodity prices leading to increased food insecurity, warns the latest outlook on global agricultural markets. While farm commodity prices have fallen from the...
