Agricultural Laws & Regulations

Burger tax? Study says we should raise meat prices to cut greenhouse gas emissions
As the planet continues to warm, researchers continue working to better understand the sources of greenhouse emissions. In this new effort, ...

Golden Rice could fight deadly vitamin A deficiency now. Why do farmers have to wait another 3 years to grow it?
It’s one of the world’s most preventable tragedies. Every year, as many as 500,000 children go blind because their diet ...

USDA: ‘Fear mongering’ keeps EU scared of growing GMOs, while it relies on US biotech grain imports
Commercial cultivation of GE crops in the EU is limited to one percent of the EU’s total corn area (102 ...

Mexico’s GM corn ban could ‘imperil’ nation’s food chain, farm groups warn
Mexico will “revoke and refrain from granting permits for the release of genetically modified corn seeds into the environment,” stated ...

‘Proportionate risk’: Outgoing Secretary Perdue proposes USDA streamlining, takeover of animal biotechnology regulations
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced a significant step in modernizing regulations of agricultural animals modified or produced by genetic ...

European Commission may greenlight GM crop imports rejected by EU Parliament
The EU Parliament has again spoken out against the approval of a number of genetically modified plant species. MEPs in ...

GM banana could help Uganda’s farmers battle bacterial wilt, but the country needs a biosafety law first
My attention has been drawn to an article I recently read in the digital Genetic Literacy Project newsletter authored by ...

Viewpoint: Are GMOs safe? Yes, for people and the planet
[W]hen we hear or read “GMO” or “bioengineered food,” do we ever think of the terms “safety,” “regulation” or “sustainability”? ...

Mexico could completely ban glyphosate weedkiller and GM corn by 2024
The [Mexican] National Commission for Regulatory Improvement published a new draft Presidential decree on Wednesday, [December 9], which orders the ...

FDA approves first-ever GM animal for use in food and human medicine: GalSafe pigs
[Dec 14], the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a first-of-its-kind intentional genomic alteration (IGA) in a line of domestic ...

Viewpoint: Most consumers are ignorant of farming—and ‘easy targets’ for peddlers of organic food misinformation
For the last 15 years, I have taught an introductory nutrition course at a local junior college. On the opening ...

Viewpoint: Glyphosate-cancer trials illustrate how tort lawyers undermine science in the courtroom
Should we be fair to chemical manufacturers when they are sued? First of all, who are they? Since everything in ...

As AquaBounty readies US rollout of GMO salmon, scientists hope for jumpstart of biotech animal research
A genetically modified salmon will become the first GM food animal to go on sale in the US, according to ...

GMO ban in food-insecure Ghana would be ‘dangerous,’ deputy agriculture minister warns
[A December 7 Agriculture Manifesto Forum organized by the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana] discussed the strategies in the 2020 ...

Nigeria validates gene-editing guidelines to ensure safe development of CRISPR crops
The [Nigerian] National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) on [December 9], formally validated its National Biosafety Guidelines on Gene Editing. The ...

Viewpoint: ‘Green neo-colonialism’— Utopian visions of organic farming promote starvation in Africa
Across Africa, farmers and governments are struggling to feed growing populations. Ongoing and deadly locusts and Fall Armyworm infestations, cancer-causing ...

French Constitutional Council temporarily rescinds neonic pesticide ban, ‘much to the chagrin of environmentalists’
The Constitutional Council on [Dec 10] gave the green light to the law re-authorizing for three years the use of ...

‘We can’t rule out new solutions’: German Greens poised to reconsider skepticism of crop biotechnology?
[T]he world is looking to research laboratories like Mainz, Cambridge and other cities, where vaccines are being developed these days ...

Viewpoint: Europe’s globally important wine industry threatened by pesticide, biotech phobias
“Make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly.” That's the lofty goal of the European Union's (EU) Farm to Fork Strategy, ...

Japan poised to approve first gene-edited food, tomato that fights high blood pressure
Current genome-editing technologies are more efficient than ever before, making it possible to modify genes as if editing sentences on ...

‘We have to be profitable’: French winegrowers protest costly glyphosate weedkiller restrictions
Three hundred winegrowers gathered in Narbonne [on Dec. 8] at the call of the winegrowers’ union and the FDSEA. They ...

France will pay farmers to give up popular glyphosate weedkiller after proposed ban fails
France will give financial aid to farmers who agree to halt use of glyphosate, the farm ministry said on [Dec ...

With sugar output down nearly 25%, UK beet farmers pressure government to lift ban on neonic pesticides
Sugar beet processor British Sugar said that just over two months into the beet harvesting campaign, white sugar production is ...

Sustainability gap on Farm to Fork: What are the global consequences of Europe’s embrace of ‘green political correctness’
European Union politicians call it a “protein transition” strategy—the continent’s sustainable farming blueprint embodied in the Green Deal, the heart ...

EPA pitches new rules to limit risks linked to chlopyrifos insecticide exposure
EPA announced a proposal on [Dec. 4] to improve the safety of using the insecticide chlorpyrifos. The proposal follows a ...

Are Sudanese Arabs?
Sudan, once the largest and one of the most geographically diverse states in Africa, split into two countries in July ...

EU Court of Justice tosses Brussels lawsuit seeking to ban glyphosate weedkiller
Europe’s highest court on [Dec. 3] tossed out a challenge from Brussels to the European Commission decision that lets Europeans ...

Latin American researchers use gene editing to develop new crops that benefit farmers and consumers
Latin American farmers are partnering with scientists to create new crop varieties using gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR-CAS 9 in ...