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EU: constitution of the EP Special Committee “PEST”

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The newly formed "PEST" special committee of the European Parliament is to examine the scandalous glyphosate risk assessment and the European pesticide approval system as a whole over the next six months.

Genome editing: Legal expert criticises opinion of Attorney General of the EuCJ

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Breeding: Organic right from the start

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Biofach: award of Organic Food Industry Research Prize

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Four female researchers received the Organic Food Industry Research Prize at BioFach. In their dissertations the winners addressed the consequential costs of conventional fertilising, superfoods, organic agriculture at vocational colleges and rearing chickens for both eggs and meat, the so-called dual-purpose “ei care”.

VIVANESS 2018: natural and organic cosmetics digitalized

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The future is digital. Digitalization is having an impact in all areas of life and opening up new prospects in the natural and organic cosmetics industry too. Cosmetics are already among the most common products purchased online and German consumers are particularly willing to buy them compared to consumers in other European countries. This is one of a number of aspects that will be under the spotlight when the natural and organic cosmetics industry meets in Nuremberg from 14 to 17 February for VIVANESS, the International Trade Fair for Natural and Organic Personal Care.

SOLMACC: new brochure and BioFach seminar

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Some wider benefits such as greater resilience to water stress or higher water holding capacity of the soil are not always easily noticed in farmers' daily work, however they can be observed long-term. In 2017, many SOLMACC farmers had seen a good harvest compared to their previous yields, but also compared to other farms in their region.

OK-Net EcoFeed launched

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A new project – OK-Net EcoFeed – aimed at helping organic pig and poultry farmers in achieving the goal of 100% use of organic and regional feed was launched by partners from many European countries last week.

GOTS: GMO testing method project conceptualised

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According to the GOTS newsletter the Global Organic Textile Standad organisation determined through a limited round-robin exercise that test results for GMO presence showed inconsistency and were unreliable in cotton fibre In 2016.

Mission possible: a 100 percent organic world

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Consumers are thronging shops, farmers’ markets, e-commerce portals and even organic farms for fresh, quality organic products. Farmers, too, are gradually distancing themselves from conventional cultivation, given the high costs and negative health impact associated with chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Furthermore, Organic is now receiving policy support and has become an integral part of government programmes for agriculture. Therefore, the moment is ripe to initiate ‘Mission Possible: Organic as a Global Phenomenon’—a collective and multipronged endeavour to convert the world into organic, asumes the Senior Scientist Dr Arun K. Sharma, who has published "A Handbook of Organic Farming".

Biobased food packaging through the eyes of the consumer

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What do consumers think of biobased food packaging? And can manufacturers and retailers strengthen the brand position of their food products by choosing biobased food packaging? Within the COMBO public private partnership, Wageningen University & Research is helping the food sector make well-founded, sustainable packaging choices.

Asia making strides in global organic food market

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Asia is showing some of the highest growth in the global organic food market. New research by Ecovia Intelligence shows that some Asian country markets are reporting double-digit growth rates, with regional sales poised to reach US $10 billion in the coming years.

Ecofruit conference 2018: call for papers

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From 19^th – 21^st February 2018, the 18^th International Conference on Organic Fruit Growing (Ecofruit) will take place at the University of Hohenheim in Germany. Among others organized by Foeko e.V., Ecofruit aims at bringing together European researchers and consultants working on topics related to organic fruit growing.

Demand for new German government: safeguard GMO free products

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Current seed evaluation shows that zero tolerance against GMOs works. Greenpeace, Bioland and IG Seed require to safeguard GMO free products.

Germany: Munich Environmental Institute lodges disciplinary complaint against BfR-President

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As the inconsistencies concerning the evaluation of the pesticide glyphosate are having serious repercussions, the Munich Environmental Institute (MEI) filed a disciplinary complaint against the President of the German Federal Institute for risk assessment (BfR), Prof Dr Dr Andreas Hensel.

Poison Papers Project: how US-chemical concerns obscured hazardous chemicals

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The “Poison Papers”, a project by The Bioscience Resource Project and The Center for Media and Democracy, represent over 20,000 rediscovered chemical industry and regulatory agency documents as well as correspondence dating back to the 1920s.

USA: Organic Agriculture Research Act gained support

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The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), a non-profit foundation, reports a big success. The Organic Agriculture Research Act (H.R. 2436) gained crucial bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress recently.

Breakthrough study shows organic cuts agriculture’s contribution to climate change

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A new research by The Organic Center and Northeastern University proves organic agriculture keeps more carbon in soil and out of atmosphere and helps to fight climate change.

USA: price and authenticity still obstacles for organic

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Mintel market research analysed in a recent report that 21% of the consumers agree that organic foods are worth the extra cost. Nearly 40% purchase half of their grocery organic.

Eosta: recording all the damage caused by food production

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The study „True Cost Accounting in Farming and Finance”, commissioned by the Dutch company Eosta, calculated the actual cost of producing food - an undertaking praised by Prince Charles.

EU: risks involved in the authorisation of stevia

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As the University of Hohenheim reports, the EU Commission has authorised new uses of the natural sweetener stevia. Hitherto only steviol glycoside, not the natural stevia leaves, was approved for use as a calorie-free sweetener in food and beverages.

USA: three states restrict the use of Monsanto´s Dicamba

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Farmers from Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee have sent almost 600 complaints regarding the misuse of Monsanto herbicide Dicamba to the state authorities. Now the use of the pesticide is restricted.

FiBL Europe celebrates its opening

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The leading research institute in organic agriculture, FiBL, inaugurated its new office in Brussels. It builds a bridge between FiBL’s sound scientific knowledge on organic farming and the policy-making processes taking place in Brussels.

Record organic sales in Italy

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The AssoBio organic association recently presented Nielsen data on the trend of organic food sales in Italian supermarkets.

Organic World Congress: Pre-conference on animal husbandry

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On 7 and 8 November 2017, the conference "Role of livestock in sustainable agriculture" will take place as a preconference of the Organic World Congress in Dehli, India.

Glyphosate: MEPs grilled Commission on “Monsanto papers”

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The debate yesterday in the European Parliament MEPs say that correspondence has shed doubt on the credibility of a number of Monsanto-sponsored studies. The studies were part of the evidence used by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to evaluate the safety of glyphosate.