A widely used agricultural pesticide that California environmental officials have said has been linked to brain damage in children will be banned after next year under an agreement reached with the manufacturer, state officials announced Wednesday. Under the deal, all California sales of chlorpyrifos will end on Feb. 6, 2020, and farmers will have until […]
FAO launched today a three-year Global Action for Fall Armyworm Control to scale up efforts to curb the growing spread of the invasive pest which is causing serious damage to food production and affecting millions of farmers across the world. Fall Armyworm (FAW), a crop pest native to the Americas, has rapidly spread through Africa, […]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) today published the 2018 Pesticide Data Program (PDP) Annual Summary. The summary shows more than 99 percent of the samples tested had pesticide residues well below benchmark levels established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA sets these benchmarks to ensure that pesticide residues […]
The Federal Office for Agriculture has banned chlorothalonil, a fungicide used since 1970s to prevent mildew and mould on crops. The federal office said that it had decided to withdraw the sales authorisation for products containing chlorothalonil with immediate effect. The ban occurred amid an ongoing review of 100 substances, the agriculture office said. New […]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will sponsor seven agribusiness trade missions in 2020 to grow and diversify export opportunities around the world for America’s farmers and ranchers, Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney announced today. “I cannot overstate the immense value trade missions provide to the U.S. agriculture industry and […]
A few weeks ago, we noted Mother Nature made a large dent in projected 2019 production and ending stocks. A few readers asked about the global ending stocks situation. For this week’s post, we review the global ending stock situation for corn, wheat, and soybeans and, as you might have guessed, considered China’s role in […]
Austria’s caretaker leader on Monday made clear she would not sign into law the European Union’s first national ban on the weedkiller glyphosate due to a technicality, infuriating environmentalists while delighting farmers’ groups. A large majority in parliament and, polls suggest, the public support banning the chemical because of fears it causes cancer. Austria, a […]
seed industrToday, the National Potato Council (NPC) cheered the passage of the US-Japan Agreement on Agricultural Trade by Japan’s Upper House. Pending official announcements by both countries’ trade ministries, the pact will be enacted on Jan. 1. “As the largest export market for US potatoes, Japan is vital for the continued health and prosperity of […]
A landmark decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in 2018 changed the way gene-editing technology should be treated under EU law. This followed years of disputes, ending in the ruling that plants and animals created using this technology should be treated and regulated under the GMO Directive as though they were genetically modified. […]