September 17-18th marked the Agricultural G20 held in Florence, Italy, after which agriculture ministers signed a declaration of intentions named “Charter of Florence”: with commitments in turning agriculture more sustainable. On the Front-of-Package labelling debate, IARC/WHO – International Agency for Research on Cancer – published a paper in support of the Nutri-Score system, whereas the […]
A new study from the Kiel University, Germany, takes a clear cut conclusion on the effect of F2F on the agricultural sector in the UE. And while the US tires to create a coalition that would oppose the agri-food strategy, Vice-President Timmermans called on world leader to be inspired by the same strategy so to […]
In September the European Commission opened for public consultation asking for stakeholders their opinion on the legislative initiative to update the curent legal framework on the matter of New Genomic Techniques, following the study published in April 2021. At the same time, a letter signed by 50+ organisations addressed to the Commission opposed its opening […]
In September 2021, the EU Parliament has rejected plans to reserve five specific groups of antibiotics for use in humans and largely ban them in animals. Developments concerning the avian flu and African Swine Fever are still closely monitored in the EU. At national level, a pig backlog and shortage of CO2 and workers are […]
At EU-level, historically low harvests have been forecasted for France, Italy and Spain following spring frosts, hail, droughts and diseases earlier this year. At national level, a volcanic eruption on the Canary Islands is threatening wine growers, hail affected Spanish vineyards and wildfires threatened white wine crops in Greece. In Italy, Agriculture Minister Patuanelli ensures […]
At the 10th anniversary of the event, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, has given today her second ‘State of the Union Address’ at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. This annual event is significant to demonstrate the European Commission’s accountability towards the EU’s democratically elected representatives, the Members of the European […]
The Commission has finally released a study on the impact of its F2F and Biodiversity Strategy proposals on the agriculture sector. The key commitments that directly affect the EU farming sector include reducing the use of chemical pesticides by 50% and of fertilisers by 20%, setting of at least 10% of agricultural area under high-diversity […]
The Summer months have been full of international attention to food policies: starting in July, with the to the UN Food System Pre-Summit held in Rome, where civil society, private sector businesses, decision-makers and other stakeholders met to discuss the issues of transforming the global food systems, in preparation to the Food System Summit to […]
While August has been a quiet month, July has seen some movements as regarding the Farm to Fork Strategy sponsored by the services of the European Commission. An unofficial impact assessment of the strategy has been published during the holidays considering the impacts of the targets on the EU agri-food markets, together with a report […]
In the summer months, genomic techniques have been the centre of some quite debates: amongst others, the US Department of Agriculture proposed to exempt some gene edited plant varieties from the biotechnology law; a study has analysed how these technologies are perceived by the public, concluding that the purpose for which are used plays an […]