Russia has traditionally used food crisis as a weapon, and this is not the first time it has blackmailed the world community with the threat of famine. Failures on the battlefield in Ukraine have set a new goal for Vladimir Putin – to provoke a global famine and another wave of migration, which is why…
Photo by Justin Clark on Unsplash EU Member States have adopted an agreement to improve forest governance and help combat illegal logging in Guyana. The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), which the EU and Guyana signed in Montreal last December, aims to strengthen law enforcement in the forestry sector and ensure that timber products exported to the EU have been…
Photo by Ben Moreland on Unsplash Laying hens should be housed in cage-free systems, concludes a new study by the Union’s scientific body, the European Food Safety Authority, adding that meat chickens need more space and must come from slow-growing breeds only. The scientists confirm that it is not possible to provide sufficient space in cages. They also note that…
Photo by József Szabó on Unsplash Centre right MEPs say they want to postpone the law proposal on pesticide reduction in its current form because it will jeopardise European food production during the war in Ukraine. “When there is a war in Europe, we cannot do business as usual. The current law proposal is not fit for purpose”,…
Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash A coalition of over 50 organisations in 17 EU member states have delivered a petition to the European Commission demanding to keep the new generation of genetically modified organisms ‘regulated and labelled’. The petition ran from April to November 2022 and received 420.000 signatures. European Commission-president Ursula Von der Leyen announced…
Photo by Jo-Anne McArthur on Unsplash Eight EU countries have warned Brussels against proposing a ban on exports of live animals, according to a new document. The paper, written by Portugal and supported by France, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Spain, will be discussed during a ministerial meeting on 30 January. The group Compassion in World Farming says it…
Photo by Linda Robert on Unsplash The EU Commission has decided to identify Cameroon as a non-cooperating country in the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, giving it a so-called ‘red card’. From now onwards EU Member States shall be able to refuse the importation of fishery products from Cameroon even when accompanied by catch certificates validated by the national authorities….
Photo by Nadine Primeau on Unsplash The EU Commission has published an analysis by Commission services on the main drivers affecting food security. It looks at the effects on food security of drivers such as climate change, environmental degradation, the economic consequences of COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Based on the latest scientific evidence, this analysis identifies different types…
Photo by Simon Goetz on Unsplash The global food price crisis has only been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. It is actually due to more structural and systemic problems in the commodities market, creating hunger and threatening people’s livelihoods, points out the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in its own initiative opinion, adopted at the December plenary. Fuelled…
The European Commission has received a petition signed by 150,000 people, asking for new standards to protect fish welfare. Over the next few months, the Commission will be reviewing the EU laws for many farmed animals. Compassion in World Farming, a Brussels based campaign group, says it wants to ensure that specific standards for farmed…
