WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have identified a chemical compound released by locusts that causes them to swarm, opening the door to possible new ways to prevent these insects from devouring crops vital to human sustenance as they have for millennia. Resea... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China announced on Tuesday a new list of 79 U.S. products eligible for waivers from retaliatory tariffs imposed at the height of the bilateral trade war, amid continued pressure on Beijing to boost imports from the United States. China’s fi... More »
(Reuters) – Tyson Foods Inc expects to continue idling meat plants and slowing production because of the new coronavirus, the company said on Monday, signaling more disruptions to the U.S. food supply. Tyson reported lower-than-expected earnings and revenue fo... More »
BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – British actor and filmmaker Idris Elba launched a new United Nations fund on Monday to help farmers in poorer nations, calling on richer economies to provide aid to prevent “needless hunger and suffering” stemming from ... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – United Arab Emirates agriculture technology start-up Pure Harvest Smart Farms has raised $20.6 million in fresh funding and secured commitments for a further $100 million, it said on Monday. Wafra International, an investment firm owned by th... More »
MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines has detected an outbreak of avian flu in a northern province after tests showed presence of the highly infectious H5N6 subtype of the influenza A virus in a quail farm, the country’s farm minister said on Monday. Agriculture ... More »
HAMBURG (Reuters) – A case of H5N8 bird flu has been confirmed in a poultry farm in the eastern German state of Saxony, German authorities said on Monday. The social affairs and protection ministry in the state of Saxony said the case involved bird flu of type... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Cargill Inc will launch plant-based hamburger patties and ground “fake meat” products in April, the company said on Monday, challenging Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods for sales in grocery stores, cafeterias and restaurants. The entry of C... More »
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – South Africa has lifted a two-month ban on livestock auctions that halted trade in cattle, sheep and other animals following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Limpopo late last year, the agriculture minister said on Monday. I... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Vice Premier Liu He, head of the country’s negotiation team in Sino-U.S. trade talks, will sign a “Phase 1” deal in Washington next week, the commerce ministry said on Thursday. Liu will visit Washington on Jan. 13-15, said Gao Feng... More »
SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgarian veterinary authorities said on Wednesday they would cull 39,656 pigs after detecting an outbreak of African swine fever at a farm in the northeast, the second industrial farm in the country to be hit by the virus in the last five da... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s agriculture ministry said on Monday it plans to issue biosafety certificates to a domestically grown, genetically modified (GM) soybean crop and two corn crops, in a move toward commercializing GM grain production in the world’s top... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will lower tariffs on products ranging from frozen pork and avocado to some types of semiconductors next year as Beijing looks to boost imports amid a slowing economy and a trade war with the United States. Next year, China will imple... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department said a federal appeals court should reverse a lower court verdict finding Bayer AG liable in the case of a California man who blamed its Roundup weed killer for his cancer. The gov... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China and the United States should continue bilateral trade talks and work toward removing all existing tariffs, China’s National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Fu Linghui said on Monday. Fu also told reporters during a briefing that China’... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Monday that it hoped to make a trade deal with the United States as soon as possible, amid intense discussions before fresh U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports are due to kick in at the end of the week. Beijing hopes it can reach ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Braving perils from blood-sucking leeches to tigers and using transport as basic as elephants, scientists have journeyed like “Indiana Jones” to remote locations to collect wild cousins of crop seeds in a project to help tackle climate chang... More »
DAX, France (Reuters) – The ducks on a small French smallholding may carry on quacking, a French court ruled on Tuesday, rejecting a neighbor’s complaint that the birds’ racket was making their life a misery. The court in the town of Dax ruled that the noise f... More »
PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech scientists have opened a lab to experiment growing food for environments with extreme conditions and lack of water, such as Mars. The “Marsonaut” experiment by scientist Jan Lukacevic, 29, and his team at the Prague University of Life ... More »
SALADILLO, Argentina (Reuters) – There is a saying among farmers when times are hard on the Argentine Pampas: “Unsaddle the horse until the sun comes out”. That saying is starting to spread in farm towns like Saladillo, after the populist-leaning Peronists won... More »
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) – Argentina’s farmers have some questions for President-elect Alberto Fernandez, after the center-left Peronist won a decisive election on Sunday, ousting business-friendly leader Mauricio Macri. Across the country’s fertile P... More »
PIXLEY, Calif. (Reuters) – Joey Airoso has always been proud of his cows, whose milk goes into the butter sold by national dairy company Land O’Lakes. Now he has something new to brag about: the vast amounts of gas produced by his 2,900-head herd is powering t... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s pig herd in September was 41.1% smaller than it was a year earlier, the agriculture ministry said on Monday, as a year-long African swine fever epidemic continued to slash the world’s largest herd. The number of sows in China also f... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators on Friday gave the green light for genetically modified cotton to be used for human consumption, paving the way for a protein-packed new food source – edible cottonseed that tastes a bit like chickpeas – that its develope... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China hopes Beijing and Washington will resolve their trade dispute “with a calm and rational attitude”, Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said on Sunday, ahead of talks in two weeks between the two sides. The United States and China have... More »
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary’s national food safety authority Nebih has found five cases of African swine fever in wild boar carcasses near Budapest, it said on Sunday. The causes of the infections found in a closed hunting area in Budakeszi, west of the Hunga... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese officials have culled 753 pigs in Saitama Prefecture north of Tokyo after detecting an outbreak of swine fever, the Yomiuri newspaper said on Sunday. The cull, which took place on Saturday, was necessary after it was determined that ... More »
SAINT-PIERRE-D’OLERON, France (Reuters) – A loud 4-year-old rooster called Maurice on an island off the French Atlantic shore has pitted a couple of city slickers who bought a second home next door against his owners, and stirred a nationwide debate. Two years... More »
APOLLO BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – Scientists in Florida have artificially induced reproductive spawning of an endangered Atlantic coral species for the first time in an aquarium setting, a breakthrough they say holds great promise in efforts to restore depleted r... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iowa’s Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency has “screwed” the U.S. ethanol industry and farmers by granting waivers to 31 small petroleum refineries, effectively exempting them... More »
NEW YORK/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Bayer AG has not offered to pay billions of dollars to settle claims in the United States related to the Roundup herbicide, mediator Ken Feinberg said, dismissing a report to that effect which drove its shares as much as 11% high... More »
SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said the Balkan state’s government will compensate owners who voluntarily cull their domestic pigs, as the country works to stamp out an outbreak of the highly contagious African swine fever. Almost 130... More »
SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria’s veterinary authorities said on Friday they would cull 8,253 pigs after detecting an outbreak of African swine fever at a breeding farm in the northeast of the country, the sixth industrial farm in the Balkan nation to be hit by the... More »
JOHANNESBURG/VRYHEID, South Africa (Reuters) – Cattle have long been considered a measure of wealth across Africa – but it is not just farmers cashing in. A pioneering app in South Africa lets investors, eager to benefit from rising global beef demand, buy sha... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s agriculture ministry said on Monday it will carry out checks on local veterinary authorities in 10 provinces as it tries to slow the ongoing spread of the deadly African swine fever virus. The investigations come after China’s cabin... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China and the rest of the world must co-exist, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan said on Monday, in an indirect jab at the United States with which Beijing is currently trying to resolve a bitter trade war. “China’s development can’t shut ... More »
SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria has confirmed a new case of African swine fever among backyard pigs in the village of Novachene near the town of Pleven in the north of the country, the national food safety agency said on Friday. Bulgaria already reported two cases ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s agriculture ministry said on Friday it had confirmed an African swine fever outbreak in Luchuan county in the southwestern region of Guangxi that killed nine pigs on a farm. China has reported 143 outbreaks of the incurable disease ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – International tensions over trade could have a positive outcome for agriculture by reviving efforts to reform the most ineffective of policies that distribute hundreds of billions of dollars to farmers each year, the OECD said. Nearly 70% of ... More »
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand will ban pig imports from Laos for 90 days after its neighbor confirmed the first outbreak of deadly African swine fever, an official notice said. The ban would cover live pigs and carcasses in an effort to prevent the disease from... More »
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenyan farmer Victor Kyalo’s chickens have doubled the number of eggs they are laying. The reason: Human excrement. He is feeding them food from a Nairobi-based organics recycling company. Sanergy harvests waste from toilets it operates in ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Ocado is plowing 17 million pounds ($22 million) into the emerging “vertical farming” industry, further diversifying the online grocer and technology group’s business. Vertical farming involves producing food indoors, with crops gr... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s soybean imports fell 24% in May from the same month last year, customs data showed on Monday, as the ongoing Sino-U.S. trade war and deadly African swine fever checked demand. China brought in 7.36 million tonnes of soybeans in May,... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump predicted Mexico would strongly enforce a new deal under which it agreed to expand a controversial asylum program and boost security on its southern border to stem Central American migrants trying to reach the... More »
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Protesters burned and looted some 30 shipping containers marked with the logo of the Dole Food Company in Honduras on Sunday, a military official said, in the second attack on symbols of U.S. power in the Central American nation in rece... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore, the tiny Southeast Asian city-state, is an unlikely place for a farming revolution. With tiered fish farms, vegetable plots atop office buildings and lab-grown shrimp, the island aims to beef up its own food production and rely... More »
HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnam culled a further 500,000 pigs over the past two weeks to tackle an oubreak of African swine fever, taking the total killed so far to 1.7 million, or 5% of the country’s herd, the agriculture ministry said on Monday. Pork accounts for ... More »
WINDWHISTLE, New Zealand (Reuters) – At Dave Harper’s family farm in New Zealand’s scenic Canterbury region, a painstakingly bred flock of lambs is grazing, not on grass, but on a field of herbs selected to unlock healthy omega-3 fatty acids in the animals’ me... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – British livestock genetics firm Genus agreed on Thursday to license its know-how on virus-resistant pigs to Beijing Capital Agribusiness Co Ltd, which will seek regulatory approval for the pigs in the world’s biggest pork market. Genus has ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Brazil’s agriculture minister will ask Chinese officials on Thursday to greenlight exports to the Asian nation of sugar made from genetically modified (GM) sugarcane, which is expected to be widely used in Brazil in coming years. Minister T... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry said on Monday the country will never surrender to external pressure after Washington renewed its threat to impose tariffs on all Chinese imports in an escalating trade dispute. The trade war between the world’s top... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry said on Monday the country will never surrender to foreign pressure after Washington renewed its threat to impose tariffs on all Chinese imports in an escalating trade dispute. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang... More »
HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnam has culled more than 1.2 million farmed pigs infected with African swine fever, the government said on Monday, as the virus continues to spread rapidly in the Southeast Asian country. Pork accounts for three-quarters of total meat con... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s door to talks with the United States about their trade dispute is always open, but China will not yield on important issues of principle, state media said on Sunday. There are no winners in a trade war, and China does not want to fi... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry said on Monday a Chinese delegation is preparing to go to United States for trade talks, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods this week and target hund... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China Vice Premier Liu He could still travel to the United States for trade negotiations but shorten his trip or cancel it altogether, South China Morning Post reported on Monday, citing an unnamed source briefed on the latest plans. In an ... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. presidential contender Bernie Sanders unveiled a plan on Sunday to help family farmers and rural residents, promising to break up corporate agricultural monopolies and invest heavily in social and economic programs in struggling rural communit... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has detected new cases of African swine fever in six farms across four locations in Hainan province, the agriculture ministry said on Sunday, adding to two earlier cases of the contagious disease identified in the province on Friday. ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Friday that it had confirmed outbreaks of African swine fever in two locations in Hainan province, an island off the country’s southern coast which it had hoped to keep free of the contagious disease. The disease, fatal to pig... More »
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa is likely to harvest 16 percent less maize in 2019 compared with the previous season after drought delayed plantings, a Reuters poll showed on Monday. The government’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC), which will provide its... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has urged rural governments to offer temporary subsidies to pig breeding farms and large-scale producers to help stabilize hog production, as fears grow about the impact of a severe disease outbreak on pork supplies. Factory prices fo... More »
ROSS-ON-WYE, England (Reuters) – For almost 100 years, Chris Chinn’s family has farmed asparagus in the rolling hills of the Wye Valley in western England. This year, he fears uncertainty around Britain’s departure from the European Union will keep his eastern... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. border agents have seized around 1 million pounds of pork from China, a spokesman for the agency said on Friday, over suspicions that it might contain African swine flu disease which has hit Chinese pork output. Federal agents have ... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese state media on Saturday expressed cautious optimism over trade talks between the United States and China, a day after President Xi Jinping said a week of discussions had produced “step-by-step” progress. Xi made the comments at a m... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India could lose a vital U.S. trade concession, under which it enjoys zero tariffs on $5.6 billion of exports to the United States, amid a widening dispute over its trade and investment policies, people with close knowledge of the matter ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British scientists are developing gene-edited chickens designed to be totally resistant to flu in a new approach to trying to stop the next deadly human pandemic. The first of the transgenic chicks will be hatched later this year at the Rosl... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s agriculture ministry on Sunday said a new outbreak of African swine fever had been confirmed in Gansu province in the northwest of the country. The outbreak occurred on a farm with 109 live pigs in Qingyang city, infecting 44 of the... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A new outbreak of African swine fever has hit two farms in Jiangsu province in eastern China, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday, as the highly contagious disease continues to spread through the world’s largest hog herd. ... More »
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. officials expect China’s top trade negotiator may visit Washington this month, signaling that higher-level discussions are likely to follow this week’s talks with mid-level officials in Beijing as the world’s two largest eco... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – China’s approval of imports of a DowDuPont Inc (DWDP.N) genetically modified soybean puts rival Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) on the defensive, investors and analysts said, as U.S. farmers will have a new choice when planting their most valuable agri... More »
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – The highly contagious foot and mouth disease, which poses a threat to the livestock industry, has been detected in a northern district of South Africa’s Limpopo province, the country said on Tuesday. Positive laboratory results for the... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has loosened the rules on the transportation of breeder pigs and piglets in provinces that are affected by the African swine fever, the agriculture ministry said on Thursday. The move, which came after Beijing reported more than 90 ca... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A beluga whale that was first spotted nearly three months ago in the River Thames is still feeding healthily east of the British capital and facing a lone Christmas hundreds of miles from its normal Arctic habitat. The white cetacean, which ... More »
JINAN, China (Reuters) – In the near pitch-dark, you can hear them before you see them – millions of cockroaches scuttling and fluttering across stacks of wooden boards as they devour food scraps by the tonne in a novel form of urban waste disposal. The air is... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s agriculture ministry said on Monday two new African swine fever outbreaks were reported in Shaanxi and Guizhou provinces. The new case in Shenmu city of Shaanxi province killed 19 of 33 pigs present on a farm, the Ministry of Agricu... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s agriculture ministry said on Monday it will ban pig farming in areas inhabited by wild boars to prevent the spread of highly contagious African swine fever. China, the world’s top pork producer, has reported more than 80 outbreaks o... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Iran has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus among backyard poultry in the north of the country, the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said on Monday, citing a report from Iran’s agriculture ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s agriculture ministry said on Monday it has confirmed a new African swine fever outbreak on a farm in capital city Beijing, as well as two other outbreaks in Shaanxi and Heilongjiang provinces. In the capital, the outbreak was report... More »
(Reuters) – A sheep in eastern Australia is leaping about more lightly after being sheared of its massively overgrown fleece. In a social media post that has gone viral, farmer Graeme Bowden shared pictures of the sheep he dubbed “shriek 2”. He said a friend f... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – Deep coral reefs in a “twilight zone” in the oceans differ sharply from those near the surface, dimming hopes that they can be a refuge for marine life fleeing threats such as climate change and pollution, scientists said on Thursday. Worldwid... More »
BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and China slapped tit-for-tat duties on $34 billion worth of each other’s imports on Friday, with Beijing accusing Washington of triggering the “largest-scale trade war” as the world’s two biggest economies shar... More »
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (Reuters) – A master distiller and a crop scientist who specializes in corn breeding are working on a project they hope one day will help bring local identities to American whiskeys. Seth Murray, a top corn breeder at Texas A&M Universit... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Monday praised a significant dialing back of trade tension with the United States, with the government saying agreement was in the interests of both countries while state media trumpeted what it saw as China’s refusal to surrender.... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a sweeping $867 billion farm bill on Friday after Republican leaders failed to appease conservative lawmakers who had asked them not to hold the vote until they were given the chance to consider... More »
YAJI MOUNTAIN, China (Reuters) – On Yaji Mountain in southern China, they are checking in the sows a thousand head per floor in high-rise “hog hotels”. Privately owned agricultural company Guangxi Yangxiang Co Ltd is running two seven-floor sow breeding operat... More »
HAMBURG (Reuters) – Germany’s food industry must label unhealthy products more clearly, the country’s new agriculture and consumer protection minister said on Thursday. “About 15 percent of our children and young people are overweight, about 17 billion euros (... More »
LANGLEY, British Columbia (Reuters) – Layers of squirming black soldier fly larvae fill large aluminum bins stacked 10-high in a warehouse outside of Vancouver. They are feeding on stale bread, rotting mangoes, overripe cantaloupe and squishy zucchini. But thi... More »
KANE COUNTY, Ill. (Reuters) – Lucas Strom, who runs a century-old family farm in rural Illinois, canceled an order to buy a new $71,000 grain storage bin last month – after the seller raised the price 5 percent in a day. The reason: steel prices jumped right a... More »
FILE PHOTO: Steel pipes for sale are displayed at a shop in the Mullae-dong steel product district in Seoul July 13, 2010. REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak/File Photo HOUSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. oil and gas industry on Thursday slammed President Donald Trump’s ... More »
A hydrobiologist from the Hydrobiological Institute of Ohrid visually checks a trout during a method of artificial spawning, in Ohrid, Macedonia February 9, 2018. Picture taken February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski OHRID, Macedonia (Reuters) – Macedonian... More »
Farmer Blake Erwin drives a combine as he harvests corn on his farm near Dixon, Nebraska, U.S., October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson CHICAGO/MONTREAL (Reuters) – A collapse of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), ... More »
Employees walk in front of the entrance of the French dairy group Lactalis headquarters in Laval, western France, January 12, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe PARIS (Reuters) – Some French families affected by a recall of baby milk by dairy firm Lactalis due to sal... More »
FILE PHOTO: Marijuana is seen for sale at Harborside, one of California’s largest and oldest dispensaries of medical marijuana, on the first day of legalized recreational marijuana sales in Oakland, California, U.S., January 1, 2018. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/F... More »
FILE PHOTO: The company logo of China Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) is seen at its headquarters in Beijing, China, November 3, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo LONDON/PARIS/BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s COFCO International is in the throes of a sta... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s western Kagawa prefecture has begun a cull of 91,000 chickens after the discovery of a highly contagious form of bird flu on a farm, the local government said. The confirmation of the outbreak, which was reported earlier in the week, ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt is backing an “intelligent reduction” of Germany’s growing wild boar population to prevent a further spread of African Swine Fever (ASF), the Rheinische Post newspaper reported on Friday. The DBV... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand will roll out a nationwide program to test dairy farms for the cattle disease mycoplasma bovis as the number of affected properties steadily grows, the Ministry for Primary Industries said on Friday. Fourteen farms in the wor... More »
FILE PHOTO: An early wheat crop in the Central Valley in Davis, California, U.S., May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang – File Photo CHICAGO (Reuters) – The new U.S. tax law is poised to drive more control over the nation’s grain supply to farmer-owned cooperativ... More »
A pet dog is pictured in a sofa as it waits to watch a movie in a cinema for dogs at Cute Beast Pet Resort in Beijing, China December 22, 2017. Picture taken December 22, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee PINGYANG, China/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Li Mingjie is a pet industry... More »
FILE PHOTO: Gil Ronen, Co-founder and CEO of NRGene, an Israeli genomic big data company, gestures during his interview with Reuters at a field in Givat Brenner, Israel January 8, 2017. Picture taken January 8, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Isr... More »
