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Sprouts blamed for spreading Salmonella infection

Sprouts have been suspected to be the cause of 20 Salmonella infections in five states across the U.S., while an earlier Salmonella outbreak linked to cantaloupes is probably over, according to federal officials.

28 Jun 2011

GAO report examines U.S. food aid

A new GAO report (.pdf) examines international food aid. "GAO recommends that Congress consider eliminating the 3-year waiting period for foreign vessels that acquire U.S.-flag registry to be eligible to transport U.S. food aid.

27 Jun 2011

Financial Times examines race for FAO Director-General

The Financial Times examines the race to lead the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), saying that "since the 2007-08 food crisis and the price shock of 2010-11, the formerly low-profile FAO has been catapulted to the centre of global policymaking," with six countries putting forth candidates for director-general.

24 Jun 2011

Recommendations to curb high rates of obesity among young children

Limiting television and other media use, encouraging infants and young children in preschool and child care to spend more time in physically active play, and requiring child care providers to promote healthy sleeping practices are some of the actions needed to curb high rates of obesity among America's youngest children, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

24 Jun 2011

G20 agriculture ministers reach deal aimed at addressing high food prices

"G20 farm ministers settled a deal on Thursday to tackle high food prices, agreeing to a watered-down declaration that fell short of France's ambitious proposals to tighten regulation of commodity markets," Reuters reports.

24 Jun 2011

State roundup: N.Y. and union reach deal on benefits

The state's largest public-employee union, acknowledging the pressures on government workers around the nation, agreed on Wednesday to major wage and benefits concessions in a pact to avoid sweeping layoffs. The five-year agreement ... includes a three-year wage freeze, the first furloughs ever for state workers and an increase in the amount employees must pay toward their health insurance.

24 Jun 2011

MU and Coulter Foundation enter $5 million grant agreement for biomedical research

University of Missouri officials announced today a $5 million grant agreement with the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, through the Foundation's Translational Partnership Award Program. The goal of the partnership is to develop technologies that will save, extend and improve patient lives and suffering from any disease or condition in any country around the world.

23 Jun 2011

Ghanaian, Brazilian leaders awarded World Food Prize

"John Kufuor of Ghana and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil won the $250,000 World Food Prize for cutting hunger in half while serving as president of their nations, the prize organizers announced on Tuesday," Reuters reports.

23 Jun 2011

Sandia receives four R&D Magazine's 2011 awards

Sandia National Laboratories researchers - competing in an international pool of universities, corporations and government labs - captured three prestigious R&D 100 Awards in this year's contest, and were cowinners of a fourth.

23 Jun 2011

G20 agriculture ministers to discuss curbing volatile food prices as World Bank launches food price hedging tool

"G20 farm ministers meet in Paris on Wednesday to review steps to curb food price volatility amid doubts France will win unanimous backing for a cornerstone proposal to tighten regulation for commodity markets," Reuters reports.

23 Jun 2011

CAAS, UNH launch agro-ecosystems laboratory

The University of New Hampshire has launched a joint research laboratory with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) to promote international research in agricultural development and the environment, announced Tom Brady, dean of the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture at UNH recently.

23 Jun 2011

G20 must uphold previous agriculture pledges, invest more

"In the last few years, funding of agriculture has slowly been increasing after a generation of decline in investment in the sector, but not fast enough. In the L'Aquila pledge, the G8 made commitments to food security in 2009 of $20 billion.

22 Jun 2011

Blueberry compounds might aid in building strong bones

Compounds in blueberries might turn out to have a powerful effect on formation of strong, healthy bones, if results from studies with laboratory rats turn out to hold true for humans.

22 Jun 2011

Integromics announces winners of proteomics grant competition

Integromics, a leader in IT solutions for life sciences in the field of genomics and proteomics, today announces the two winners of the Integromics 'Proteomics Mass Spectrometry Research Grant' competition, for the creative use of Integromics' OmicsHub(R) proteomics solution. The winners are Prof. Stephen Pennington from University College Dublin and Dr. Michelle Cilia from the USDA-ARS (U.S. Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service).

22 Jun 2011

Indian biotechnology market to reach over $11 billion by 2017

The Indian biotechnology market is set to reach over $11 billion by 2017, according to a new report available on companiesandmarkets.com. The market will be driven by foreign investment, growing R&D and infrastructure investment, an emerging contract research market, drug discovery and growth in manufacturing outsourcing to India.

21 Jun 2011

Important to fund the GAFSP now

In a Guardian opinion piece, Lael Brainard, under-secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Treasury, writes about the importance of funding the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) and investing in small farmers in the developing world.

18 Jun 2011

Food prices projected to rise over next decade, FAO/OECD report says

Food prices are likely to continue to rise over the next decade, "putting the poor at an increasing risk of malnutrition and hunger," according to a joint report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

18 Jun 2011

Sarkozy calls for G20 agriculture ministers to establish farm database

"French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged G20 agriculture ministers to agree at talks in Paris next week on a farm database that would gather and store market-sensitive information such as food stocks," Reuters reports.

17 Jun 2011

G20 agriculture ministers should focus on small farmers to address food price volatility

"When the G20 Ministers of Agriculture develop an action plan to address food price volatility and its impact on the poor, they should focus on both urgent actions and the vital role of smallholder farmers," Shenggen Fan, director-general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, writes in an Inter Press Service opinion piece.

17 Jun 2011

G20 should examine larger food issues

"The inefficiencies in food production, transport and wastage are not only hazardous from a financial and environmental perspective; they are equally tragic on a moral level," independent consultant and writer Cynthia Schweer writes in a post on Foreign Policy Blogs.

17 Jun 2011