Research scientist Philip Lyons stands in front of a tank holding rainbow carp at Alltech Coppens Aqua Centre, in Leende, Netherlands.

New technology allows more sustainable aquaculture

Alternative protein sources such as insect meal could replace fish meal fed to fish

Many are familiar with farmed salmon, catfish or tilapia. But there are many more potential species, says a research scientist at an aquaculture facility here. “When you compare fish farming to terrestrial farming we have thousands of different fish species that we could potentially farm… and when you compare that to terrestrial farming we have

Dutch dairy farmer, Cees Beekmans stands with his cows in his milking barn on his farm near Dongen, Netherlands. Beeksman had to cull 20 cows from his herd when the phosphate rights program came into effect.

Losing one quota means gaining another

Dutch dairy farmers are now free to produce all the milk they want — if they buy quota to produce more phosphate

CNS Canada/Dongen and Oirschot, Netherlands – Dutch dairy farmers were excited when the European Union removed milk quotas in 2015. For years the Netherlands had been hitting its quota, so dairy farms could finally grow. But when that growth happened too fast, there were new problems. Dutch dairy farmer Cees Beekmans says government officials claimed


Sheep shearers are a hot commodity in Australia right now as producers try to capitalize on higher wool prices after a generations-long slump.

Falling off the sheep’s back: Why Australia can’t capitalize on record wool prices

A long-awaited surge in wool prices has met a shortage in key personnel and a low sheep count

Sheep farmers in rural Australia waited more than half a century for wool prices to come roaring back, only to find there aren’t enough shearers to trim their golden fleeces. “Once upon a time you could go down to the local pub and arrange for some fellas to come in and start almost immediately —

A truck lines up to be loaded with soybeans in a farm in the city of Primavera do Leste in the central Brazilian state of 
Mato Grosso.

Corn as cash: Brazil’s bartering farmers raise risks for Canada’s Nutrien

Lack of credit makes for an interesting and unfamiliar business environment in this Latin American powerhouse

Taking a page from its aggressive growth strategy in the United States, cash-rich Canadian fertilizer giant Nutrien plans to plow investment into Brazil in a bid to reap up to 30 per cent of farm supply sales in fertile pockets of the country. But business in Brazil’s farm sector — the world’s fastest growing —


A Chinese woman drinks wine during a tasting at Peterson’s Winery in the Hunter Valley, located north of Sydney in Australia, February 14, 2018.

For Australian winemakers, Chinese relationships are bearing fruit

Chinese wealth is translating into big market opportunities Down Under

Wang Zhe, a wealthy Chinese businessman from Guangzhou, liked his glass of decade-old Chardonnay at an Australian winery so much he wanted more. So he asked to buy the entire vintage. It was the sort of offer, made over roast lamb and vegetables at a dinner in Wang’s honour, that has sent Australian wine exports

Solar power push lights up options for India’s rural women

Keeping the lights on — and factories running — with solar panels has been a game changer

Thomson Reuters Foundation – In her village of Komalia, the fog swirls so thick at 7 a.m. that Akansha Singh can see no more than 15 metres ahead. But the 20-year-old is already cycling to her workplace, nine kilometres away. Halfway there she stops for two hours at a computer training centre, where she’s learning


Fresh vegetables at the Alberone Market in Rome, where a group of volunteers are rescuing unsold food and distributing it for free, January 5, 2018.

Food-mad Italy on mission to cut waste, feed hungry

Volunteers and food vendors are banding together to meet the national target

Thomson Reuters Foundation – The young Roma woman gingerly touched the oranges and cabbages, bright, fresh and neatly stacked in crates. Francesco Fanoli, an anthropologist, insisted they were hers to take — for free. With a toddler playing in a nearby pram and more mouths to feed at home, the mother took the cache gratefully,

A worker checks sows on a large-scale pig farm owned by the Xinguangan company in Wuxuan county, 
Guangxi province, China, December 14, 2017.

GOING BIG: Chinese pork producers supersize

The country is the world’s top pork market, but until recently most of it has been raised on small operations

Surrounded by mountains in a remote part of southwestern China, Xinguangan’s first large-scale, modern pig farm is getting ready to produce its first offspring. By the end of the year, 10,000 sows will live inside two huge barns on this 73-hectare (180-acre) site, producing up to 280,000 piglets annually, or about 20,000 tonnes of pork.


Dutch grain trader Nidera is one of the recent acquisitions COFCO hopes will transform it into a top international grain company.

China’s COFCO makes painful cuts in drive to lead global food trade

The state-owned trading company is aiming to elbow its way in to the club of top grain traders

China’s COFCO International is in the throes of a staffing upheaval as the group pursues its professed ambition of sitting at the top table of global agricultural traders. But doubts persist among some in the industry over whether the trading firm will really challenge the existing four dominant players in grains, oilseeds and sugar. In

A mountain of “second” corn (winter corn) stored outside of already-full storage bins in Mato Grosso state, Brazil, July 26, 2017.

Heavy rains not seen slowing Brazilian winter corn

There might be a small acreage drop, but the country is expected to continue to be a leading exporter

Reuters – Forecasts of heavy rainfall during Brazil’s soy-harvesting season are unlikely to discourage farmers from planting winter corn, according to Agroconsult, as it kicked off an annual crop tour Jan. 16 in the top grain-producing state of Mato Grosso. Once an afterthought, winter or second corn is planted after soybeans are harvested in states