Estonia-based ‘Click and Grow’ preview its latest ‘smart garden’ at the IFA tech fair in Berlin, a window box for the the modern age that grows vegetables and herbs automatically, as Matthew Stock reports for Reuters.
International news
VIDEO: Smart garden makes urban farming easy
VIDEO: Climate change takes its toll on Chablis
Reuters | France – French wine production may fall 17 per cent this year to a record low after spring frosts damaged vineyards, notably in the Bordeaux region. As Sonia Legg reports, the farm ministry fears the region could lose half its output.
EU rapeseed in good shape despite early problems
Despite repeated frosts in Germany, production still seen above last year
Rapeseed crops in the European Union’s largest producers are in reasonable condition despite the double blows of drought and late-spring frosts, experts said May 18. A question mark remains over crops in the third-largest producer, Poland, where frosts in early May hit rapeseed at a vulnerable time as hundreds of thousands of hectares of yellow
U.K. royals’ sibling rivalry on GMOs?
Princess Anne made the approving comments about GMO crops during a BBC radio interview
Britain’s Princess Anne may have sparked some royal sibling rivalry after saying genetically modified crops had real benefits to offer, putting her at odds with her older brother Charles who says they would be an environmental disaster. In an interview with BBC radio, Anne said she would grow GMO crops on her farming estates, adding
Trump trade adviser strikes conciliatory tone on Mexico
Canada has worried about being sideswiped during NAFTA uproar
One of U.S. President Donald Trump’s most protectionist trade advisers has struck a more conciliatory tone with Mexico, saying he wanted the two countries and Canada to form a regional manufacturing “powerhouse” with stricter rules of origin. White House National Economic Council director Peter Navarro’s comments Mar. 15 on Bloomberg News helped boost Mexico’s peso
U.S. farm heartland lobbies to steer Trump away from Mexico trade war
The country is a big agriculture trade partner and the two products likely to be hardest hit are pork and cheese
Farmers in the U.S. agricultural heartland that helped elect Donald Trump are now pushing his administration to avoid a trade dispute with Mexico. They fear retaliatory tariffs that could hit over $3 billion (all figures U.S. funds) in U.S. exports. The value of exports at risk is based on a Reuters analysis of a tariff
Could ‘resurrection’ crops survive drought and feed a hungry planet?
Desert plants all but die, then are resurrected when the rains come, says one African research scientist
Could harnessing the power of “resurrection plants” — with the ability to survive severe water shortages for years — hold the secret to feeding a hungry planet? Jill Farrant, a biology professor at Cape Town University, hopes that by putting resurrection plants’ survival skills into crops, making them drought tolerant, the world’s population could be
France’s disillusioned farmers turn to Le Pen
Anti-EU, anti-globalization rhetoric strikes a chord
France’s presidential pretenders are making mandatory campaign stops at the annual Paris farm fair as polls show farmers increasingly tempted by the far-right’s Marine Le Pen when they even bother to vote at all. Though only a fraction of the population still works in the farm sector, voters remain attached to the country’s agrarian roots,
U.K. farmers hold on to cash, cut investment on Brexit uncertainty
Uncertain about trade access and farm programs they’re planning to cut investments in machinery and land
British farmers are holding back on big investments as they brace for the U.K.’s exit from the European Union, their largest market and a vital source of subsidies. Agriculture enjoyed a brief boost after Britain voted to leave the bloc last June, when a weaker pound lifted profits by about 12 per cent and subsidy
Chinese consumers seem to shrug off deadly bird flu outbreak
Repeated issues with the outbreaks have led citizens of the country to become less alarmed about warnings
Four years ago, a bird flu outbreak in China killed at least three dozen people, triggered mass poultry culling, put masks on millions of Chinese faces and hammered shares in fast-food and travel companies. This winter, more than 100 people have died, but few birds have been slaughtered, there are few masks on the streets
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
