plastic trash on a beach

Comment: All you can eat, including the packaging?

A strong case for taste and food safety will have to be made before consumers will be willing to eat their garbage

Within a year, single-use plastics and excess packaging have become public enemy No. 1. Everyone is talking about how our lives are overrun by too much plastic. A recent Greenpeace-led audit looked at waterways waste and companies involved. Much of the plastic trash cleaned up from Canadian shorelines this fall was traceable to five companies:



(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Philippines to challenge court-ordered GMO import ban

Manila | Reuters — The Philippine government said it will challenge a ban on GMO imports ordered by the country’s top court, after the ruling rattled global markets this week over the threat of disruption to millions of tonnes of soybean meal shipments. Last week, the Supreme Court struck down a 2002 government regulation that

A corn farmer holds corncobs during a protest in Mexico City January 2013. Farmers protested against the growing of transgenic or genetically modified corn, as it is one of the primary food staples of Mexico and Central America.  
Photo: REUTERS/Bernardo Montoya

Past and future collide as Mexico fights over GMO corn

After pioneering the cultivation of corn thousands of years ago, Mexico must overcome the weight of history to give the go-ahead to allow genetically modified strains into its fields. Religion, culture and science are competing for primacy in the debate on how acceptable corn produced by genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is in a country where


Lynas moves from GM foe to friend

When Mark Lynas took the stage here Jan. 23 as keynote speaker at the 2013 edition of Manitoba Potato Production Days, he knew he was likely a strange and exotic creature to his audience. The British environmentalist and author has been involved in the environmental movement since the mid-1990s and for many years he was



Dry Australia cuts wheat forecast

sydney / reuters / Australia has cut its forecast for wheat production in the 2012-13 crop-marketing year by about seven per cent from its previous forecast to 22.5 million tonnes. And it’s warning yields may fall further if rains don’t arrive soon in some areas. Australia had a record 29.5-million-tonne wheat harvest last year, but

In Brief… – for Jul. 28, 2011

Rain, rain go away:Wheat crops in western Europe have rallied after a spring drought, but the rains that helped them recover may soon pose a threat to crop quality. “We are waiting for some sunshine we definitely don’t need this rain any more,” said Jack Watts of Britain’s Home-Grown Cereals Authority. In France, heavy showers


World Needs Modern Agricultural Technology

CropLife International executive director Denise Dewar promotes pesticides and genetically modified crops from her Washington, D.C. office, but as a young, idealistic student, she dreamed of saving the world from pesticides. “At that time I was being influenced by the environmentalists’ very negative anti-pesticides environment,” she told the Canada Grains Council’s annual meeting in Winnipeg

China Proposes GMO Legislation

China’s National People’s Congress, or parliament, is proposing legislation on the management of genetically modified (GMO) food, the official Xinhua news agency said in a report seen Dec. 27. The legislation will cover the import and export of GMO food and production, development and research of GMO grains. China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection is preparing