Food

"Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it was closing its largest research campus and radically reorganizing research at the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The moves were controversial because they involved long-distance job transfers that threatened to uproot many scientists and derail research programs. This week, a federal judge declared the plans were likely illegal and ordered a halt until at least 11 December, when the current federal budget runs out."

"For years, economists dismissed collusion as crankery and blamed bird flu for high prices. Then the feds found evidence that could prove the cranks right, and almost nobody noticed."

"A chemical additive helped stop fishmeal from catching fire on ships, but it carried a downstream carcinogenic risk to modern food systems."

"The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing to expand a controversial loophole to allow some of the world’s most toxic chemicals to be added directly to food without a safety review."

"The United Nations agency for children, UNICEF, warns that one of the strongest El Niño events on record could bring floods, drought, displacement and disruption to education, urging governments to act before the crisis worsens." "More than 347 million children in nearly 100 countries and territories are expected to face unusually wet or dry conditions in the coming months as the 2026-2027 El Niño develops, UNICEF has warned."

"The US should review policies that allow major food crops to be sprayed directly with herbicides shortly before harvest, and should tighten related policies that allow for high levels of residues of those pesticides in finished food products, according to a petition filed Thursday with the government regulators."

"Nearly 93% of known plastic chemicals used to wrap food and make clothes, toys, and other common household and personal care products pose a high risk to human health, according to a new investigation provided exclusively to CNN."

"Seafood isn’t just a key source of protein and calories; it’s also where millions around the world get essential vitamins and minerals needed to build tissue, fight infections and grow. Yet, as modern mechanized fishing fleets plunder global waters, populations in low-income countries are losing out."

"Research scientist Ashish Rajurkar kneels in the dirt, lifting a large clod of soil tangled around a soybean plant. He knocks away pieces of earth from the plant’s roots, which slope straight down instead of out to the side like typical soybean plants."