Agriculture, Beverages & Food

The United States is one of the few countries in the world that still permits agricultural uses of the pesticide lindane. More than 50 countries--including all of Europe, Canada, and most recently Mexico--have phased out lindane use in agriculture. Ninety-nine percent of remaining lindane use in the U.S. is for seed treatment of a handful of grain crops.   Read More

Unlike artificial sweeteners, Senomyx's chemical compounds will not be listed separately on ingredient labels. Instead, they will be lumped into a broad category - "artificial flavors" - already found on most packaged food labels. Read More

The food industry is working with politicians across the United States to rewrite laws in order to shield themselves from lawsuits based on obesity and related health problems. Read More

Taco Bell will pay an extra penny for each pound of tomatoes it buys under an agreement with a group of farm workers that had been protesting the fast food chain for three years. Read More

PepsiCo, one of the world's largest soft-drink makers, has introduced voluntary restrictions on its advertising to children, in response to rising levels of obesity in the US and western Europe. Read More

Monsanto's announcement of their plans to purchase Seminis, the largest fruit and vegetable seed producer in the world, was quickly followed by a statement that Monsanto does not intend to apply biotech to develop these seeds - at least not yet. This is a curious assertion from a dominant biotech company. Read More

Global food companies are aggravating poverty in developing countries by dominating markets, buying up seed firms and forcing down prices for staple goods including tea, coffee, milk, bananas and wheat, according to a report to be launched today. Read More

The World Wide Fund for Nature (now known as WWF) continues its career as the thinking corporation's greenwasher with a recent initative designed to extend the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) soya across much of Latin America. Read More

The European Patent Office is currently considering an application by crop science giant Syngenta to control the DNA that regulates the way flowers grow in rice plants. Read More

The Kazipally industrial area - once good farm country - now accounts for more than one-third of India's pharmaceutical industry, meaning skyrocketing rates of cancer, heart disease and birth defects for its residents. Read More