In The News

BBC: Could AI Help Create a Meat-Free World?

Jose Luis Penarredonda January 18, 2018
With expanding wealth and middle classes in emerging economies, global production of meat has more than doubled since 1986. Such agricultural production also has environmental costs. So entrepreneurs are trying to develop new foods that taste like meat products. “Meat is not their only target: mayonnaise, cookie dough, cheese, chocolate, and pretty much every other food produced using animal-...

Spiegel Online: Eastern Europeans Tire of Being Sold Inferior Products

Nils Klawitter December 22, 2017
Some products taste better in some places as some manufacturers cut back on expensive ingredients for products destined for less wealthy regions. So there may be less chocolate, sugar or cheese in products sold in Eastern Europe than Western Europe though labels and prices are the same. Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has threatened sanctions, speaking out “for 103 million EU citizens who...

China Dialogue: Processed Food Is a Global Health Crisis

Judy Bankman December 12, 2017
Processed food and Western diets that are high in fats, sugars and salt are not healthy and also contribute to poor agriculture methods and climate change. Farming methods could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help stem climate change, according to an agreement made during the UN COP23 summit on climate change in Bonn. “Dietary changes are taking place at ‘unprecedented speed,’ and people in...

Spiegel Online: Monsanto Faces Blowback Over Cancer Claims

Philip Bethge November 7, 2017
A class-action lawsuit in the United States claims that the active ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, glyphosate, causes a form of lymph node cancer. “Monsanto's strategies for whitewashing glyphosate have been revealed in internal e-mails, presentations and memos,” reports Philip Bethge for Spiegel Online. The company’s argument: The chemical could not be described as a...

Slate: Hunger and Obesity Can Be Two Sides of the Same Coin

Eleanor Cummins October 4, 2017
The recent United Nations report on “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017” explains the troubling recent increase in world hunger and obesity rates. Global hunger rates had been steadily declining for decades, but from 2015 to 2016 there was an increase of 40 million people who went hungry. Obesity has doubled since 1980. Each year, an estimated 815 million people go hungry...

El País: How Germany Is Leading Europe’s Organic Food Revolution

Laura Delle Femmine September 19, 2017
Some consumers take food for granted while others demand the utmost in safety and taste. Consumers in the latter group, joined by those who want to protect the environment, seek out organic products produced without chemical fertilizers, additives, antibiotics, pesticides and other unnatural treatments. The United States is the world’s leading organic market followed by Germany. Europe has had...

Reuters: As Sanctions Loom, Seafood Trade Slows on China-North Korea Border

Philip Wen August 15, 2017
In response to North Korea testing two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month, the UN Security Council issued a new round of sanctions “intending to press the Asian state to renounce its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs,” reports Philip Wen for Reuters. The sanctions prohibit North Korea from exporting seafood and various minerals like iron and coal. The country earns more...