Search Results for: food

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SURGE of developing country populations to cities and towns has prompted the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to press for the promotion of small-scale urban farming. The FAO says this is impeded by “lack of suitable land, uncertainty about land tenure, insufficient access to irrigation water of appropriate quality, inadequate know-how, and low investment”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded that the contamination of food from semicarbazide (SEM) in packaging is safe, and not sufficiently carcinogenic to pose health risks. This follows a detailed inquiry which found exposure levels potentially causing cancer are five times higher than those reasonably expected for adults and infants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ANOTHER Volcker panel report into the UN Oil-for-Food scandal has accused its former director Benon Sevan of receiving programme-linked bribes worth US$147,184 from 1998-2002. The inquiry found a Sevan-associated company African Middle East Petroleum Co. Ltd (AMEP) lifted 7.3 million barrels of Iraqi oil under the programme, generating US$1.5 million revenue: US$580,000 was paid to an account controlled by Fred Nadler, (brother-in-law of former UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali), from which “nearly US$150,00…was deposited to…bank accounts of Mr Sevan” (and his wife).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLITICAL decisions on scaling down production subsidies in the drinks and food sectors are the key to achieving a successful World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha Development Round deal on agriculture, the talks outgoing chairman has said. Tim Groser warned negotiators that “the agriculture negotiations are stalled – there is no way to conceal that reality”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A THIRD interim report from the Paul Volcker panel into the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal has bluntly accused its former director of receiving bribes linked to his job worth US$147,184 from 1998-2002. The former US Federal Reserve chairman’s independent inquiry has recommended UN secretary general Kofi Annan lift the diplomatic immunity currently protecting Benon Sevan from criminal investigations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is to open its pesticide approvals procedures to the public, allowing a 40-day consultation period to follow any publishing of a draft risk assessment of a product. Certain information will remain confidential, however, and be removed from the public draft.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched an Internet service enabling environmental health teams to track outbreaks of notified animal diseases across the European Union (EU). This Animal Disease Notification System is updated weekly and notes the number of outbreaks and the date of the most recent case, amongst other information.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
IT may never equal the four-fold rise in the price of a barrel of crude oil that took place between 1973 and 1974, but this year’s hike to more than US$60 a barrel has given all those industries dependent on the stability of fuel prices a severe shock, and the aviation industry is one of those reeling from the increases.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NEWLY-formed European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has signed a cooperation agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to make sure that they do not duplicate each other’s work. A memorandum of understanding, signed at a WHO meeting in Budapest, Hungary, has highlighted wide-ranging areas for collaboration.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) has warned of an outbreak of ‘Streptococcus suis’ disease amongst pigs in China, that has jumped species and caused 206 cases amongst humans, killing 38 and rendering 18 critically ill. The bacterial condition is rare in Europe and is contracted usually via cuts and grazes on people handling contaminated pigmeat.…