Europe

The avian influenza in British Columbia is H5N2, the same virus that caused previous outbreaks in Canada, says Canadian Press. Officials have quarantined four poultry farms in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver because of the disease.

In the drawn-out negotiation over a trans-Atlantic trade agree, "no single issue is inflaming the debate more than food — specifically U.S. calls for Europe to open its door to long-banned American foodstuffs that are hormone-treated, chemically sanitized or genetically modified," says the Washington Post.

One result of Russia's ban on food imports from Europe and the United States is a surge in interest in domestic food producers, especially organic farms, says the New York Times in a story from Moscow.

The new H5N8 avian influenza confirmed in Germany, the Netherlands and Britain "poses a significant threat to the poultry sector, especially in low-resourced counties situated along the Black Sea and East Atlantic migratory routes for wild birds", said two...

Serious drought cut yields sharply on as much as 15 percent of corn land in China, second to the United States as the world's top producer, says USDA. It estimates the harvest at 214 million tonnes, down 8 million tonnes from estimates made before the brunt of the dry weather was felt.

Scientists say a fungus that has devastated salamanders in Europe could easily spread to the United States, said the New York Times, quoting researchers who called for stricter biosecurity rules.

The Spanish energy company Abengoa opened the world's largest cellulosic refinery in Hugoton, about 90 miles southwest of Dodge City, Kansas, said Biofuels Digest.

Like the United States, the European Union is reaping a record corn crop this year, says USDA, estimating the European crop at 71 million tonnes.

That's how Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack summed up U.S. and EU differences on so-called geographic indicators, the names that tie a food to its home area, whether it's Vidalia onions from Georgia or sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is on a whirlwind tour of Europe this week with the goal of expanding trans-Atlantic agricultural trade.

The executive summary of a European study, "Nitrogen on the Table," says if Europe reduced its meat consumption, it "would reduce nitrogen air and water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, while freeing up large areas of farmland for other purposes such as food export or bioenergy."

The Environmental Working Group asked the government to "launch a new investigation to determine whether the use of diphenylamine, or DPA, is safe for U.S. consumer," said Food Safety News.

Barclays, one of the five largest banks in comodities, "is reportedly planning to exit large parts of its agricultural trading business," says the Financial Times, with an announcement possible on Tuesday.

Bird flu cases have been reported from the Arctic islands of northern Norway to southern Portugal this year in the largest epidemic yet seen in Europe of the disease, said the E.U. food safety agency on Monday. The virus that causes highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was unusually persistent during the summer and the risk of disease among flocks would increase with autumn migratory season, it said.