India
With UAW on strike, Deere says, ‘We’ll keep running’
The world's largest farm equipment maker, Deere and Co., said managers and other salaried employees would keep its factories operating in the face of a strike by 10,000 union workers. "We'll keep running," the company said on Thursday.
U.S. ends organic recognition agreement with India
Global glut of palm oil adds to India’s health woes
Rates of obesity, diabetes and other diet-related diseases have soared in India and other developing countries in recent years, coinciding with a flood of cheap palm oil that is used in everything from processed snacks and fast food to traditional foods like samosas and poori, according to the latest story from FERN, published with The Nation. <strong>No paywall</strong>
Climate change puts more than a billion people at risk of iron deficiency
Rising levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will reduce the amount of nutrients in staple crops such as rice and wheat, say researchers at Harvard's public health school. As a consequence, more than 1 billion women and children would lose a large amount of their dietary iron intake and be at larger risk of anemia and other diseases.
In novel filing, U.S. says India grossly over-subsidizes wheat and rice production
It is clear that India violates WTO limits on trade-distorting farm subsidies, said the Trump administration on Wednesday in announcing a “counter-notification” that could be the first step to a formal challenge of India’s wheat and rice subsidies.
Greenhouse-gas emissions again on the rise
Global climate emissions are on the rise again, after staying relatively flat between 2014-2016. Researchers with the Global Carbon Project predict that emissions levels will increase anywhere from 0.8 to 3 percent in 2017, says NPR.
‘Golden rice’ advances in Philippines, hits pothole in India
Philippines officials are considering a request for a biosafety permit for so-called golden rice, which would allow use of the vitamin A-enriched GMO rice as food or feed and for processing, says the Cornell Alliance for Science. The biosafety permit would allow researchers to conduct human nutrition studies, the alliance said during the summer, and an application to allow cultivation of the rice in the Philippines "will be submitted in the future."
Climate change policies in India, China could make up for U.S. regression
Climate change is likely to be slightly less damaging thanks to policies in India and China that could offset the U.S.'s reduced environmental efforts under President Trump. “The Carbon Action Tracker (CAT) report, by three independent European research groups, said current policies meant the world was headed for a warming of 3.4 degrees Celsius (6.1 Fahrenheit) by 2100, down from 3.6 degrees (6.5) it predicted a year ago,” explained Reuters.
India emerges as No. 1 in the world for cropland
A high-resolution search by satellite found 15 to 20 percent more cropland in the world than previously thought and identified India as the world leader, says the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS says its new map, showing 1.87 billion hectares of cropland, will help "to ensure global food and water security in a sustainable way."
Study: antibiotic use in India’s chicken industry is a looming disaster
Poultry farms in India are dosing their chickens with antibiotics at such high rates that 94 percent of meat chickens and 60 percent of laying hens tested in a new study harbored multi-drug-resistant bacteria that can cause grave human infections.
Global rebound in cotton production to flatten prices
Two years ago, world cotton production was the lowest in 13 years, due to smaller plantings and plunging yields. This year, the world will produce 14 percent more cotton than in 2017 for a harvest of 24.6 million tons that will drive down the season-average cotton price by 13 cents a pound, says the International Cotton Advisory Committee.
In population leapfrog, India to top China, Nigeria to hurdle U.S.
The most populous nation in Africa, Nigeria, with 191 million people today, will easily pass the United States to become the world’s third most populous nation by mid-century, says the UN Population Division in a biennial global population forecast. In a much shorter time span—just seven years—India will become the most populous nation on Earth, displacing China.
Palm oil industry confronts its human rights problem
In the last decade, consumers across North America and Europe have become increasingly aware of the environmental costs of producing palm oil, now the world’s most widely consumed vegetable oil. The industry’s social problems, however, have remained largely in the dark.
U.S. to close international climate change office
The Energy Department announced it would be disbanding the Office of International Climate and Technology, which was established in 2010 to help foreign countries lower their greenhouse gas emissions.
Pruitt blasts Paris climate treaty as a ‘bad deal’
The Paris climate treaty is a “bad deal” for the U.S. said Scott Pruitt, while adding that the country should stay “engaged" in international climate discussions.
A battle over seed royalties roils India and Monsanto
A groundswell of Hindu nationalism has inspired resistance in India to foreign influence and large multinationals, such as Monsanto, says Reuters in describing corporate battle that has disrupted the country's seed industry. Monsanto has withdrawn its application to sell a new generation of GE cotton seed in India, which recently became the largest cotton grower in the world.
Monsoon season in India may escape El Niño’s touch
The monsoon rains that are the lifeblood of India's farmers may be unaffected by forecasts of an El Niño weather pattern at mid-year, a top weather official told Reuters. The rains usually arrive around June 1 at Kerala, a state at the southern tip of India, the second-most populous nation in the world, and retreat by September from Rajastan, which borders Pakistan in northern India, some 2,000 kilometers away.
Millions of Indian farmers can’t pay bills in national cash shortage
As the India government overhauls the nation’s currency, the country’s 119 million farmers are struggling to find the cash they need to pay workers and cover costs, says NPR. The country is essentially cash-based, and farmers especially rely on having money in hand, rather than in the bank or on credit.
Trade ruling suggests weedkiller dumping hurt U.S. market
The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled, in a 4-0 vote, there was a reasonable indication that domestic herbicide manufacturers were hurt by dumping of imported 2,4-D weedkiller from China and India. The ITC vote allows the Commerce Department to continue its investigation of the imports.