AppHarvest, a startup building North America’s largest greenhouse, raised $28 million in a Series C funding round. It brings the total fund raised for the greenhouse startup to $150 million during the past two years. AppHarvest is building some of America’s largest greenhouses, combining conventional agriculture techniques with today’s technology to grow non-GMO, chemical-free produce. […]
Tag: Coronavirus
Olam International, in partnership with Agropolis Fondation, is targeting ground-breaking scientific research that can deliver transformational impacts within global agriculture. Entries for the 2021 Prize are now open and the winner will receive an unrestricted US$75,000 grant for the scaling up of proven research. Applications are welcomed from academic or research institutions, civil societies and […]
Lincoln Agritech, a multidisciplinary research and development company owned by Lincoln University in New Zealand, has received $290,000 in government funding to create biodegradable wool-based personal protective equipment (PPE) masks for COVID-19 pandemic response. Established in 1964, Lincoln Agritech delivers leading-edge science and engineering knowledge and technologies into environmental, primary, processing and new materials applications. […]
COVID-19 brought the issue of migration in limelight in India. As per estimates, 1 out of every 3 Indian is a migrant. The imposition of lockdown as a safety measure to contain COVID-19 pandemic, has badly effected the unskilled and semi-skilled migrant work force of India. Due to COVID 19, massive reverse migration happened from urban […]
Supply lines across the food industry have been impacted by the coronavirus. Shuttered restaurants, university dining halls, workplace food providers, and more have all strained the food supply chain. In particular, the meat industry has suffered the hardest hit. In addition to closures of many of its largest purchasers, COVID-19 outbreaks inside meatpacking facilities have […]
Amid the challenges in global food systems due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department of Agriculture (DA), Philippines, is ready to take on the challenge of the ‘new normal’ facing the country’s agriculture and fishery sector. It is imperative for the government to rethink and restructure its policies and practices to prevent from being overwhelmed […]
The current coronavirus pandemic shows how unprepared humans are in fighting pathogens that originate in wildlife and jump to humans. Human immune systems are equally unprepared for drug-resistant diseases that jump from plants to humans. Drug-resistant fungal diseases are emerging as a major health threat, including Candida auris—a highly infectious fungus. Fungi are continually mutating, and with […]
Uncertainty about food availability sparked a wave of export restrictions, creating a shortage on the global market. Countries across the EU are increasingly considering protectionist measures, promoting national agri-food products and discouraging imported products. There has been a sequel of instances across the EU, particularly in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Austria, Greece, where concerned […]
The Commission is taking swift action and proposes additional exceptional measures to further support agricultural and food markets most affected. The package includes measures for private storage aid (PSA) in the dairy and meat sectors, the authorisation of self-organisation market measures by operators in hard hit sectors and flexibility in fruits and vegetables, wine and […]
USDA information about crop supply and demand estimates is fundamental to both policy-makers and agricultural investors. Nevertheless, the current situation with markets and crops is changing faster than USDA report releases, especially with the uncertainty around coronavirus pandemics. The uncertainty caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 reinforces the need for reliable, precise, politically neutral, […]
Farmers in North Carolina are dumping fresh milk they can’t sell during the coronavirus pandemic. Homeland Creamery supplies milk to restaurants and coffee shops. Many of those establishments are closed. There is a 65-percent decrease in total milk sales. Because there’s no one to buy milk in bulk, Bowman said he has no choice but […]
Human health, animal health, and the environment are all interconnected. There is a need for national framework that interconnects all of the federal agencies and departments to better prepare for, respond to and ultimately prevent the spread of diseases. The One Health Act requires the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of […]
Shoppers are likely to cut back sharply on discretionary spending after the lockdown, sacrificing outings to malls, restaurants, and salons to save up for immediate needs such as health and hygiene products. The online survey was conducted by Nielsen between 10 April and 14 April among 1,330 people in 23 cities. The findings indicate that […]
As we discover our agricultural system is responsible for spreading the virus, we also realize how perilously dependent we all are on those very systems of food provision for survival. Both of these problems are caused by one problem: our food system as a whole is controlled by private, for-profit capitalists. It is the profit […]
The increasing closure of meat processing plants in the US and Canada amidst the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, will have a marked impact on the agricultural economies in those countries. The meat processing and packing plants were reportedly closing down because staff members were testing positive for COVID-19. This included plants run by some of […]
When it fast became clear that the world faced a shortage of supplies to treat COVID-19 patients, veterinarians across the world sprang to donate medical equipment, including ventilators and surgical masks. Now, veterinary professionals from London to New York are preparing to offer something else: themselves. The strain on national health-care systems is worsened by […]
Thailand, already battling the spread of coronavirus, is now contending with another deadly viral outbreak—in horses. With hundreds of horse deaths reported there in the last 3 weeks, horse owners are rushing to seal their animals indoors with netting, away from biting midges that spread the virus for African horse sickness (AHS). Some scientists suspect […]
The Trump administration would like to make purchases of milk and meat products as part of a $15.5 billion initial aid package to farmers rattled by the coronavirus, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. We want to purchase as much of this milk, or other protein products, hams and pork products, and move them into where […]
Romanian workers are being flown in to help feed Britain amid a continuing recruitment crisis in the agriculture sector. Special charter flights have started flying into the UK from Bucharest with desperately needed workers for British farms that risk losing their crop of early summer fruit and vegetables because of the coronavirus lockdown. All passengers […]
As the coronavirus pandemic leads to anxiety over the strength of the world’s food supply chains, everyone from governments to banks are turning to the skies for help. The coronavirus outbreak has triggered a fresh surge in demand for alternative data to shed light on how the pandemic is impacting industries and trade across the […]
$50-million has been allocated to help farmers, the fish industry, and meat processors put in place measures to be able to provide migrant workers the ability to isolate for 14-days. Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Marie-Claude Bibeau says the food and supply chains are essential for maintaining fresh foods and vegetables for all Canadians. […]
With restaurants, hotels and schools closed, many of the nation’s largest farms are destroying millions of pounds of fresh goods that they can no longer sell. The waste has become especially severe in the dairy industry, where cows need to be milked multiple times a day, regardless of whether there are buyers. The nation’s largest […]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as an area lacking assess to healthy-food options measured by distance to one or more grocery stores, as well as a person’s ability to access those food options, transportation and the average income of an area. According to 2015 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, […]
The United States and China reached agreement on Phase One of a new trade deal late last year, but with spring planting just weeks away and the COVID-19 pandemic tightening its grip on the global economy, farmers are wondering what to expect in the marketplace and how it might impact the terms of the trade […]
Farm-to-table — the term has become a fixture in the culinary lexicon — started in the 1970s, when Chez Panisse and a handful of other restaurants hatched what then seemed like a radical notion: Build menus from food grown by nearby farmers who are thoughtful about everything from the seeds they select and the soil […]
