Prime Time Crime
Canadian Food Industry
PARIS - Lakes of wine, oceans of milk, valleys of sugar, mountains of butter and cheese, all rotting away on the backs of the European taxpayer. And at the other extreme, farmers paid to not actually grow anything at all. Such are the famed historic excesses of Europe's infamous CAP - Common Agricultural Policy - an unutterably complex array of often-wayward subsidies, price controls and tariffs by which the European Union nurtures its farming sector. (Toronto Star) PREVIOUS: Greed & Corruption: EU
Floods feed grain price inflation
CHICAGO - Beyond the short-term losses from physical damage and lost business, the worst flood to hit the US breadbasket in 15 years has added momentum to the recent surge in food prices worldwide. (MSNBC)
PREVIOUS: Flooding in Midwest Flood news from around the state
Asian parasite killing honeybees
MADRID - A parasite common in Asian bees has spread to Europe and the Americas and is behind the mass disappearance of honeybees in many countries, says a Spanish scientist who has been studying the phenomenon for years. The culprit is a microscopic parasite called nosema ceranae. (Reuters) PREVIOUS: Why are bees dying? Colony Collapse Disorder
Virus blamed for collapse of American bee colonies
Japan lab may have induced mad cow infection
TOKYO - The Hokkaido Animal Research Centre in northern Japan injected prions from infected cows into the brains of 14 Holstein calves in 2004 and some in the first group have developed what seems to be early symptoms of the mad cow disease, said Tsutomu Ogi, director of the institute's livestock engineering section. (AP)
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body. (Guardian UK)
A catastrophic water shortage could prove an even bigger threat to mankind this century than soaring food prices and the relentless exhaustion of energy reserves, according to a panel of global experts at the Goldman Sachs "Top Five Risks" conference. (Telegraph UK) RELATED: California is in a drought
UK supermarkets 'fixed milk & cheese prices'
LONDON - Five of Britain's biggest supermarkets have been fixing the prices of milk, butter and cheese at a cost to the consumer of £270 million, according to the Office of Fair Trading. Asda, Morrisons, Safeway, Sainsbury's and Tesco colluded with five leading dairy producers to keep prices artificially high, the OFT claimed this morning. (Telegraph UK) RELATED: Canadian regulators want to regulate cheese Cheesed off Government's cheese plan stinks
Restaurants a nutritionist's nightmare
WASHINGTON - The typical Chinese restaurant menu is a sea of nutritional no-nos, a consumer group has found. "I don't want to put all the blame on Chinese food," said Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest whose report was released Tuesday. (AP)
Dietary supplements face stricter regulations
WASHINGTON - For the first time, makers of dietary supplements, including vitamins and herbal pills, will be required to test their products, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday. (MSNBC) PREVIOUS: China has cornered the global market for vitamins
LOS ANGELES - Southern California meatpacker United Food Group LLC expanded a recall to include 5.7 million pounds of fresh and frozen beef that may be contaminated with the potentially deadly E. coli bacteria, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Saturday. (MSNBC)
Report: Chickens getting dirtier
NEW YORK - Fresh chickens we buy in stores are more laden with potentially harmful bacteria than they were three years ago, according to Consumer Reports. "We've got a very dirty industry out there," Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist at the magazine, said on The Early Show Tuesday. "Part of the problem has to do with the inspection system, not testing for enough bacteria. It's simply faulty." (CBS)
Aqualfina labels to spell out source
NEW YORK - PepsiCo Inc. will spell out that its Aquafina bottled water is made with tap water, a concession to the growing environmental and political opposition to the bottled water industry. According to Corporate Accountability International, a US watchdog group, the world's No. 2 beverage company will include the words "Public Water Source" on Aquafina labels. (Reuters)
Food imports 'to top $1 trillion'
The amount of money being spent globally on importing food is set to top $1 trillion in 2008, an influential report estimates. Soaring food prices are the cause of the huge bill - likely to be up 26% on the 2007 total - said the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). (BBC)
Food prices to stay high despite record crops
US Congress looks at limits on institutional investors in commodities markets
Blame Wall Street for $135 oil
OPEC 2013 break-even point $70 a barrel
Commodity markets Institutional investor Hedge funds Pension funds
At UN food crisis talks, menu is politics
Famine Early Warning Systems Network
UN warns about higher food costs
Abolish wasteful world food body
UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
UN food body 'should be scrapped'
Bush seeks $770M more in World Food Aid
Canada earmarks $230M for food aid
BANGKOK - Every Wednesday for as far back as anybody can remember, a small group of businessmen has met for lunch down a leafy lane in central Bangkok before sitting down to set world rice prices. It may have been only an "indicative" level, but few countries or exporters could risk deviating too far from the benchmark set by the big hitters of Thailand's Rice Exporters Association, the guardians of nearly a third of all the rice to be traded globally. (IHT)
Asia's rice crisis goes global
Rice price surge frustrates and puzzles
Fears mount as rice prices soar
UN: Soaring food prices 'global crisis'
Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC)
Middle Class choice: eat or stay warm
United Nations world food program
Food costs threaten world's political stability
Hungry crowds spell trouble for world leaders
Hike in world prices sparks deadly riots
The new global menace: food inflation
Government falls after food riots
Death roll raises in Haiti food protests
Haitians riot over food prices
No progress in fight against hunger, UN says
OK, Sister, drop that sandwich
Hunger costs millions of lives & billions of $s
Little progress in fighting world hunger
'No drop' in world hunger deaths