agri-food

A team from Harvard University (United States) and the University of Ghana has analysed the meteorological factors that can most significantly affect cocoa crops, the raw material used to make chocolate. In addition to low rainfall during the dry season – a long-standing concern – heavy rainfall during the wet season has emerged as a key factor. This pattern was observed in all three countries studied, which are major cocoa producers: Ghana, Ecuador and Indonesia. The authors, who have published their findings in PNAS, emphasise that rainfall harmful to cocoa is linked to larger-scale climate patterns, such as El Niño or variations in sea surface temperature in the Atlantic; consequently, it is possible to predict some poor harvest years before the damage occurs, with sufficient advance warning to alert farmers.

A meta-analysis published today in PNAS shows that, globally, the loss of agricultural production due to insufficient pollination has declined since the 1980s, primarily thanks to the use of honeybees. The research includes 165 studies published between 1950 and 2019, the results of which showed that fields without managed pollinators did not exhibit a clear reduction in this loss of productivity. According to the authors, this type of pollination has mitigated yield losses, but the heavy reliance on a single pollinator species—the common honeybee—poses risks to agriculture. 

A study claims that 98% of the environmental claims made by meat and dairy companies constitute greenwashing—statements and promises of environmental action that are not backed by scientific evidence. The analysis is based on 1,233 claims published between 2021 and 2024 in sustainability reports and on websites (for example, “producing carbon-neutral dairy products by 2050 at the latest”) by 33 major companies, including Danone and Nestlé. “The meat and dairy industry may be misleading consumers and investors about whether and to what extent they are addressing environmental impacts, including climate change,” the authors write, whose study is published in PLoS Climate..

The European Union is close to passing legislation to facilitate the use of plants edited using CRISPR, a technology that makes it possible to modify the genome of living organisms with precision. The Council of Ministers of the EU is scheduled to deliberate on this legislation on 21 April, and in this article we explain what these techniques are, their potential benefits and risks, and how they will be regulated.

The General Assembly of the United Nations has declared 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer. This initiative aims to ‘raise awareness and focus policy attention on the obstacles and challenges faced by women and girls in agriculture,’ as well as to promote actions to address these issues. But what are these obstacles? We answer questions about the situation of women farmers with data and expert sources. 

An international team has estimated global vaccination coverage and the incidence of 104 diseases transmitted by cattle, poultry and pigs in 203 countries and territories over the last two decades. Their conclusions are that current vaccination coverage of global livestock populations may be insufficient to prevent various diseases, such as anthrax, rabies and contagious nodular dermatosis, of which 17 outbreaks have been recorded in Spain. The results are published in PNAS.

The adoption of plant-based diets could reshape agricultural employment worldwide. This is the main conclusion of an international study that estimates that by 2030, between 5% and 28% less agricultural labour would be needed, i.e. between 18 and 106 million fewer full-time jobs. The countries most affected would be those with agriculture based largely on livestock farming, while others, especially low-income countries, could need between 18 and 56 million more workers to grow fruit, vegetables, legumes and nuts. The study is published in The Lancet Planetary Health.

In 2021, the eruption of the Tajogaite volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma caused the loss of 53,000 tonnes of bananas, equivalent to 50% of its production, which is essential to the local economy. Given the potential risk of contamination from ash and magma, a team of researchers from Spanish centres analysed the composition of bananas in the area of the eruption. The study, conducted using mass spectrometry and published in PLOS One, confirms that they are safe and healthy to eat. For most potentially toxic elements, the estimated maximum intake remained below 1% of the tolerable daily intake (TDI) and in no case exceeded 3% of the TDI.

US Department of Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr's proposal to let bird flu spread in turkeys and chickens to identify surviving animals would be "dangerous and unethical", a group of scientists warns in a policy forum article published by Science. In addition to the suffering of infected animals, allowing a highly lethal, rapidly evolving and contagious virus to follow a natural course of infection "would prolong exposure for farmworkers, which could increase viral adaptation and transmission risks for poultry, other peridomestic animals, and humans," they warn.

Up to 1.4 billion people may be living in areas with soil contaminated by heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel and lead, according to research published in Science. The paper, which used data from more than 1,000 studies, estimates that 14-17% of farmland worldwide could be contaminated by at least one toxic metal. Cadmium is the most widespread, especially in South and East Asia, parts of the Middle East and Africa.