News archive 2014

Urgent action is required to improve the health of the world’s limited soil resources and stop land degradation, so as to ensure that future generations have enough supplies of food, water, energy and raw materials, government representatives and experts meeting at FAO warned today. e basis for global agricultural production.

The Tenth Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) ended today in Dili, Timor-Leste, and placed food and nutrition security at the centre of the bloc's agenda.

Increased efforts are needed to improve awareness among rural communities in West Africa about the risks of contracting the Ebola virus from eating certain wildlife species including fruit bats, FAO warned today.

UN food standards body the Codex Alimentarius Commission this week adopted new standards to protect consumer health worldwide, including setting out maximum acceptable levels of lead in infant formula and of arsenic in rice.

The recent fall in prices of major crops is expected to continue over the next two years before stabilising at levels above the pre-2008 period, but markedly below recent peaks, according to the latest Agricultural Outlook produced by the OECD and FAO.

An FAO project to equip small fishing communities with the tools and know-how to dry fish on simple raised racks instead of on the sand has changed lives along the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Burundi.

An agreement signed by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and the Thomson Reuters Foundation Editor-in-Chief Belinda Goldsmith outlines a number of joint activities to be undertaken by the Organization and the Foundation’s global team of journalists covering humanitarian issues, women’s rights, human trafficking, the human impact of climate change and corruption.

The FAO Food Price Index was down for a third consecutive month in June, a decline mostly influenced by lower wheat, maize and palm oil prices that reflected ample supplies and improved global production prospects for these commodities.

A “Top Ten” list of the world’s most damaging food-borne parasites has been released and new guidelines are being developed to control them.

Indigenous peoples, local communities and private smallholders own or manage a growing proportion of the world's forests and can play a significant role in tackling deforestation and reducing poverty - especially if they band together in producer organizations, say two new publications released today by FAO and a group of its partners.