The British government is considering the possibility of making it illegal to sell energy drinks to under-16s, as part of a plan to tackle childhood obesity. The proposals put forward by the United Kingdom's Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt include making it compulsory for restaurants and cafés to show calorie details on menus, as well as advertising restrictions for foods high in salt and sugar targeted at children. The goal is to halve the number of obese children by 2030.

The packaging industry should invest in developing countries. This is the suggestion put forward by FAO ahead of the opening of the 7th Global Packaged Summit. These countries often lack both high quality packaging materials and suitable equipment. Accordingly, FAO has launched the Save Food initiative, with the packaging industry working partnership with the food industry in order to reduce food loss and waste in developing countries.

A study by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University of Copenhagen suggests that the social and environmental results of intensive land use in low- and medium-income countries are not as positive as might be expected. According to many policy strategies, sustainable intensive farming is a suitable tool for achieving the social and environmental goals (like combating hunger and protecting biodiversity) set out by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Accords. The United Nations says that the productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers must be doubled by 2030 if we are to eliminate hunger and ensure all people have access to food. The study suggests there is no scientific evidence to support this assumption.

Read also: Nature Sustainability

FAO and Pennsylvania State University have developed an App to combat the spread of the Fall Armyworm in Sub-Saharan Africa. Just two years since it first appeared, the pest is infecting millions of hectares of maize, and threatening the food security of over 300 million people.

Emirates airlines has announced that its catering division will invest in a USD 40 million joint venture to build the world's largest farming facility. The partnership between Emirates Flight Catering and U.S.-based Crop One Holdings will lead to the construction of a 130,000 square meter vertical farm near Dubai's Al Maktoum International airport, with the capacity to produce almost three tons of vegetables per day.

The Council of the European Union emphasized the role of FAO as a knowledge-based organization for sustainable agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as food security and nutrition. In deliberations, the Council adopted conclusions on the E.U. and its member states' medium-term priorities for FAO.

A team of German researchers, led by Judith Haendeler and Joachim Altschmied, has published the results of a study investigating the health benefits of caffeine on the heart. According to the study, published in Plos Biology, four cups of strong coffee a day are the right amount for a healthy heart, particularly for adults and older people. This is because caffeine benefits the blood vessels.


The recent 2018 Global Food Policy Report, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, debunks anti-immigration rhetoric, showing how migration brings economic benefits to both origin and destination countries, as well as improving food security. It is estimated that in the United States alone migrants have generated a ten-year net benefit of USD 63 billion.

Following tests carried out at NASA's International Space Station, scientists are now working to produce wheat more quickly on Earth. The idea is to quickly grow every generation, in an effort to reap several crops of wheat in a single year. In addition, the seeds have the ability to withstand drought, severe heat and extreme events caused by climate change. The experiments conducted so far have produced a wheat cycle from seed to seed in just eight weeks, growing six generations of wheat in a single year.

Sea level rise due to climate change is set to threaten many coastal communities in the Unites States. A new study found that as many as 311,000 homes could be flooded every two weeks within the next 30 years.