Food

"The United Nations agency for children, UNICEF, warns that one of the strongest El Niño events on record could bring floods, drought, displacement and disruption to education, urging governments to act before the crisis worsens." "More than 347 million children in nearly 100 countries and territories are expected to face unusually wet or dry conditions in the coming months as the 2026-2027 El Niño develops, UNICEF has warned."

"The US should review policies that allow major food crops to be sprayed directly with herbicides shortly before harvest, and should tighten related policies that allow for high levels of residues of those pesticides in finished food products, according to a petition filed Thursday with the government regulators."

"Nearly 93% of known plastic chemicals used to wrap food and make clothes, toys, and other common household and personal care products pose a high risk to human health, according to a new investigation provided exclusively to CNN."

"Seafood isn’t just a key source of protein and calories; it’s also where millions around the world get essential vitamins and minerals needed to build tissue, fight infections and grow. Yet, as modern mechanized fishing fleets plunder global waters, populations in low-income countries are losing out."

"Research scientist Ashish Rajurkar kneels in the dirt, lifting a large clod of soil tangled around a soybean plant. He knocks away pieces of earth from the plant’s roots, which slope straight down instead of out to the side like typical soybean plants."

"A group of commercial fishers, fishing guides and seafood processors in southwest Louisiana is suing liquefied natural gas company Venture Global, claiming that dredging operations in preparation for the construction of a new terminal resulted in a sediment spill that killed millions of oysters and diminished catches of finfish, crabs and shrimp."

"Bryce Black kneels in a wheat field battered by intense drought. He holds two strands, remarking on how small the seed head is compared with what’s normal."

"A new study identifies the chemical groups that packaging manufacturers and regulators should target for replacement in the food system to protect human health."

“Trump said Friday that he was authorizing legal documents to be drafted to give farmers and ranchers ‘the right to process their own food,’ casting the move as an effort to break what he called a ‘nasty monopoly’ in the meat industry,” Macias reported." “The announcement came after cattle producers and some Republicans pushed back on Trump’s plan to temporarily allow tariff-free imports of up to 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef, a move intended to ease pressure on consumers facing high prices at the meat counter.”