Today's News - 29 November 2012

“We were looking for someone passionate about what they do, entrepreneurial, innovative and a great communicator and Guy Watson is all of those things.”
Adam Henson, Judge of the Farmer of the Year Award,  BBC Food and Farming Awards, BBC Radio 4  Farming Today

EFSA releases final opinion on French GM study
The European Union's food safety watchdog has identified "Serious defects in the design and methodology" of a study by researchers from Caen University, working under Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini, which found rats fed on a diet of GM maize developed cancer at a higher rate than control animals.
Farming Online (28 Nov) 
Read more on the Soil Association’s position on the Seralini study 

Easy ways to be an eco-mum
At Home magazine shows it doesn’t take much effort to help ease the burden on Mother Earth while improving life for your children.
At Home (28 Nov)

How development organisations can tackle the fisheries challenge
Overfishing is becoming increasingly recognised for the ecological disaster that it is. The capacity of the global aggregate fishing fleet is at least double of what is needed to exploit the oceans sustainably, and fishing methods such as industrial bottom trawling have proved particularly destructive.
The Guardian (27 Nov)

Siberia's pesticide dumps may prove a bigger hazard than nuclear waste
Across the former Soviet Union harmful agricultural chemicals were either buried or improperly stored. Now the process of clean-up has begun.
The Guardian (27 Nov) 

How Africa is entangled in US, Europe’s GMOs politics
African countries are increasingly getting entangled between two conflicting giants on genetically modified organisms (GMO) issues, and now need serious political will to make decisions. Key development partners of the continent; the US ardently supports the GMOs while Europe vehemently opposes them, writes Polycarp Machira. 
The Citizen (28 Nov)

Amazon deforestation hits record low
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest has dropped to its lowest level in 24 years, the government said on Tuesday.
The Guardian (28 Nov)

Crowd Cultivation
What do you get when you cross crowd funding with plant breeding? At the Sárvári Research Trust, it’s the chance for ordinary gardeners to have a stake in the future, says gardening and environment writer John Walker.
Hartley Botanic (20 Nov) 

The cheeses saltier than a bag of crisps
Alarming levels of salt in cheese are contributing to an epidemic of high blood pressure responsible for strokes, heart attacks and thousands of early deaths a year, experts have warned. Cheese can contain as much salt as junk food products, says Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH).
Daily Mail (29 Nov) 

ELS Scheme should be part of Pillar One – Paterson
Defra Secretary Owen Paterson is proposing that the Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) Scheme should form the basis of greening in England under the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Farmers Guardian (28 Nov)

EU auditors deplore wasted farm aid in Eastern Europe
The EU's main audit body has criticised the way EU farm subsidies are allocated in Central and Eastern Europe, saying the recipients include estate agents, airports and hunting clubs.
BBC News (27 Nov)

NFU Mutual faces £20m flooding bill
Rural insurer NFU Mutual is facing a £20m bill to cover the cost of flooding, with parts of the country braced for more heavy rain. NFU Mutual is dealing with more than 500 claims from homes and businesses affected by the flooding, with most in the South West, followed by Wales and the Midlands. In Wales, three separate claims of £50,000 have been submitted for flood damage to farm buildings.
Farmers Weekly (28 Nov)

Farmers Apprentice
The first episode of Farmers apprentice aired yesterday.
Farmers Weekly, watch on demand (29 Nov) 

Farming Today
The winner of the 'Farming Today' Farmer of the year is revealed .Guy Watson ,who runs the largest organic veg box scheme in the UK, takes first prize. Judges Adam Henson and Christine Tacon praise Guy's passion for the vegetables he grows and his love for seasonal food.
BBC Radio 4, listen again (29 Nov) 

And finally … Pitcairn Islands' underwater treasures revealed - in pictures
The Pew Environment Group and National Geographic have uncovered a spectacular underwater habitat around the Pitcairn Islands, a British Overseas Territory that is home to the Bounty mutineers and their descendents. The two groups, along with the islanders, are calling on the UK government to make Pitcairn into the world's largest no-take marine reserve.
The Guardian (28 Nov)