(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

French court upholds Monsanto poisoning ruling

Lyon/Paris|Reuters — A French court upheld on Thursday a 2012 ruling in which Monsanto was found liable in the chemical poisoning of a French farmer, who says he suffered neurological problems after inhaling the U.S. company’s Lasso herbicide. The decision by an appeal court in Lyon confirmed the initial judgment, the first such case heard in court […] Read more


(Allan Dawson photo)

Baking, parched fields set to trim EU wheat harvest

Paris | Reuters — A heatwave in Western Europe is adding to stress on wheat crops after a dry end to spring and reducing what had been very high yield potential only a month ago. Record temperatures for early July at around 40 C in parts of France unnerved traders in the European Union’s top […] Read more

(OIE.int via Flickr)

OIE cuts six European countries’ BSE risk level

Paris | Reuters — The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has lowered to the safest level the official risk of six countries for BSE, a move expected to open international market access for their beef exports. These countries are France, Ireland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Liechtenstein. OIE members in Paris last week eased […] Read more



France says EU orders repayment of $1.5B in ag subsidies

Paris | Reuters — The European Commission has asked France to repay 1.1 billion euros (C$1.54 billion) of farm subsidies dating back to 2008-2012, the French agriculture ministry said Tuesday. The Commission’s claim, which mainly relates to inaccurate declarations of farm area, initially amounted to around 3.5 billion euros before being negotiated down by France, […] Read more


French farmers cry wolf over sheep killings

Paris | Reuters — French farmers, who regularly bring livestock into Paris to punctuate their protests, drove some 250 sheep into the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on Thursday to highlight an unusual concern — that a growing wolf population is killing their flocks. Wolves were reintroduced to France in the 1990s under an international […] Read more