FAO Food & Agriculture Organization [to 22 August 2015]
http://www.fao.org/news/archive/news-by-date/2015/en/

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Soils are the foundation for vegetation
Healthy soils are crucial for ensuring the continued growth of natural and managed vegetation, providing feed, fibre, fuel, medicinal products and other ecosystem services such as climate regulation and oxygen production. Soils and vegetation have a reciprocal relationship.
20-08-2015

Plastic pellets everywhere, and diving robot sensors
The R/V Dr Fridtjof Nansen, a research vessel oeprated by Norway’s Institute of Marine Research with advice from FAO, is in the middle of the southern Indian Ocean, assessing the incidence of microplastics and the Gyre…An estimated 5 trillion pieces of plastic currently float in the world’s oceans, up from none in 1950 and posing a question about their potential impact on a food supply chain that stretches from plankton – which have been filmed eating plastic pellets – up through shellfish, salmon, tuna and eventually humans, not to mention whales….
11-08-2015

FAO Food Price Index hits lowest level in almost six years
The FAO Food Price Index averaged 164.6 points in July, down 1.0 per cent from June, and 19.4 percent from a year earlier. The trade-weighted index tracks prices on international markets of five major food commodity groups: cereals, meat, dairy products, vegetable oils and sugar.
6-08-2015