News items related to ag tech, biotech, trade ? and perhaps some other interesting items out there related to agriculture ? will be posted on this page throughout the week (as the week progresses newest items will be in?green at bottom of sections). ?Be sure to check in regularly.  

TRADE, TRADE RELATED, INFRASTRUCTURE:

Wheat Growers in the United States and Canada support cross-border trade and open wheat market - NewsHubNation - By Levi Wood and Jason Scott (Feb 8)
"Our organizations [Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association and U.S. Wheat Associates] and farmers on both sides of the border strongly support cooperating to ensure an open market" - Link *Note - Levi Wood is a member of the GFN
Mexico ready to retaliate by hurting American corn farmers - CNN Money - By Patrick Gillespie (Feb 13)
"...Mexican senator Armando Rios Piter... says he will introduce a bill this week where Mexico will buy corn from Brazil and Argentina instead of the United States." -?Link?
World Trade Outlook Indicator suggests moderate trade momentum in first quarter of 2017 - World Trade Organization (Feb 14)

"Trade-related indicators including air freight, automobile sales, export orders and container shipping have all registered solid gains in recent months, auguring for faster growth in merchandise trade volumes in the first few months of the year." - Link

Trade deals are complicated because trade is complicated - Los Angeles Times - Op-ed by Dalibor Rohac (Feb 13)

"Meaningful liberalization, then, has to focus on smoothing over the differences in regulatory regimes. Value chains extend through numerous countries and often involve shipping intermediate products across borders. As a result, there are countless environmental, safety and sanitary rules enforced by different conformity assessment bodies." - Link

Reshape or shatter??The pitfalls of renegotiating NAFTA - The Economist (Feb 11)

"A revision of the North American trade deal will not give Donald Trump what he wants" - Link

Not all blackBrexit: the New Zealand precedent - The Economist (Feb 11)

"How New Zealand coped with the loss of preferential access to its biggest market" - Link?

EU Parliament passes CETA trade deal?- Food Navigator - By Niamh Michail?(Feb 15)
"MEPs have voted in favour of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada in Strasbourg today with 408 votes in favour and 254 against... must now be passed by national and regional governments, which opponents have welcomed as an opportunity to stop it." - Link

AG, AG TECH, PRODUCTION, RELATED ISSUES:

Uganda's Bad Seeds - Reason.com - By Francisco Toro (Mar 2017 issue)
"East Africans go hungry because they can't trust their markets" - Link
Genetically modified banana trial to return to Northern Territory in hope of finding variety resistant to Panama TR4 - ABC News (Australia) - By Lisa Hebert (Feb 12)
"We're now taking those four lines that look very promising and trialling a much larger number of plants over a much bigger area." - Link
Chemical breakthrough gives hope for future of agricultural weed control - ABC Rural (Australia) - By Joanna Prendergast (Feb 14)
"The discovery is being welcomed by grain growers who are battling a number of weeds with growing amounts of resistance to chemical controls." - Link

POLICY, REGULATORY, ACTIVISM, OTHER:

An informed opinion on GMOs - Hawaii: In Real Life - By Ed Morita (Jan 30)
"I wanted factual information, and it has taken me several years to gather enough that I feel I can have an informed opinion on the matter. That opinion is that I am NOT opposed to GMOs." - Link
Supermarkets look to sustainability as the next organic - The Baltimore Sun - By Lorraine Mirabella (Jan 28)
"The designations are part of a ratings system the Landover-based grocer is testing in nine of its stores that measures the sustainability of food, both fresh and processed." - Link
Opinion: Agricultural Technology Can't Be Ignored - The Standard (Kenya) - By Gilbert arap Bor (Feb 10)
"...we?re choosing to squander a promising opportunity, are still plagued with scientific ignorance and that once again, an African nation continues to lag behind the world in everything." - Link *Note - The author, Gilbert arap Bor is a GFN member and the 2011 Kleckner Award recipient
Are your food facts really food myths? - The Columbus Dispatch - By Marion Renault (Feb 8)
"Scientists communicate in data charts and tables; lay people often make decisions based on emotion. It can be challenging to speak both languages... " - Link
Juncker plans radical shake-up to save the EU from itself - Politico, Europe Edition - By Simon Marks (Feb 7)

"Commission chief wants to kick toxic decisions back to national governments...A stark example of how the EU?s legislative sausage gets made will take place next month when European countries need to decide whether to clear genetically modified crops for cultivation." - Link

Why Nigeria Needs To Key Into Biotechnology Global Evolution - Leadership (Nigeria) - By Nkechi Isaac (Feb 14)

"With the current population of over 180 million people, famine, malnutrition and hunger are staring the nation in the face. All these emergency situations are closely linked with the inability to produce enough food to feed the people, which make it obvious that the conventional method of agriculture is not working for us." - Link