An innovative feed additive that reduces the emission of methane from livestock farming has been granted formal marketing approval by EU countries.

On Wednesday (23 February), Bovaer, a feed additive developed by the Dutch company DSM, was approved by the standing committee on Plant, Animals, Food and Feed (scoPAFF), which brings together representatives of EU27 member states and is chaired by a European Commission representative.

This feed additive aims at suppressing the enzyme that triggers methane production in a cow’s rumen. According to the DSM, the additive reduces enteric methane emissions by approximately 30% for dairy cows and as much as 90% for beef cows.

A lack of guidance surrounding sustainable farming means the UK may be ‘sleepwalking into its own food crisis’, an MP has cautioned.

Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture and MP for York Outer Julian Sturdy, said that while the UK now had the opportunity to become a ‘global hub for agri-science and innovation’, he voiced concerns over the Government’s ‘direction of travel’, saying that its ‘future vision for agriculture’ was far from clear.

Speaking at a Westminster Hall Debate earlier this week, Mr Sturdy said he had written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson last year to urge him to allow the UK to sign up to the Global Coalition for Sustainable Productivity Growth which would enable farmers to ‘adopt environmentally friendly and climate-smart farming practices without sacrificing productivity’, but as yet had had no response.

A purple tomato genetically modified to make it rich in the beneficial pigments found in “superfoods” such as blueberries could soon go on sale in the US. A small company called Norfolk Plant Sciences applied for approval last year and is confident of getting the go-ahead.

“We are optimistic that we will get the approvals that we need,” said Eric Ward, an adviser to Norfolk Plant Sciences, during an online presentation on 22 February. The company hopes to sell seeds to gardeners and supply fresh tomatoes and other tomato products to shops.

The purple tomato was created by Cathie Martin at the John Innes Centre in the UK. In 2008, her team reported that mice whose diet was supplemented with purple tomato powder lived nearly 30 per cent longer than those on a standard diet or a diet supplemented with powder from normal tomatoes.

The UK is "at risk of sleepwalking into its own food crisis" unless it develops a clear vision for how to increase production levels, Yorkshire MP and arable farmer Julian Sturdy has warned.

The York Outer MP told a Westminster Hall debate that he is worried about complacency over the issue given the global need to increase food production by 70 per cent by 2050. He said Britain was "uniquely placed" to lead the world in the area of sustainable agriculture.

"With its good soils, temperate climate, professional farming sector and world-leading research and development, Britain is uniquely placed not only to optimise its capacity for sustainable and efficient food production, but also to become a global hub for agriscience excellence and innovation, exporting technological solutions, attracting inward investment, and fostering international research co-operation.”

The government has announced £200 million of funding to help aid the UK's fight against devastating livestock diseases such as bird flu and bovine TB.

The investment will be pumped into the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) laboratories at Weybridge, known globally for its scientific and veterinary capability.

APHA, responsible for safeguarding animal and plant health, helped control the devastating outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in 2001, and is currently tasked with tackling the largest avian influenza outbreak on record.

UK inflation rose to the highest level for three decades in January, with the price of everyday food continuing to increase.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said consumer prices index (CPI) inflation reached 5.5% in January, up from 5.4% in December.

This was the highest rate since March 1992, when the CPI stood at 7.1%. Food and non-alcoholic drink prices rose by 4.3% in January, the largest in nearly 10 years.

Researchers in China are excited by their government’s approval of gene-edited crops, which they say clears the way for the plants’ use in agriculture and should boost research into varieties that are tastier, pest-resistant and better adapted to a warming world.

Since China’s agriculture ministry released preliminary guidelines on 24 January, researchers have been hurrying to submit applications for the use of their gene-edited crops. These include the development of wheat varieties resistant to a fungal disease called powdery mildew, which are described in a paper in Nature this week.

“This is very good news for us. It really opens the door for commercialization,” says plant biologist Caixia Gao at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology in Beijing, who is a co-author of the paper.

Proponents of a large-scale move to organic farming in the UK have been issued with a warning as new research showed an EU switch is set to slash crop yields. Under plans set out in the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy, European farmers will have to increase the organic area to at least 25 per cent of the overall farmed area, but a study from Wageningen University showed crop yields under organic systems were up to 47 per cent lower than conventional.

The research - Impact Assessment of EC2030 Green Deal Targets for Sustainable Crop Production - also found an EU target to cut pesticide use and risks would be put at risk by the move to organic, with much higher use of copper-based active ingredients to control disease.

Paul Temple, a mixed farmer from east Yorkshire, described the findings as ’shocking’ and claimed they provided some important lessons about the direction of travel in the UK. "Transitioning to lower-input farming systems - while at the same time denying access to advanced genetic technologies such as GM and gene editing - is simply a recipe for reduced production, higher food prices and increased reliance on food imports, so offshoring emissions and environmental degradation elsewhere," he said.

Expanding global land area for conservation could have an adverse impact on human health and food security, UK scientists have warned.

Researchers studied the potential effects of “extreme” conservation and what would happen if 30% and 50% of terrestrial land were devoted to biodiversity.

They found that when agriculture was displaced, global and regional food prices could increase, which in turn could affect food security and increase diseases associated with malnourishment.

There is widespread misunderstanding about the impact methane has on global warming, according to Myles Allen, professor of geosystem science and head of the climate dynamics group at the University of Oxford.

“UK agriculture is no longer contributing to an increase in global temperatures and that has been achieved largely because of falling methane emissions from the ruminant sector over the last 20-30 years,” said Prof Allen.

He added he believed we need to frame climate policy in terms of warming outcomes rather than emissions inputs.