The turbulence in the cocoa market is the most recent sign that speculation is back, and that the international financial markets have rediscovered agricultural commodities. They are now betting big again on commodities like wheat, coffee, rice and soybeans. As a result, prices are no longer determined by supply and demand, but by investment banks and hedge funds.

The fat is the product of Londoners’ “sewer abuse” — using the water system as general garbage disposal. Particularly troublesome is Londoners’ habit of pouring used cooking oil down the sink. Once in the sewer, the oil cools, congeals and then traps other garbage. Getting at the goo was not easy. Teams of workers, replete with breathing apparatus to protect them from the rancid smell, had to attack the fat with shovels. They then used water cannons to break down the “fatbergs” inside the sewer.

Health foods would be be nothing without the claims they make on the packaging. But some claims might soon vanish, due to a European regulation which demands that health food companies come up with the scientific evidence to back their labelling.

The emerging economies of Brazil, India, China and Russia will enjoy an agricultural boom over the next decade as production stalls in Western Europe, a report says. Agricultural output in the Bric nations will grow three times as fast as in the major developed countries, the joint United Nations-OECD study said.

New proposals to regulate food labels in the EU will go before the European Parliament on Tuesday.

Country-of-origin labelling may become mandatory for meat, poultry, fish, dairy produce, fruit and vegetables.

Meat labels would also state exactly where the animal was reared.

But there are fears that an EU-wide “traffic light” coding system could stigmatise some foods. Cheese, for example, could be red for fat but green for calcium and protein.

The advantages of upside-down gardening are many: it saves space; there is no need for stakes or cages; it foils pests and fungus; there are fewer, if any, weeds; there is efficient delivery of water and nutrients thanks to gravity; and it allows for greater air circulation and sunlight exposure.

IS ORGANIC FARMING AN ELITIST FETISH THAT HAMPERS EFFORTS TO STANCH GLOBAL HUNGER? OR IS IT THE KIND OF HOLISTIC APPROACH WE’LL NEED TO PRODUCE FOOD ON A CIRCUMSCRIBED PLANET? SEED KICKS OFF ANOXFORD-STYLE DEBATE ON GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY AND WHAT WE MEAN BY “SCIENTIFIC FARMING.”

Based on its energy requirements for lighting alone, vertical farming would be incapable of substituting for a substantial share of our soil-based agricultural production. But the lighting problem is only the first among many obstacles facing high-rise agriculture. Climate control to achieve suitable growing conditions would add huge energy requirements. And light fixtures would release more energy as heat than as light, which in summer would put huge loads on air-conditioning systems. To maintain the good health of plants grown indoors, humidity and air circulation must be very precisely controlled, often at a high energy cost. And before any of those needs would come the gargantuan resource requirements for construction of the towers themselves.

Jelentősen enyhülnek a kistermelőkre vonatkozó szabályok annak a rendeletnek az értelmében, amely a napokban léphet életbe. Újdonság például, hogy a jövőben a magyar kistermelői élelmiszerek is megtalálhatók lesznek a boltok polcain és az éttermek asztalain.