Food, in brief

Alaska pollock is the second-largest fishery on Earth, and in the US it goes into McDonald's Filet-O-Fish, fish sticks and imitation crab. [1]

The nets catch other sea life too. Over the last ten years, pollock trawlers in the Bering Sea, between Alaska and Russia, caught about 18,000 Chinook and 288,000 other salmon a year, nearly all of them chum. [1][2]

Salmon runs in western Alaska have collapsed. In 2024 Alaska and Canada banned Chinook fishing on the Yukon River for seven years, one full salmon life cycle. [1]

In Rampart, a Native village on the Yukon with no grocery store, families who once filled smokehouses with salmon left their boats tied up this summer. [1]

Scientists say warmer water and changing ocean conditions, not trawl nets, are the main cause of the decline. [1][2] Critics answer that bycatch is one of the few causes managers can control. [1]

Most chum caught by the trawlers come from other rivers, as far away as Russia and Japan. About 17% are from western Alaska, but even 9% in 2021 meant more than 51,000 fish. [1]

In February the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which writes many of the rules for the Bering Sea fleet, recommended a cap of 45,000 western Alaska chum. Critics said it was too high. [1]

The industry says every salmon is counted by observers or cameras, and every boat carries a device that lets salmon swim out of the net. [1][2] One captain said steering away from salmon on one trip burned nearly 3,000 gallons of fuel. [1]

Halibut and crab fishers face shrinking limits too, while Alaska's trawlers threw back about 96 million pounds of unwanted catch in 2025. [1][2]

Trawling is now an election issue. At least 10 of the 19 first candidates for governor criticised it, and the governor nominates five of the council's seven appointed voting members. [1][2]

In the US Senate race, Democrat Mary Peltola wants an end to large factory trawlers, and Republican Senator Dan Sullivan has a bill to cut bycatch. [1] In the House race, Bill Hill, an independent and a Bristol Bay salmon fisherman, is challenging Republican Nick Begich. [4]

Trawl nets that touch the seabed also stir up carbon stored in the mud. A 2024 study estimated the extra carbon dioxide could be up to twice what the world's fishing fleets burn in fuel. [3]

Why it matters. Watch who wins the governor's race on 3 November, because the winner nominates five of the seven appointed members of the council that sets the trawlers' salmon cap. [1][4]

The Indus, Pakistan's biggest river, destroyed Basti Kanjal, a village of more than 500 houses near the city of Layyah, in this year's floods. [11] Since June about 5,000 acres of farmland have been lost, and news reports put the number of people forced from home at 100,000. [11] A professor at Quaid-i-Azam University, writing in Dawn, says 38 years of satellite pictures show the river being pushed east by a canal, a barrage and earth flood banks. [11] A barrage is a low dam that turns river water into canals.

Why it matters. The river is now 200 metres from its old channel by Layyah, and the city's flood bank ends 3.5km before the river's new edge. [11] If it keeps moving, it could flow around Taunsa Barrage, whose canals water millions of acres of farms. [11]

Ethiopians have planted more than 47 billion tree seedlings in seven years, aiming for 50 billion by 2030. [9] Over the last century most of the country's forests were cut for farms, grazing and fuel, so rain now washes the topsoil away. [9] That damage costs Ethiopia an estimated $4.3 billion a year in smaller harvests and lost income. [9] In August, 26.6 million people planted 800 million seedlings in one day, Ethiopia's government says. [9]

Why it matters. A 2026 study of 44,500 seedlings in southern Ethiopia found about 80% had survived. [9] One farmer's barley rose from about 1,800 to 3,200 pounds an acre after he planted trees and grass. [9] An Ethiopian restoration ecologist says the campaign counts trees planted more than trees kept alive; a government adviser disputes that. [9]

Barry Callebaut, the world's biggest supplier of cocoa and chocolate to food companies, said last month it would also sell fillings and other ingredients. [5] Its share price fell further, to 1,035 Swiss francs, after a slide that began in February. [5] Cocoa prices are below their record of early 2025 but jumped in late August and again in early October. [6] Ghana and Ivory Coast grow over half the world's cocoa, and ING says climate damage there is lasting. [6]

Why it matters. Big chocolate brands raised prices in 2024 and 2025, and in 2026 they reached the limit of what shoppers would pay, ING says. [6] It says cheaper chocolate could use more cocoa substitutes, while expensive brands keep real cocoa. [6]

The American Farm Bureau Federation, the biggest US farmers' group, published on 8 October what is known about the US-China '30-for-30' trade framework. [7] China's commerce ministry says about 90% of the farm goods it covers will lose the extra import taxes added during the trade fight. [7] It is not a promise to buy anything, and it does not name whole soybeans. [7] China had still booked 11.1 million tonnes of US soybeans by 1 October, against none a year earlier. [7]

Why it matters. US corn export sales are running 34% behind last year, a StoneX economist says. [7] Even after the cut, Australian and New Zealand farm goods could still pay less tax in China, because those countries have free-trade deals with it. [7]

Doctors in Nyeri, in Kenya's central highlands, say unreliable rain is damaging farmers' mental health. [13] Josephine Kihu has grown coffee for 30 years and now pays someone to water her trees because the rain is too light. [13] Charles Ndung'u lost 40 goats in three months to a dry spell and a livestock disease. [13] Kahindo Gacago, a psychologist at Outspan Hospital, says about a third of his patients are farmers hit by repeated losses. [13]

Why it matters. Ndung'u sells goats to pay his children's school fees, so a dead herd also means missed schooling. [13] Gacago wants farmer support schemes to include mental health and better access to irrigation. [13]

Virginia closed part of the Little Wicomico River to oyster and clam harvesting on 9 October. [8] Health officials linked shellfish from there to an outbreak of Salmonella, a food-poisoning germ, that has made at least five people ill in Pennsylvania. [8] The state's oyster season had opened only eight days earlier, and the closure runs until 7 November. [8] A second closure covers part of Lower Machodoc Creek until 29 October. [8]

Why it matters. Virginia's public oyster grounds produce about 250,000 bushels a year, and the state spends $4 million to $10 million a year keeping those reefs alive. [8] Crabs and fish can still be caught in the closed water while the shellfish are tested. [8]

In Murcia, in south-east Spain, researchers grow peppers, grapes and dragon fruit under solar panels, which is called agrivoltaics. [12] They found water-stressed peppers grew better under the panels than well-watered ones. [12] In southern Italy, Amazon and Apple buy power from such projects totalling more than 150 megawatts. [12] France requires these farms to keep at least 90% of normal crop yields, and Italy requires 70% of the land to stay in farming. [12]

Why it matters. About 86% of Italy's 775 million euros of public money for these projects went to large ones, a 2025 review found. [12] Fabrizio Garbarino, who leads an Italian farmers' union, says data-centre developers are chasing farmers for their land. [12]

Koos Bekker, a South African billionaire who chairs the tech company Naspers, has bought more than 2,700 acres around Bruton and Castle Cary in Somerset, England, the Guardian found. [10] His company runs the Newt, an 800-pound-a-night hotel with its own farms, and has bought pubs, a deli and farmhouses nearby. [10] Villagers have started a petition against pesticide spraying on its farmland. [10] Farmers suspect its new boreholes have dried up stretches of the River Brue. [10]

Why it matters. Land next to one village used to be an organic farm and no longer is, a neighbour says. [10] The Newt says it employs more than 650 people who are from or live in the area. [10]

From 30 December, large companies selling in the EU must comply with the EU Deforestation Regulation, a law meant to keep goods from newly cleared forest off its market. [14] Smaller firms follow on 30 June 2027, after two earlier delays. [14] Global Witness, a campaign group, says Mondelez, the maker of Toblerone, lobbied the US government to weaken it; Mondelez says it supports the law's aims. [14] The US ambassador to the EU calls it textbook overregulation. [14]

Why it matters. Chocolate makers Barry Callebaut and Ferrero back the law. [14] A lawyer at the firm Browne Jacobson says a third delay cannot be ruled out, but a December start is more likely. [14]

Two players from Blancdieu Hirosaki FC, a fifth-tier football club, work in apple orchards between matches and training. [15] Hirosaki, in northern Japan, grows more apples than any other Japanese city. [15] Its apple businesses fell from 4,045 in 2020 to 3,464 in 2025, and the average farm worker is in their sixties. [15] Since 2025 the city has run seminars to bring people from sports clubs and other groups into farming. [15]

Why it matters. Midfielder Shota Shimogami, 25, works about four hours on weekday afternoons after practice. [15] Orchard owners also get to show their apples to the club's fans. [15]

Scientists who checked nearly 1,700 coral reefs found more than a dozen with far more fish than expected, which they call bright spots. [17] One is off Muluk, a village in Papua New Guinea, where elders close part of the reef to fishing every few years. [17] Their new review of more than 70 studies finds three things in common: a local fix, people able to adapt, and the right to manage their own waters. [17]

Why it matters. Papua New Guinea's constitution gives coastal villages the right to manage their sea, so Muluk can keep outside fishers away. [17] On the Bering Sea, the rules for the trawlers are set by a council whose members are appointed. [1]

Scrap Soils, a small Detroit company, collects food scraps from more than 70 homes and businesses each week and takes them to Sanctuary Farms to be made into compost. [18] Pickup for a home starts at $15 a month. [18] Food left to rot in a landfill gives off methane, a gas that warms the planet quickly. [18] Detroit opened its first city drop-off site for food scraps in the past year, and hundreds of residents signed up. [18]

Why it matters. A 2023 count found 400 city-backed food-scrap programmes in the US, far fewer than ordinary rubbish services. [18] Detroit plans more drop-off bins as part of a plan to keep 15% of its waste out of landfill. [18]

Krasnyi Oktyabr, a Brooklyn wholesaler, is recalling packs of Starfish Seafood Trio, cold-smoked salmon, halibut and trout made in Latvia. [16] New York State's farm department found the fish may carry Listeria, a germ that can cause serious illness. [16] The packs were sold in New York, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts and North and South Carolina. [16] Nobody has reported being ill. [16]

Why it matters. Listeria can take up to 70 days to cause symptoms, and pregnant women, babies and older people are most at risk. [16]