The Times of India - Shiva Kumar Pinna | TNN - WARANGAL: Nearly 60 peacocks were found dead in Chitur village of Lingala Ghanapur mandal early on Monday morning.
The peacocks died as a result of drinking poisonous water. It is learnt the farmers in the area used pesticides in the fields and the peacocks which drank the water in which the pesticides were mixed died. Forest officials have arrived at the place to investigate.
On the first anniversary of the terrible tragedy that claimed 23 children's lives in Saran district in Bihar due to pesticide poisoning of their school mid day meal, a new report released by India For Safe Food points out that government is not acting decisively on the big culprit here: pesticides, which are not inevitable...
Home - Organic is different
New findings - organic crops, such as fruit, vegetables and cereals, and crop-based foods are up to 60% higher in a number of key antioxidants than non-organic crops. The findings shatter the myth that how we farm does not affect the quality...
Business Standard - Press Trust of India | London, Long-term exposure to pesticides harms bees' ability to forage for pollen and may be changing their choices of which flowers to visit, a new study has found.
Scientists used Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, which are similar to those used by courier firms to track parcels, to monitor the day-to-day behaviour of bumblebees.
DNA India, Tired of eating stuff laden with chemicals but don't know how to go about choosing right? Jayashree Joshi Eashwar, co-founder, Dubdengreen, and Mridu Mahajan Pogula, co-founder, Nirvaaha Delhi, put together a 10-point primer to help you gauge whether the food you are picking up is organic. Kavita Devgan reports
Appearance
If it is naturally and organically grown, no two items will look identical... ever! It's just not possible to find two things that look absolutely alike in nature. No two leaves of the same mango tree will ever look 100% alike. Similarly, each apple, mango or even grain will always look different from another. Their colour, shape, structure will never be uniform. There will, for instance, be different shades of yellow in your moong dal instead of the uniformly bleached yellow of the regular packaged dal.
Ask religious institutions to grow organic crops and accept organic crops as donation for langars
In Punjab, people follow a tradition of donating a part of their food produce to gurudwaras for feeding the poor
Gurlal Singh and Jagdish Singh, farmers from Punjab, say the practice of ensuring food security through langars may actually be poisoning people because of the pesticide-laden good grown in the state
In Pandori Ragsangh village in Amritsar, farmer leader Gurlal Singh takes a large sip of hot milk and asks fellow farmer, Jagdish Singh, about the “poison.” “This year, there is too much of poison,” Jagdish replies. It takes a while to understand that the farmers are discussing lethal pesticides used to grow wheat. While Gurlal and Jagdish have grown organic crops for family consumption on patches of their fields, they feel guilty while donating pesticide-laced food grains for langars or daswants.
FnB News - Libin Chacko Kurian, Mumbai: Due to the ban imposed by Saudi Arabia on Indian green chillies and Russia’s displeasure about contaminated potatoes from India, the Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) imposed mandatory laboratory testing of exporting items.
With effect from May 30, 2014, Saudi Arabia had banned the import of green chillies from India due to the presence of a higher-than-permissible level of pesticide residues. In the past, there have been several reported instances of contaminated green chilli consignments in Saudi Arabia.
The Indian Express - Aneesha Mathur | New Delhi, The Delhi government had claimed that it did not have adequate laboratories and could currently test for only 28 varieties of pesticides.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued draft regulations for food imports and may soon make it mandatory for importers of food and vegetables to produce test reports from authorised labs to ensure pesticide remains in fruits and vegetables were within prescribed limits.
With the Delhi High Court monitoring the issue of pesticides in food in a PIL, the Central government has filed a status report on the measures recommended by an expert committee created on court orders to suggest methods to contain the problem.
Zee News - Riyadh: Saudi Arabia, the fifth-largest importer of fresh vegetables from India, has banned the import of Indian chili due to the presence of high pesticide residues in it, media reported Friday.
"We have been informed about the Saudi ministry of agriculture`s decision to ban chili pepper beginning May 30," Arab News quoted Surinder Bhagat, second secretary of politics and commerce at the Indian embassy here, as saying.
The Hindu - NITIN SETHI - NEW DELH, Parliamentary committee’s recommendation a shot in the arm for Haryana IAS officer
In a rare act, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture has come to whistleblower Ashok Khemka’s support, ordering a Central government inquiry into the pesticide scam that the Haryana IAS officer uncovered.
The committee also stood by the views of the IAS officer in another scam — in the purchase of seeds — again highlighted by Mr. Khemka. The Haryana government continues to battle against this.