Bayer, the chemical conglomerate, has announced its endeavour to develop an alternative to the controversial herbicide glyphosate, as recently disclosed by CEO Bill Anderson to the German newspaper ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung’. Here’s what we know about this new product expected to hit the market by 2028.

Bayer is currently in the process of developing an alternative to glyphosate, the active ingredient in weed killers like Roundup. According to Anderson, the new substance is undergoing plant testing, with plans for market availability by 2028. Anderson stated, “Our aim is to bring the new product to market in 2028”, considering it as a groundbreaking innovation in chemical crop protection after thirty years.

Defra has responded to industry concerns about food security by announcing a cap on the amount of some environmental incentives farmers in England can claim under the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

New applicants to the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme will only be able to put 25% of their land into six SFI actions that take land out of food production.

A poor turnout for a debate on food security in the House of Commons shows MPs are refusing to take this important issue seriously, say farm leaders. Just a handful of MPs attended the Westminster debate on Thursday (21 March), which was opened by Philip Dunne, Conservative MP for Ludlow and chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC).

Mr Dunne put forward the motion for MPs to discuss a number of reports by the EAC, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee and the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, tackling the issue of national food security.

Researchers at the University of Warwick have said farmers will have to consider crop resilience in the future as warmer, wetter winters become more prevalent.

According to the Met Office, England and Wales had their warmest Februarys on record, which has led to a significant reduction in cropped areas.

Rosemary Collier, a professor of environment and ecology at the University of Warwick, said this year's conditions showed a ‘clear warming trend' for average UK winter temperature, as the top 10 warmest winters on record for the UK include 2024, 2022, 2020, 2016 and 2014.

Defra ministers have been accused of a “dereliction of duty” following claims they are ignoring their own science and pursuing policies in England that will undermine national food security.

The claims come from the pro-science think tank Science for Sustainable Agriculture (SSA), which has written to the cross-party Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee, demanding an “urgent inquiry” into the impact of the government’s Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes.

The letter says a recent impact assessment of the ELM scheme, commissioned by Defra, identifies “multiple risks to both food production and the environment from its ‘land sharing’ policies”.

The drastic reduction in crops expected due to the wet weather has shown just how vulnerable British farms are, the NFU has warned.

The union said the government must boost UK food security as farmers continue to face wet weather, with many thousands of acres of farmland affected.

The warning is in response to an AHDB survey showing that yields of crops such as wheat, winter barley and oilseed rape are likely to be significantly reduced this year.

Researchers are set to harness the power of gene editing to address numerous challenges facing the UK potato sector. With new legislation allowing the commercial development of gene edited crops, the project could transform the sector.

Led by B-hive Innovations, the new research project, called TuberGene, is funded as part of UKRI’s National Engineering Biology Programme.

It aims to use new gene editing technology to address these challenges while securing a sustainable future for the sector. Researchers will focus on two key goals: reducing bruising-related discoloration and making potatoes quicker to cook.

A proposed tax on the carbon footprint of agricultural businesses in Denmark is being considered which, if implemented, could make it the first country to impose this type of taxation.

The potential tax is forecast to have a substantial impact on production within the Danish farming sector and has faced criticism from industry.

Denmark already has tough targets in place and aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030 compared to 1990 base levels.

Stopping the ongoing decline in insect numbers in the UK is essential to improve long-term food security, a House of Commons committee has concluded.

The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee has called for “effective and sustainable crop protection strategies to be demonstrated at a commercial scale” and for more government support to encourage pesticide alternatives.

A report, Insect decline and UK food security, suggests there is a worrying trend of declining insect numbers and species diversity in the UK.

Labour will end exemptions for bee-killing pesticides that have already been outlawed in the EU but which the UK government has approved for four years in a row, the shadow environment minister has said.

This week, the government authorised the use of thiamethoxam, also known as Cruiser SB, on sugar beet crops – against the advice of its scientists, who said it would pose a threat to bees.

The shadow farming minister, Daniel Zeichner, told the Guardian it was “time to follow the science and stop using neonics”, and that Labour would stop emergency use of the pesticide.

Sugar beet growers will have access to seed treated with neonicotinoids this growing season, as scientists have predicted a serious risk of virus yellows infection, based on a burgeoning aphid population.

Defra passed the conditional emergency authorisation to use Cruiser SB, which contains the active substance thiamethoxam, in January. But this was subject to the predicted risk of virus yellows infection in the national sugar beet crop, based on the Rothamsted model, exceeding 65%.

Latest data from the British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO) actually puts that risk at 83% in the absence of any disease controls, triggering the emergency authorisation for a third consecutive year.

A peer-reviewed scientific analysis of Defra’s badger control policy in England has revealed a 56% fall in bovine TB rates.

Defra started its badger control policy in 2013 to reduce the reservoir of infection in badgers and, in doing so, reduce rates of TB in cattle.

A new study by Colin Birch et al, published in Nature, analysed the effect of badger culling on bovine TB rates across 52 areas in England.