Scientists in the UK are developing peas that don't taste like peas.

No, this isn't a crafty plan to get children to eat their veggies. As more and more people turn to plant-based food, they are hoping to produce a more planet-friendly, home-grown alternative to importing soya beans.

Peas are high in protein, but it is hard to mask their taste when they are used as a meat substitute in large amounts in vegan dishes. Scientists discovered a gene for pea flavour 30 years ago. The research was stopped as there was no use for it. Now it could be the basis of a new industry.

Up to £30 million has been awarded to new farming projects which aim to boost UK food production sustainably, the government has confirmed. The funding, set to be awarded to 58 projects, is part of Defra's Farming Innovation Programme, run alongside UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) and Innovate UK.

Projects to benefit include FungiAlert, which seeks to develop biopesticides using fungal strains to help tackle pests in wheat and to pin-point the genetics for creating slug resistant wheat.

Others have a more sustainability focus, with Defra awarding genetics firm Genus over £2m to spearhead research to reduce methane emissions in cattle by 17% per generation. And Synergy Farm Health has been awarded nearly £400,000 to carry out a longitudinal study with an antibody test to detect bovine TB in bulk milk.

Rothamsted Research will receive more than £60m in new funding to help spearhead important agricultural and food security research.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has announced it is going to fund strategically important research at Rothamsted over the next five years.

The projects will centre around crop resilience, nutrition and health, food safety and food security, with a focus on more sustainable farming.

A High Court judge has rejected a legal challenge brought by animal welfare campaigners over the use of fast-growing broiler chickens for meat consumption.

The Humane League UK, which brought the legal challenge, had argued fast-growing breeds suffer health and welfare problems. The campaign group claimed conventional meat birds, which they say grow unnaturally large and fast, breach the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007.

Defra challenged the claims, insisting there is no scientific proof fast-growing birds suffer health problems as a matter of course. The UK has some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world and all farm animals, including broilers, are protected by “robust animal health and welfare legislation”, it said.

Brazil has declared a six-month animal health emergency after several cases of avian flu were found in wild birds. Seven cases have been reported in Espirito Santo state, with another discovered in Rio de Janeiro state.

The emergency declaration makes it easier for the government to now bring in measures to stop the highly infectious H5N1 virus from spreading.

Brazil is the world's largest exporter of chicken meat, with annual sales of nearly $10bn (£8bn). Authorities say the cases were found far away from Brazil's main areas of production in the south of the country.

Businesses and entrepreneurs are being sought to take up residence in a new multi-million pound innovation centre seeking to create links between science and the farming industry.

Set to open in Inverness later this year, the Rural and Veterinary Innovation Centre (RAVIC) will bring together scientists, innovators and businesses to create new products, services and solutions to overcome sector challenges, including animal disease, climate change and food security.

There will also be an emphasis on bioscience, including animal health, as RAVIC is to form part of Scotland’s new School of Veterinary Medicine. The £12.5m project is being led by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), and funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Scottish Funding Council.

Sixteen agricultural universities across the UK have joined forces to address farming industry challenges and further the impact of their research. A new joint strategy outlines how the group of universities are working together to address the challenges that are currently faced within UK agriculture.

It was launched by the Agricultural Universities Council (AUC), which includes the likes of Scotland's Rural College, the Royal Agricultural University, and Hartpury, among 13 others. It follows a year-long investigation by the AUC into the farming industry's priorities, current research activities and its strengths and weaknesses.

Our overheating world is likely to break a key temperature limit for the first time over the next few years, scientists predict. Researchers say there's now a 66% chance we will pass the 1.5C global warming threshold between now and 2027. The chances are rising due to emissions from human activities and a change in weather patterns expected this summer.

If the world passes the limit, scientists stress the breach, while worrying, will likely be temporary.

Hitting the threshold would mean the world is 1.5C warmer than it was during the second half of the 19th Century, before fossil fuel emissions from industrialisation really began to ramp up. And breaking the limit even for just one year is a worrying sign that warming is accelerating and not slowing down.

The government has pledged to commit to farmers' interests in future trade deals, as well as boost UK fruit and vegetable production, as part of a new package of support.

The raft of pledges has been set out by the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of the Farm to Fork Summit hosted at Downing Street today (16 May).

The government also announced up to £30 million of investment to drive forward the use of precision breeding technologies.

High-tech portable chambers for measuring methane emissions from sheep are being used in the UK for the first time. New Zealand-designed Portable Accumulation Chambers (PACs) have been unveiled as the latest tool in mitigating agricultural greenhouse gases.

The trailer-mounted chambers can predict methane emissions in individual sheep from a variety of systems, including at pasture, as well as in multiple locations. The chambers collect air samples and then analyse methane concentration, showing which genetics, feed types and systems generate the highest emission levels.

Scientists have collaborated to produce the first gene-edited calf with resistance to bovine viral diarrhea virus, a virus that costs the U.S. cattle sector billions of dollars annually. The recent study published in PNAS Nexus results from a collaboration between the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the University of Kentucky and industry partners, Acceligen and Recombinetics, Inc.

BVDV is one of the most significant viruses affecting the health and well-being of cattle worldwide, and researchers have been studying it since the 1940s when it was first recognized. This virus does not affect humans but is highly contagious among cattle and can cause severe respiratory and intestinal diseases.

Despite more than 50 years of vaccine availability, controlling BVDV disease remains a problem since vaccines are not always effective in stopping transmission.

High adoption of gene-edited crop seeds is expected in the next five to ten years, a new report by Rabobank suggests.

Although the exact timeline for the adoption of gene-editing (GE) seeds is hard to estimate, researchers expect that adoption rates will surpass 50% within five to ten years.

Rabobank's report says that GE technology has the potential to benefit the entire food supply chain, from producers to consumers.