It is grown in some of the world’s most inhospitable, arid regions and is noted for being rich in protein. But the grass pea – although hardy and nutritious – comes with a catch. It contains a poison that can occasionally trigger irreversible paralysis, particularly among individuals who are already undernourished.

As a result, it is often grown only as an insurance crop, to provide short-term food supply when harvests of other crops have failed. Nevertheless, poisoning from Lathyrus sativus still occurs in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Ethiopia and Algeria.

But now a group of UK scientists studying the grass pea have revealed the secrets of its poison production. In the near future they expect to create versions that are free of its toxic side-effects.

UK and EU negotiators have agreed a draft deal on Britain’s re-entry into the Horizon Europe research program after months of hard-fought talks.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will be presented with the draft deal by officials this weekend ahead of a crunch meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen next Tuesday where the final agreement may be confirmed, two UK government officials — granted anonymity to speak about sensitive discussions — said.

One of the officials said Britain will re-join Horizon Europe, which has a €95.5 billion budget for the period 2021-27, and the Copernicus Earth observation program — but not Euratom’s nuclear energy R&D scheme, which both the British government and the UK nuclear sector consider “poor value for money,” the official said.

A new project has received Defra funding to explore how livestock waste and insect farming can generate clean energy, whilst providing commercial opportunities for farmers.

The ‘DELIVER’ project, led by BACB Renewables and the University of Leeds, aims to support farmers to raise animals and crops at reduced carbon and energy costs, while boosting productivity.

The study is one of 50 projects which has secured funding from Defra and UKRI as part of the Farming Innovation Programme.

The UK's livestock sector must accelerate innovation in order to deliver its net zero goals by 2050, according to a new report.

For the goal of a 64% reduction in carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, current technology and practices could only deliver a 24% reduction at high rates of uptake, the report warns.

The remaining ‘emissions reduction gap’ requires new innovations in technology, services and management approaches, according to CIEL (Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock).

A new £2.9m project seeks to breed low methane producing sheep to help the sector on its journey to net zero emissions.

‘Breed for CH4nge’, led by genetics company Innovis, is a three-year initiative which will measure methane emissions from a total of 13,500 sheep in 45 flocks.

The project will collect the data to genetically reduce methane emissions and improve the efficiency of the national sheep flock.

Imports of parallel plant protection products (PPPs) from the EU came to an end today (June 30), with farmers warning their loss could threaten the growing of key crops such as maize, oats and milling wheat.

Matt Culley, NFU combinable crops board chair, warned of the consequences of the loss. He said: "We have estimated that the direct cost of the loss of these actives would be £10 million, but the real losses might be much greater."

Without access to products such as maize seed treatments, winter oat herbicides and late treatment fungicides in milling wheat, some growers may take the decision not to grow these crops, he added. Some of the biggest impacts may be on dairy farmers who grow forage maize.

Brussels plans to lift controls on some genetically modified crops to help farmers cope with climate change in a move likely to reignite a Europe-wide debate about the controversial techniques.

A draft EU regulation seen by the Financial Times proposes that many modified plants should be approved as conventional rather than go through the bloc’s existing GMO regime, which is laborious and expensive.

The proposal sets out different regulatory options but favours a light-touch regime for most new plant varieties — which would be “treated similarly to conventional plants and would not require authorisation, risk assessment, traceability and labelling as GMOs”. A transparency register would be established for these plants, according to the draft.

'Green’ farming policies may accelerate global biodiversity loss, two leading academics have warned.

Rewilding, organic farming and the ‘nature friendly farming’ measures included in some UK government conservation policies risk worsening the global biodiversity crisis by reducing how much food is produced in a region, driving up food imports and increasing environmental damage overseas.

In an article published today in the journal Nature, Professor Ian Bateman of the University of Exeter and Professor Andrew Balmford of the University of Cambridge urge policy-makers to consider a bolder approach known as ‘land sparing’, which they argue is cheaper, more effective, and avoids the displacement of food production and worsening the loss of wildlife habitats overseas.

Many genetically modified foods could in future be sold unlabelled on European supermarket shelves, according to an unpublished legislative proposal by the European Commission.

A draft commission regulation, not yet published but seen by dpa, would exempt certain genetically-modified plants from the EU’s strict ruled on genetic engineering. The proposal is expected to be officially presented in July.

The planned rule changes meant that processes such as CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing would not be subject to EU genetic engineering rules.

Scottish farm leaders have called for the 'urgent approval' of the herbicide Asulox for use to control bracken this year due to the lack of alternatives.

NFU Scotland, Scottish Land & Estates and Bracken Control Group have urged the Scottish government to reauthorise Asulox (asulam) to control bracken.

An aggressive and invasive weed, there are reports that it is growing frantically throughout the hillsides of Scotland. Where bracken grows, the land is unproductive, and it is also a risk to livestock health due to the abundance of ticks.