Plastics, plastic packaging and the resulting waste threatening the environment as well as our health are on everyone's mind at the moment.

Cod is one of the most important and popular food fish in the North Atlantic. However, it has been swimming on the brink of overfishing for years due to its popularity as well as climate change. To protect against this, catch quotas have been established based on stock estimates by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

Evonik has been committed to the balanced and healthy feeding of poultry for years. The Essen-based specialty chemicals company is now expanding its investment in precision livestock farming and in particular automated poultry production by investing in the Chesterfield-based British start-up OPTIfarm.

More than 400 experts gathered at the EUREF campus in Berlin Schöneberg on 5 November to discuss and compare the state of the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development on an international level. Three years after the approval of the agenda, there is clear progress regarding implementation. However, in order to fully realize and achieve these goals, the respective efforts will have to be increased.

Many foods such as cheese, yoghurt, beer, yeast dough or soy sauce have a special characteristic taste and are therefore very popular. So-called non-volatile substances in particular are the basic building blocks for these unique taste profiles. These building blocks in turn consist of fragments of long protein molecules that are formed during the microbial or enzymatic conversion (fermentation) of milk or cereal proteins.

In July of this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) ruled that organisms obtained by using new techniques of directed mutagenesis, including those known as ‘gene editing techniques’ such as CRISPR-Cas, are genetically modified organisms (GMOs). As GMOs, they are subject to the corresponding legislation, the so-called GMO-Directive.

Even the IPCC has taken note: Chemists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a process that uses algae to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it in to carbon fiber. What's more, it can do so in a cost-effective way.

Recently, the European Commission announced an updated Bioeconomy Strategy containing an action plan to develop a sustainable and circular bioeconomy for all of Europe.

In 2010, 196 member states of the United Nations adopted the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources.

Rice is one of the most important crops in the world. More than half of the world's population feeds on it. Although there are many rice varieties, not every plant can withstand climate change. Especially in Asia, where cereal grains have always been a staple food, flooding is increasingly causing crop losses and threatening the livelihood of rice farmers. This is where the work of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) comes in.