14/01/14: Battle over Russian grain terminals; scientific society launches 'sustainable food' toolkit; toxic grain project

Normally, Russia is a high ranker among the top five global wheat exporters. A lack of investment in export infrastructure and little competition among terminals owners however, has vastly inflated grain handling costs.

In an attempt to rectify this, major traders including Glencore and Cargill, have bought stakes in Russian grain terminals at deep-water ports in the Black sea region. 
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The American Chemical Society (ACS) has designed a web-based toolkit, a project that addresses the issues we face in sustaining energy and farmland in light of an ever-increasing population.

The Sustainable Food toolkit offers a collection of resources which address the challenges facing our swelling population.

"We basically have to double the amount of food we produce over the next 50 to 60 years," says John Floros, Ph.D, in the anchor video, called Feeding the World. "The question is, can we do that, and how should we do it?"
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Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan’s agriculture college, Canada have teamed up with the Global Institute for Food Security to investigate ways of removing harmful mycotoxins from grain samples.

Speaking to the Western Producer - Canada's largest weekly farm paper - Tom Scott, research chair in feed processing at the university said the institute will contribute CAD$1.5 million to a project aimed at identifying and removing mycotoxins.
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Map of the world  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)