The industry ties and policy backgrounds of these officials and cabinet nominees are varied – and often contradictory
Trump plots healthier America but deregulation likely to feature on menu
As Donald Trump returns to the White House, food and agriculture policy are shaping up to be key pieces of his agenda. To start to understand how he might tackle these issues, we’re digging into the industry ties and policy backgrounds of his senior officials and nominated cabinet members, who have varied – and often contradictory – positions on food and agriculture. The way they handle immigration, labor, environmental regulations and the social safety net will shape how Americans eat for the next four years.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
01/31/2025 - 08:00
01/31/2025 - 08:00
Preliminary research provides rare insight in to the reptile’s habits and movement across urban landscapes
New research has revealed surprising details about the secret lives of crocodiles swimming through Florida’s waterways, including the long distances some travel in search of food and shelter, and their ability to slither unnoticed through populous neighborhoods.
The preliminary study provides rare insight into the habits and habitat of the species in a state more commonly associated with its estimated 1.5 million alligators. Florida has a non-hatchling population of about only 2,000 American crocodiles, the researchers say, which made it difficult initially to find and tag a sufficient number of the reptiles in urban areas in order to observe them.
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01/31/2025 - 08:00
President’s cabinet picks suggest help for big companies and regulatory rollbacks will take precedence in food policy
Trump will change the face of US food policy. These are the players to watch
When Robert F Kennedy Jr suspended his campaign for the presidency in August 2024, throwing his support behind Donald Trump, he promised to continue fighting to “make America healthy again”. Kennedy’s criticism of ultra-processed foods and big food companies became a central feature of the Trump campaign. And after Trump was elected, he nominated Kennedy to be his secretary of health and human services.
Yet, just days before naming Kennedy, Trump nominated another senior official to his administration: Susie Wiles, a longtime lobbyist whose clients have included the same big food companies Kennedy has critiqued for their role in pushing ultra-processed foods into kitchens and grocery stores across the US. The two stood in stark contrast: a critic and a lobbyist for the food industry standing side by side with the president-elect.
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01/31/2025 - 07:00
Agreement between farmers, politicians and environmental groups led to a €170m action fund for plant based food
“Plant-based foods are the future.” That is not a statement you would expect from a right-wing farming minister in a major meat-producing nation. Denmark produces more meat per capita than any other country in the world, with its 6 million people far outnumbered by its 30 million pigs, and it has a big dairy industry too. Yet this is how Jacob Jensen, from the Liberal party, introduced the nation’s world-first action plan for plant-based foods.
“If we want to reduce the climate footprint within the agricultural sector, then we all have to eat more plant-based foods,” he said at the plan’s launch in October 2023, and since then the scheme has gone from strength to strength. Backed by a €170m government fund, it is now supporting plant-based food from farm to fork, from making tempeh from broad beans and a chicken substitute from fungi to on-site tastings at kebab and burger shops and the first vegan chef degree.
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01/31/2025 - 03:00
The decision to expand Heathrow is just the latest evidence that my party is chasing policies that serve profit, not people
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s recent “big growth agenda” speech wasn’t just the expression of a vision for the economy. It was also a warning shot to wavering Labour MPs. The message was blunt: get on board with the government’s economic strategy or step aside. Growth, we were told, is the non-negotiable mission.
This was not a sudden shift but a reaffirmation of her stance at Davos, where she made clear that “the answer can’t always be no”. That answer, now firmly codified, prioritises GDP growth above all else. Heathrow airport expansion is in; net zero, bats and newts are out. The promise? A revitalised economy, busy high streets and more bobbies on the beat – a Labour-friendly vision of progress designed to bolster morale and stuff leaflets with “good news” ahead of the next election.
Clive Lewis is the Labour MP for Norwich South
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01/31/2025 - 03:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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01/31/2025 - 01:00
Minister to announce consultation that will exclude certain areas from housing, solar panels and onshore wind
Valuable farmland will be protected from housing, solar panels and onshore wind under a new land use framework, the government has announced.
The environment secretary, Steve Reed, will announce a consultation into how the limited land in England should be used and where is best to farm, restore nature or build infrastructure.
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01/27/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 27 January 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00102-z
Author Correction: The struggle at the International Seabed Authority over deep sea mineral resources
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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