ETH researchers have used a sustainability programme for cocoa cultivation in Côte d’Ivoire to demonstrate that, in one in four cases, data was manipulated to meet the programme’s requirements.

If the auditor were aware of the required target values, data manipulation increased significantly. Where these values were unknown, the frequency of fraudulent alterations halved.

The findings provide important insights for companies, public authorities and certification bodies to ensure sustainable supply chains and the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation.

US meat products with sustainability labels do cost more, but price premiums vary greatly - from an average 7% increase for "organic" labelled chicken, to an average 33% increase for "grass-fed" labelled beef

Researchers identify a genetic mechanism that coordinates flower development and fruit formation, paving the way toward tomato varieties with more reliable winter harvests.

Researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, used a machine-learning approach to study not just which genes a bacterium has, but also where those genes sit next to each other. That “genetic neighborhood” helped researchers distinguish disease-causing strains of Enterococcus cecorum, a poultry pathogen, from nonpathogenic strains. The same approach could eventually be applied to bacteria affecting humans, livestock, wildlife and plants, provided enough genomic data are available.