At the 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, a group of countries including Switzerland, Brazil, and New Zealand launched a new dialogue platform on emerging issues in agricultural trade. The initiative aims to foster exchange and build a shared understanding of challenges at the intersection of trade, sustainability, and food systems. Rather than opening new negotiations, the dialogue provides a forum to address topics such as food security, livelihoods, and environmental sustainability, reflecting growing interest in aligning agricultural trade policies with global sustainability goals.

Researchers involved in the “Agreement on Agriculture Re-Imagined” initiative, including Elisabeth Bürgi Bonanomi from Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), call for a fundamental redesign of global agricultural trade rules. Moving beyond reform of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, the group proposes a Model Treaty that aligns trade instruments – such as tariffs and subsidies – with sustainability, equity, and food system resilience. The initiative aims to address structural inequalities, strengthen local food systems, and better connect global trade governance with international frameworks on climate, biodiversity, and human rights.

An analysis by Biovision underscores how disruptions in energy markets – particularly linked to tensions in the Middle East – can cascade into global food systems. The article highlights the critical role of natural gas in fertilizer production and warns that supply disruptions can increase production costs, reduce yields, and drive up food prices, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations, especially in Africa. It argues that agroecological approaches – such as diversified farming systems and the use of local inputs – can reduce dependence on fossil-based inputs and strengthen the resilience of food systems to geopolitical shocks.

A new synthesis by Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) highlights 16 years of research from the SysCom project in India, comparing organic and conventional cotton systems. The findings show that organic cotton can achieve up to 82–93 percent of conventional yields while delivering significant environmental and socio-economic benefits, including improved soil health, biodiversity, and farmer livelihoods. The study also emphasizes the importance of true cost accounting and continued research to support the transition toward sustainable agricultural systems in developing countries.

New research from ETH Zurich shows that plant water uptake under drought conditions is primarily limited by soil properties rather than plant physiology. Published in Science, the study demonstrates that increasing capillary forces in drying soils prevent plants from extracting water, helping explain why efforts to breed drought-resistant crops have had limited success. These findings have important implications for global agriculture, suggesting that improving soil management and water retention may be more effective than focusing solely on plant genetics in addressing drought stress.