To the potato industry, it's the Holy Grail. Farmers, researchers and corporations including Canada's McCain Foods Ltd. are desperately searching for a new, more environmentally friendly potato variety that can be used to make McDonald's (MCD-N56.120.581.04%) French fries.

NEW YORK -- Eating plenty of folate may sharply reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, at least for women, South Korean researchers report. In a study of 596 colorectal cancer patients and 509 healthy individuals, they found that the women who ate the most folate were at about two-thirds lower risk of the disease than women who consumed the smallest amount of the B vitamin.

Salmonella was behind an outbreak at HMP Wandsworth that struck down more than 370 inmates and staff, the Prison Service has confirmed. Staff were sent home last Thursday and visitations were cancelled while officials from the Department of Health were sent in to determine the cause of the diarrhoea and sickness bug.

MONTEREY -- A representative of organic farmers warned Wednesday that creating a national version of California's Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement would discriminate against small-scale organic farmers.

A British prison says a bunch of inmates have been caught with their hands clean - using hand sanitising gel to get drunk. Peter McParlin of the Prison Officers Association says inmates were using it to make illicit alcohol.

Being a 'locavore' is supposed to be healthier for you and better for the planet, right? Maybe not.

The director of a food company that provided pies to Fortnum & Mason has been jailed for re-packaging cheap supermarket goods and claiming that they were organic. Neil Stansfield, 51, bought stock from Tesco and Waitrose several times a day and sold it at twice the original price in new packaging, recording annual sales of up to £2.5 million.

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)-funded research, published this week in Chemical Communications, describes how scientists have discovered molecules that could confuse insects' ability to detect plants by interfering with their sense of smell. This could reduce damage to crops by insect pests and contribute to food security.

This document provides the scientific opinion of the Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO Panel) of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on request from the European Commission an application submitted by Bayer CropScience under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 (reference EFSA-GMO-RX-MS8-RF3) for renewal of the authorisation for continued marketing of existing pro