Sustainability/Climate Change
Food production needs are expected to roughly double over the next 35 years as the world population grows and people in under developed countries become more affluent and demand more calories. Healthy ecosystems are vital to the survival of all organisms. How can we grow crops without harming the environment? How can we balance technology and global food security? What is the right balance of organic and conventional farming? What role can genetics and biotechnology play without compromising the needs of tomorrow?
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Viewpoint: Sri Lanka’s ‘tragic’ legacy — To encourage sustainable farming, countries cannot ignore food production and socioeconomic trade-offs
Sri Lanka is a particularly dramatic case showing how rash and poorly designed policies can lead to tragic consequences. In ...
Viewpoint: Debunking organic food myths again… and again
Over and over, the term ‘organic’ is used as an umbrella for a variety of qualitative features in food. There ...
Harnessing power of fungi could play key role in sucking CO2 from the atmosphere
Fungi is being put to use in a range of planet-friendly functions, from being developed as a non-polluting flame retardant to being ...
With Earth Day happening around the world, let’s focus on 10 of the biggest challenges to our global agricultural and food system
As we celebrate Earth Day, the importance of transforming our food system is higher than ever – here are 10 ...
Brewing resistance: Studying coffee’s genetic lineage provides clues on how to create varieties to survive climate change
A research paper released April 15 in Nature Genetics mapped the genome and considered the possible origins of the world's ...
GLP Podcast: Organic food industry marketing fraud; 200 dangerous chemicals in drinking water?
Are organic foods really pesticide-free? Nope. Organic industry marketing misinformation is everywhere. An anonymous French whistleblower claims to have found ...
Viewpoint: Will India embrace a second green revolution — one focused on sustainable agriculture instead of yield?
Methane is a dangerous heat-trapping gas responsible for 47 per cent of India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The agricultural sector ...
Climate change agriculture: GM crops, no-till farming and judicious use of glyphosate and other herbicides help address disruptions, Canadian study finds
Ever since the first commercialization of genetically modified (GM) crops in the mid-1990s, researchers have considered the impact of these ...
Viewpoint: Why Greek organic-certified produce isn’t necessarily better or healthier than conventional food
Organic farming certainly has a lot to offer to humans and the environment, but that doesn’t mean it’s always better ...
How microplastics impact our food and our health
Small pieces of plastic, now termed microplastics have infiltrated all ecosystems, posing a severe threat to wildlife…and now us. New research has ...
Viewpoint: Regenerative agriculture has many different definitions. Here are 5 main principles — and whether they stand up to scrutiny
What is regenerative agriculture? Why is it different from sustainable agriculture? And how do I reconcile what practitioners of this system ...
Viewpoint: At a time where drought and global instability threaten global food security, gene editing offers solutions to combat pests, pathogens and poor weather
Later this year gene-edited crops will be planted at about two dozen commercial farms across England for the first time ...
Debating sustainable agriculture: Weed management and crop biotechnology
Any discussion of crop chemicals must consider the broad sweep of agricultural history, the pivotal moments of technological innovation, and ...
Viewpoint: The keys to sustainable fishing lay in gene-editing and plant-based fish food
As worldwide consumption of fish increases and ocean fish are getting scarce, raising fish under the controlled conditions of aquaculture ...
Bumblebees threatened by pesticides? Independent German university study finds wild bees ‘relatively resistant’ to even potent chemical cocktails
Bumblebees appear to be quite resistant to common pesticides. This is shown by a new study, the results of which ...
CRISPR gene-editing technology heralds first generation of climate change resistant crops
CRISPR gene editing technology is beginning to deliver on a promise to quickly create crops with traits that withstand a ...
Viewpoint: The organic food industry is a $180 billion marketing fraud
As a biomedical scientist, it has never failed to annoy me that the term ‘organic’ has been co-opted to spread ...
Ghana approves 14 new genetically engineered seeds, including pest resistant and nutrition-enhanced varieties
As a farmer, I was recently excited to read a report that disclosed Ghana’s National Biosafety Authority (NBA) has approved ...
Unpacking effects of GM crops on global health, labor, and sustainability
Many people wonder what impacts GMO crops have on our world. “GMO” (genetically modified organism) is the common term consumers ...
Is tilapia a human-made freak that we should avoid — or an evolutionary rockstar?
Posts were appearing on my Facebook feed warning against the dangers of eating tilapia. So I decided to do a ...
Are we facing an ‘Insect Apocalypse’ caused by ‘intensive, industrial’ farming and agricultural chemicals? The media say yes; Science says ‘no’
The media call it the “Insect Apocalypse”. In the past few years, the phrase has become an accepted truth of ...
Disease resistance, crop diversity and enhanced fertilizer efficiency: Three desperately needed improvements that CRISPR brings to agriculture
Moderated by Howard-Yana Shapiro, a distinguished senior fellow at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the March 19 and 20 World ...
Robots with poison guns target weeds and offer an alternative to some herbicides
The plants we eat have bitter enemies on all sides. Can robots with poison guns help them? “Aggressive weeds, insects, ...
Viewpoint: Do we have to give up beef to limit climate change?
Are cows really a major cause of climate change? Wealthy nations are not pushing people to switch to a plant-based ...
Pest resistant beans: Gates Foundation in Nigeria helps develop insect-resistant, higher yield cowpeas
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is supporting the Kano State Government [in Nigeria] with anti-pest beans, a species developed ...
Viewpoint: Public investment in agricultural innovation is woefully inadequate. Here’s what should be done
Doubling government funding for agricultural research and development (R&D) would have tremendous environmental and economic benefits, according to a new ...
Small rise in global temperature ‘will make a big impact on honey bees’. Is there a solution?
The famous work ethic of honey bees might spell disaster for these busy crop pollinators as the climate warms, new ...
