Crops & Food
We eat to live. Humans use approximately 11% of Earth’s land for the cultivation of crops for food, but also for clothing, medicine and biofuels. Globally, major crops include sugarcane, pumpkin, maize (corn), wheat, rice, cassava, soybeans, hay, potatoes and cotton.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
How Russia is weaponizing food and fertilizer
Europe is more food dependent on Moscow now than we were before the war, with the bloc replacing energy dependency ...
Viewpoint: Will ‘irrational fears of mutations and a naive understanding of nature’ derail Europe’s effort to reform 20+ years of misguided crop biotech regulations?
The European Commission has now published a proposal on how, in the future, to regulate crops produced by new breeding ...
50%+ yield boost: Nigeria commercializes four varieties of insect-resistant, drought-tolerant corn
Nigeria’s government is taking the bull by the horns and exploring various ways by which the nation can put an ...
African scientists challenge activist claims that crop biotechnology revolution spreading across Africa threatens continent’s plant biodiversity
Do genetically modified (GM) pose a threat to the Africa’s plant biodiversity? ...
Carbon tradeoff: Which is better for the environment — grain-fed or pasture-raised beef?
Beef production accounts for the largest share of global livestock greenhouse gas emissions and is an important target for climate ...
Viewpoint: ‘I’m talking about you Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth’ — Nobel Laureate Sr Richard Roberts urges Thailand to reject anti-biotechnology advocacy group fearmongering
Speaking in an exclusive interview to The Nation, Dr Sir Richard J Roberts, Nobel Prize winner for medicine in 1993, ...
Viewpoint: Fake meat doesn’t taste anything like the real thing. Pilot project putting pig genes in soybeans hopes to change the status quo
Paladini is the CEO of Moolec Science, a molecular farming firm that uses crops to grow animal proteins. The idea is ...
Glyphosate disinformation: French activists use fake ‘glyphosate detection tests’ in campaign to turn public against safe weedkiller
Opponents needed a tool that would strike public opinion. Monica Kruger, an activist and director of the private veterinary testing ...
How zapping roots with electricity can supercharge plant growth
Barley seedlings grow on average 50% more when their root system is stimulated electrically through a new cultivation substrate. In ...
Viewpoint: Without measurable metrics, ‘regenerative agriculture’ is often little more than a data-less claim and a form of greenwashing. Here’s how to make it more science based and sustainable
In a previous column for SSA, just under a year ago, I highlighted concerns that the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), a ...
Study: Organic farming produces less food than conventional. How huge is this yield gap?
The productivity of organic farming systems and their capacity to address the global food demand of a rapidly increasing population ...
Dissecting claims about Monsanto suing farmers for accidentally planting patented seeds
Much to the dismay of anti-GMO activists, courts around the world including SCOTUS have consistently upheld the rights of companies ...
Here’s the skinny on fast-emerging genetic engineering tools that are rapidly improving global farming
Genetic engineering and gene-editing tools are by no means a panacea for the time-sensitive agricultural and food-related challenges we face ...
Americans’ top 10 favorite genetically-modified foods
Genetically modified papayas were first produced in the U.S. in 1996. Since then, they have been extremely popular in the ...
Upcycling food waste: Corn cobs, the circular economy and industrial production: Plant biomass offers alternative industrial products
The practice of upcycling –present in a variety of industries from fashion to construction– not only revitalizes discarded items, adding new values ...
The investment bubble surrounding indoor farming has burst. One plodding but high-tech startup is bucking the trend, and here’s how
Indoor farming startups seeking to revolutionize the nation’s food supply have endured a rocky year. Investors have significantly pulled back ...
25+ years into the crop biotechnology revolution, ‘Canadian prairie farmers are among the most sustainable on the planet’. Europe? Not so much
Canadian agriculture has embraced innovative technologies and products. Canadian farmers rapidly adopted genetically modified crops following their approvals in the ...
Why African farmers fighting against notoriously low yields need innovation to survive inflation and starvation in a warming world
Rising temperatures mean large chunks of Africa are whipsawing between increasingly severe droughts and more frequent and intense cyclones, threatening ...
Creating the perfect Christmas tree: Researchers spent four decades creating a faster-growing, shed-free fir tree
Christmas trees are the centerpiece of the holiday season. But the fear of needles falling can deter shoppers from buying ...
‘Perhaps GMOs are closer to natural processes than we think’: How genetic modification mimics natural evolution of plants
Genetically modified (GM) crops may be controversial, but similar processes happen naturally with wild plants. However, scientists have long been ...
‘I asked for a greenhouse made of bulletproof glass’: Golden Rice developer feared activist retaliation for creating genetically modified vitamin A-boosted variety
In July 2000, Ingo Potrykus thought he was both at the peak and at the end of his career. He ...
Companies bet millions on the plant-based meat substitute revolution. Why hasn’t that panned out?
Futurists and pundits often make compelling cases for how the agricultural world will unfold. Here are a half dozen instances ...
Viewpoint: Hunger crisis — The number of countries unable to feed their populations has soared 400% since 2000. Here’s why crop biotechnology is a key solution
In the face of increasing population, adversely changing climate, shrinking agricultural lands, inputs such as energy, fertilizer and pestisite that ...
Are pesticide residues on food something to worry about?
Just like anything that goes into your body, it’s the dose (the amount) that matters ...
Food and your brain: ‘Ultra-processed’ foods high in salt, sugar and fat are cheap and accessible — but increase risks of anxiety and depression
Although many ultra-processed foods—soda, candy, energy bars, fruit-flavored yogurt, frozen pizza, and frozen meals—can satisfy cravings for sweet, fatty, salty ...
President Macron’s attempt to appease French anti-glyphosate environmental lobby goes awry, alienating both his activist base and farmers
Good news for French agriculture. Finally, the European Commission decided to follow what a majority of Member States wanted, in this ...
A llama-inspired way to protect crops
Most of us will never see a live llama except at a zoo unless we have an opportunity to travel ...
