Agriculture & 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.
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Aquaculture in the Amazon—enhanced food security comes with sustainability risks
Expanding aquaculture in the Amazon could provide nutritional and economic benefits at a fraction of the environmental cost of cattle ...
Farmers advocate for protective legislation guaranteeing their ability to use crop chemicals deemed safe by federal oversight agencies
In many state legislatures, such as Missouri and North Dakota, there are bills being discussed to make the state pesticide ...
Organic industry lobbies to replace organic seal on foods with GMO-free, antibiotic-free, hormone-free, and pesticide related claims
To better engage younger consumers, further maximize the impact of the organic seal and drive sales, [Matthew] Dillon urges industry ...
16.4 million ads: Tort law firm suits targeting cutting edge technologies like genetically modified crops and chemicals surged more than 260% in the last 8 years with glyphosate at the top of the list
In 2024, a staggering $164 million was spent on more than 725,000 legal services advertisements in Los Angeles alone. This ...
Viewpoint: Regenerative agriculture’s ‘exorbitant price tag’—Will it ever make economic sense?
[O]ut of 900 million arable acres in the US, only a tiny fraction is currently being farmed regeneratively. And out ...
Viewpoint—Greenpeace’s conviction and humiliation in the pipeline court case raises the question: What’s the global future for science-rejectionist NGOs?
On March 19, a North Dakota court jury ruled against Greenpeace USA, awarding $660 million to Energy Transfer LP for ...
Africa’s food security challenges: Is nuclear agriculture a solution or a problem?
Climate change is an ongoing and increasing threat to African agriculture. Prolonged droughts, pest outbreaks, and poor soil quality are ...
Viewpoint: Here’s why RFK, Jr.’s recommendation to substitute animal fats for vegetable alternatives is bad for your health
'Americans should have every right to eat out at a restaurant without being unknowingly poisoned by heavily subsidised seed oils,' ...
Sticky pesticides: Farmers don’t like using pesticides anymore than we like traces of them on our food. Here’s a smart way forward
It's easy for Greenpeace employees in cities to talk about farming but in the real world, without pesticides we'd lose ...
Viewpoint: How could DOGE and RFK, Jr.-ordered FDA cuts impact food safety?
At the Food and Drug Administration, freezes on government credit card spending ordered by the Trump administration have impeded staff ...
From toxic fungus to soy sauce superstar
Nearly 9,000 years ago, around the time that humans were first domesticating corn and pigs, some people in China were ...
Consumer resistance to technology tweaking food: Brits remain skeptical about cell-based meats
[A] minority (16-41%) of people in the UK are willing to consume cell-cultivated meat [according to the UK Food Standards ...
Treasure map of genetic secrets—Bigger and more flavorful eggplants and tomatoes on the horizon
Bigger and more flavorful tomatoes and eggplants may soon become a reality, thanks to a team of scientists at Johns Hopkins ...
Lazarus plants: ‘Zombie’ plants that spring back to life hold keys to developing technologies to adapt agriculture to climate change.
To protect crops from rising droughts, scientists are looking to the genes of a small group of plants that can ...
Viewpoint: Why you should read science headlines with caution
The strong correlation between flashiness and wrongness comes from several factors. First, much, if not most, scientific research is wrong. That’s why ...
Ageing and diet: In a study one food plan actually appears to provide some unique benefits
A new 30-year study of eight popular diets has identified the one most likely to keep you healthiest into your ...
Korean Muslim group becomes latest religious organization to issue a Fatwa approving cultivated meat as Halal
Cultivated meat can be considered Halal and consumed by Muslims, provided they’re sourced and produced in accordance with Halal standards, ...
Viewpoint: How ‘dark money’ donor advised foundations partner with tort lawyers, the organic industry and activist environmental funds to manipulate the media and target conventional agriculture
A herbicide company pays $25,000 to a pro-GMO plant biologist’s university for six months of travel expenses and the activist ...
‘Probiotics is a waste of money’: Scientists push back against Dr. Oz claims that the supplements he promotes provide health benefits
Our bodies—and guts, specifically—depend on a balance of bacteria to “maintain healthy blood sugar and cholesterol levels,” but “you gotta ...
5 actions the Trump administration could and should take (but probably won’t) to contain bird flu
First, vaccinating poultry is critical to preventing flock outbreaks and must be a cornerstone of the nation’s avian influenza prevention ...
Women have long been encouraged to monitor their nutrition during pregnancy. Men need to watch their food intake too—but before conception
For decades, fertility research has focused on maternal health, but groundbreaking new research is shifting the conversation. A growing body ...
Viewpoint: Trump’s tariffs are squeezing American farmers. We are still in wait-and-see territory but tensions are building
The trade war hit my farm and greenhouse business here in northwest Missouri on March 4. The first email I ...
Cosmic cuisine: Synthetic biologists are exploring cellular agriculture to grow food in space
[P]roducing food in space is incredibly difficult. There is very limited space aboard spacecraft, and microgravity impacts the growth of ...
Viewpoint: For European farming to innovate, patents are critical
EU policymakers are currently negotiating new rules for developing innovative plant varieties through new genomic techniques (NGTs). These techniques allow plant breeders ...
Defining healthy: Three uniquely effective ways to measure your health — and what it has to do with food
In the U.S., we spend almost $5 trillion on healthcare, 17.6% of our GDP — that’s $14,750 per person. And ...
Varroa mites, not pesticides, are by far the largest threat to honeybee health. Developing RNAi technology shows promise in addressing that crisis
Pictures of honeybees show up in prehistoric cave paintings, one stretching back 8,000 years ago in Spain. The ancient Egyptians were ...
Bayer plans appeal and hopes for legislative relief after $2.2 billion Roundup-glyphsate verdict
A Cobb County, Georgia, jury awarded plaintiff John Barnes $2.065 billion in compensation and damages on March 21 in ...
