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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Video: Devastating Witches’ Broom disease is wiping out cassava crops across South Asia. Here’s how CRISPR nanotechnology could help contain the spread
In Southeast Asia, most smallholder farmers rely on cassava: its starch-rich roots form the basis of an industry that supports ...
GLP podcast: Technology keeps debunking ‘The Population Bomb;’ Internet access can harm mental health; Is urban farming sustainable? Probably not
Technological innovations continue to debunk predictions that global population growth will lead to mass starvation. Some mental health experts are ...
With climate change disruptions of farming and food escalating, scientists look to resilient ancient plant varieties as a possible safety net
In late September, an international team of researchers fanned out across a remote New Mexico mountain range, in search of ...
Genetic diversity squeeze: Camembert is on the verge of extinction. Here’s what can be done to rescue ‘endangered cheeses’
Each hunk of Camembert or smear of brie is an ecosystem, an assortment of fungi and bacteria that turn milk ...
Analysis: Climate activists issue scare-warnings of impending starvation, but they ignore technology’s future role in scaling productivity
In 1968, the American scientists Paul and Anne Ehrlich published The Population Bomb. In it, The Ehrlichs foresaw widespread death and ...
Post-apocalyptic farming? How seaweed could help us avert starvation during a nuclear winter
A nuclear war would plunge our planet into a deep nuclear winter. In the worst-case scenario, a nuclear exchange... could ...
China reverses course, authorizes genetically modified corn and soybeans to wean itself off western imports
China is about to start growing genetically modified crops, and that has me wondering what it will mean for its ...
‘Insects are perfect machines’: Bug-mimicking tiny robots can pollinate crops, lift many times their weight
Insects are the “perfect machines,” faster and stronger than humans relative to size, [Conor Trygstad] said. They are also tasty ...
Viewpoint: Whitewash — How four obstructionist journals and their academic enablers are corrupting reporting on the science of chemicals and crop biotechnology
In 2022 and 2023, two papers analyzing the intersection of genetic engineering and disinformation were published. Neither were in very ...
Better tasting, climate-proof coffee: Largest genetic map of Arabica coffee helps researchers grow optimized beans of the future
Researchers in Italy pieced together the most complete genetic map yet of Arabica coffee, the world's most popular drink ...
Viewpoint: Are corporations and Western countries shackling African agriculture to suit their interests, as anti-GMO groups claim? Or are the activists doing the shackling?
Genetically enhanced (GE) crops, pesticides, and fertilizers have fueled an explosion in food production over the last six decades. Following ...
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 ...
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 ...
