Sustainability / GreenGenes
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.
Can GMO agave transform the tequila industry?
Black frost is a meteorological phenomenon marked by temperatures that drop below 0 ° C for up to five hours ...
Organic vs conventional farming: Which is worse for Earth’s climate?
Organically farmed food has a bigger climate impact than conventionally farmed food, due to the greater areas of land required ...
Why were farmers so eager to grow GMO crops?
Genetically modified (GM) crops are produced using new genetic engineering methods. Since their development slightly over 20 years ago, they ...
High-quality hybrid seeds could help feed Africa’s growing population
Africa’s demand for food will more than double by 2050, driven by population growth and rapid urbanization. A growing population ...
Evaluating claims that GMOs and modern agriculture have led to a 75% drop in crop diversity
The conventional wisdom is wrong: crop diversity is not collapsing. Our changing diets indicate there are reasons for both concern ...
Revolutionary hybrid plant clones could cut costs for farmers
Plant biologists at the University of California, Davis, have discovered a way to make crop plants replicate through seeds as clones ...
Do GMO American chestnut trees pose a threat to the environment? Two new studies say no
Two new studies on the environmental impact of transgenic American chestnut trees provide evidence that the trees have no harmful ...
Can we feed a growing world population without using yield-boosting technologies?
The production of food has environmental impacts, there is no way around this .... Nature is ruthless and weeds will ...
Is climate change ‘robbing’ our food of nutrients?
Is it possible to starve yourself of nutrients while simultaneously gaining weight? .... According to a growing body of research, ...
Using biotech to turn plants into ‘antifungal factories’ could protect against disease
Researchers [at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) in Spain] have developed a biotechnological tool to produce .... antifungal ...
GMO bacteria could help resolve Africa’s plastic pollution ‘menace’
African scientists are calling for investments in the application of biotechnology to deal with the world’s plastic pollution problem. They ...
Lab-grown meat is coming soon—but will anyone eat it?
As 2018 wraps up, the average American is poised to have eaten 222 pounds of beef over the course of ...
Viewpoint: Intensive agriculture is the only way to sustainably feed the world
[In December], the World Resources Institute (WRI) released a comprehensive study embracing agricultural intensification as the only way to simultaneously close what ...
Podcast: Jon Entine, Kevin Folta, Perry Hackett on how gene editing could dampen the partisan GMO divide
How do you win over people who view crop biotechnology and corporate influence as threats? One answer may be gene ...
Land sparing or land sharing: How do we feed the world while protecting the environment?
It is one of the biggest questions in conservation: Should we be sharing our landscapes with nature by reviving small ...
Edible vaccine may protect honey bees from deadly microbial infections
A growing number of honey bees die each year due to pesticides, vanishing habitats, poor nutrition and climate change, with ...
Viewpoint: With reasonable regulation, we can turn wild plants into food with gene editing
The crops we rely on today have been bred over thousands of years to enhance certain characteristics. For example, sweetcorn ...
GMO crops may help keep arsenic out of India’s food supply
An Indian scientist in the UK is working on a way to grow crops in arsenic contaminated soil, a study ...
We need to produce 56 percent more calories by 2050—can we do it sustainably?
If the world hopes to make meaningful progress on climate change, it won’t be enough for cars and factories to ...
‘Switching off’ genes could speed efforts to breed disease-resistant plants
Researchers from [the French Agricultural Research Centre CIRAD] recently showed that inactivating a gene, RECQ4, leads to a three-fold increase ...
GMO crops and herbicides: A ‘win-win’ for farmers and the environment, plant scientist Wayne Parrott says
A fertile soil is a microbial wonderland .... a tiny ecosystem too small to see with our eyes. Yet, the ...
Uganda’s young cassava farmers want access to GMO crops
Though Uganda’s Parliament passed a biosafety bill [the week of November 26], it remains unclear whether it will benefit a ...
Climate change spurs research to develop heat-tolerant rice, wheat
Wheat with DNA tweaked to beat the heat, and redesigned rice that can flourish in hot, dry conditions. Work is ...
Controlling harmful soil microbes may be key to protecting biodiversity
An international team led by researchers at The University of Manchester have discovered why some plants "live fast and die ...
GMO crops may be necessary to counter impacts of climate change, study shows
New research suggests that the type of yield gains made possible by genetic engineering (GE) will be needed to offset ...
GMO corn doubles crop yields in Paraguay, report shows
The use of transgenic maize doubled the production of the cereal in Paraguay during two decades of variety planting. A ...
There is a ‘broad scientific consensus’ on GMO crop safety, expert affirms
Despite the long enunciated national policy of safe, responsible use of modern biotechnology, a few local government units in the ...
Meat industry may back its cell-based competitors to gain foothold in health food market
According to Andrew Noyes, the head of communications for Just Inc., meat companies are discussing the possibility of helping cell-based meat ...
