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.
Should US spend more on agricultural R&D to make food cheaper, more sustainable?
[Editor's note: Margaret Zeigler is executive director of the Global Harvest Initiative, a private-sector voice for productivity growth throughout the agricultural ...
Should US spend more on agricultural R&D to make food cheaper, more sustainable?
[Editor's note: Margaret Zeigler is executive director of the Global Harvest Initiative, a private-sector voice for productivity growth throughout the agricultural ...
Should US spend more on agricultural R&D to make food cheaper, more sustainable?
[Editor's note: Margaret Zeigler is executive director of the Global Harvest Initiative, a private-sector voice for productivity growth throughout the agricultural ...
Plants challenged to ‘breath’ because of climate change — This gene tweak could change that
New work from a joint team of plant biologists and ecologists from Carnegie and Stanford University has uncovered the factor ...
Farms are not like Eden: The case for aggressive human intervention in agriculture
Farming is controlling nature for our own purposes. There is no utopian state. We should stop trying to restore, recover, ...
Should US spend more on agricultural R&D to make food cheaper, more sustainable?
[Editor's note: Margaret Zeigler is executive director of the Global Harvest Initiative, a private-sector voice for productivity growth throughout the agricultural ...
Green fears: Why are pro-science liberals less embracing of GMO safety than conservatives?
[Editor’s note: Dan Kahan is a professor of psychology at Yale Law School. This is a follow-up to an earlier blog ...
Palm reading: How genetic, epigenetic scans could boost palm oil yields, reduce environmental footprint
Palm oil is a commodity that generally evokes images of mass deforestation, human-rights violations and dying orangutans. In Indonesia and ...
‘Industrial’ corn: GM variety makes ethanol more energy efficient
Farmers in [North Dakota] will grow an industrial-quality corn specifically designed for the ethanol industry this summer. Corn with the ...
Minnesota lawmakers block legislation to regulate neonicotinoid insecticides
Minnesota lawmakers have derailed legislation to give the state Department of Agriculture authority over seeds treated with insecticide. Seeds treated ...
Organic activists claim organic Ruby Red grapefruits and durum wheat are GMOs in disguise
Last century, a genetic innovation gave a huge boost to agricultural productivity. And, no, it wasn't recombinant DNA. And yes, ...
Understanding innovation’s ‘enemies’: Calestous Juma explores how new technologies can overcome social opposition
[Editor's Note: The following is a review of the book, "Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies" by Harvard ...
Conservatives who trust science more likely to view GMOs as safe than liberal counterparts, survey finds
[Editor's note: Dan Kahan is a professor of psychology at Yale Law School.] [I]n 2010, the General Social Survey (GSS) asked ...
With pesticide resistance rising, crop scientists look to CRISPR, bacteria for solutions
Resistance to conventional pesticides — among insects, weeds or microbial pathogens — is common on farms worldwide. CropLife International, an ...
Australian election results could spell bad news for GMO farmers
Labor's comprehensive victory at the [March 2017] WA [Western Australia] election raises questions about the future status of plant biotechnology ...
Study challenges belief that milkweed is sole cause of monarch butterfly declines
Steep declines in the number of monarch butterflies reaching their wintering grounds in Mexico are not fully explained by fewer ...
EPA/Monsanto collusion alleged in lawsuit challenging safety of Roundup herbicide
[Editor's note: Read the GLP's coverage of glyphosate's cancer risk here and here. Read the American Council on Science and Health's ...
Tanzania’s biosafety regulations force researchers to burn harvest from GMO corn field trial despite food shortages
In keeping with strict biosafety regulations, all the GM maize material is burned once the harvest data is collected. The ...
To boost crop yields, stress tolerance one biotech startup turns to epigenetics
The news that’s arrived is that TechAccel, the Kansas City-based technology and venture development company, announced it has completed an ...
To make farming more sustainable, don’t mimic nature — do it better
Behind many efforts to make agriculture more sustainable is the idea that our farming systems need to be more like ...
Facing climate change, plant breeders use genetics, robotics to develop crops ‘that can adapt to it all’
Variable weather is creating extreme challenges for crop breeding in California. How do you develop crops that will thrive under ...
Corn genetically engineered to neutralize toxic mold would be boon for health of poor women in Africa
It’s a silent killer lurking in common foods. A carcinogenic toxin made by [mold] kills thousands around the world and ...
To boost crop yields and stress tolerance, one biotech startup turns to epigenetics
The news that’s arrived is that TechAccel, the Kansas City-based technology and venture development company, announced it has completed an ...
‘Environmental DNA’ tests could aid in management of commercial, endangered fish
Environmental DNA, or eDNA, is at the center of a brand new kind of fish and wildlife biology, and it ...
Sensors developed for national security used to monitor plant health, improve breeding
Agriculture consumes about 80 percent of all U.S. water. Making fertilizers uses 1 to 2 percent of all the world’s ...
Is organic farming ‘holy grail’ to environmental, food scarcity problems? Study says no
Many people choose organic thinking it’s better for humans and the planet, but a new UBC study published today in ...
UN Commission report promoting organics, critical of pesticides challenged as biased
A recent UN report grabbed headlines for dismissing as ‘myth’ the notion that pesticides are necessary to feed the world ...
