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.
GMO mosquitoes could save Hawaii’s critically endangered birds
[M]osquitoes, which carry avian malaria, are a principal reason that just forty-two of more than a hundred species of native ...
Talking Biotech: Single cell to plant: University of Florida’s Indra Vasil on GMO plant regeneration
Indra Vasil, retired University of Florida professor, on regeneration—Vital step in GMO plant production ...
GMO myth busting: Behold the dandelion, the weed with farm busting superpowers
What does it mean to say that weeds are developing a "resistance" to glyphosate or another pesticide? Is this related ...
GMO crops help reduce environmental impact of farming
[Editor's note: This is an excerpt from an extensive, open access series of reports on the safety of GMOs produced by ...
Genetic mutation discovered in barley that increases salinity tolerance
Researchers looking to identify the genetic controls of salt tolerance in crops located a specific point on a chromosome (2H) ...
More than half of pesticides used by California farmers are active ingredients approved for organic
Critics of modern agriculture claim organics use few pesticides while conventional framers uses highly toxic ones. Data from our largest ...
Nebraskan to Africans: ‘Green revolution’ to feed malnourished unnecessary, agroecology already working
[S]mall farmers who sell their food locally still produce around 80 percent of the food in sub-Saharan Africa. But that ...
How large-scale farms using pesticides can be more sustainable than organic farming
Editor’s Note: In her new book “Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman: Conservation Heroes of the American Heartland,” . . . Miriam Horn [tells]. . . the story ...
Impossible Food’s plant-based beefy hamburgers edge closer to market
[T]he more attention consumers paid to the realities of feedlot farming, the more they wanted out. But organic, grass-fed, and ...
Organic meat, dairy dependent on loosely regulated imported feed
[F]eed for organically raised livestock is pouring into Canada and the United States from other countries. . . . ...
Mark Bittman: GMO labeling law could increase transparency on food production
President Obama recently signed the weakest [GMO] labeling law imaginable, and to most of the food movement, this felt like ...
Members of Congress want answers on EPA’s delayed evaluation of glyphosate
When Congress reconvenes [in September], lawmakers will continue to press the Environmental Protection Agency about why it’s withholding their report ...
Mark Bittman’s wrong: Mega production monocultures of corn and soy aren’t result of GMOs
Mark Bittman has an editorial today in the New York Times on the new GMO labeling laws. . . . I was ...
Talking Biotech: University of Georgia’s Cecilia McGregor on genetics of watermelon; Kevin Folta answers listeners
University of Georgia's Cecilia McGregor on genetics of watermelon; Kevin Folta answers listeners ...
Rachel Parent, teenage anti-GMO activist, claims teachers fall prey to GMO PR
Today, PR spin proclaims that GM is safe and absolutely necessary for fighting world hunger and feeding a growing population ...
India promoting advanced biotechnology for biofuel production
Biofuel made from microalgae can prove to be an alternative to conventional fossil fuels, said experts participating in the international ...
How should we evaluate impact of substituting glyphosate for more toxic herbicides?
A new paper was just published in the journal Science Advances that analyzes pesticide use data for farmers in the U.S. . . The authors['s] ...
Monsanto joins Environmental Defense Fund, others in sustainable agriculture coalition
. . . [W]e are officially launching the Midwest Row Crop Collaborative (MRCC): a diverse coalition working to expand on-the-ground solutions to ...
Farmer viewpoint: Organic sector offers unique sustainability model for all agriculture
Rather than dismissing organic standards as arbitrary restrictions, we should recognize the role that they play in guiding sustainable behaviors ...
Minnesota governor issues executive order limiting use of neonicotinoid pesticides for farms but not homes
Minnesota governor Mark Dayton on Aug. 25 issued an executive order limiting the use of nicotine-based pesticides known as neonicotinoids ...
Will gene editing, corporate consolidation bring agricultural revolution?
A new day is dawning for agriculture. When asked to describe the magnitude of the coming change, experts harken back ...
Comparing conventional vs. organic: Don’t judge sustainability by yield alone
[T]wo colleagues and I published a paper in PLOS ONE titled “Commercial crop yields reveal strengths and weaknesses for organic ...
Bee scientist joins Monsanto to battle varroa mites, save honeybees
About a third of the nation’s honeybees have died each winter over the past decade, and [Jerry] Hayes, an apiary ...
Why Bangladesh’s GMO eggplant success angers anti-GMO activists
This blog was written by Kevin Folta, chair of the horticultural department at the University of Florida. Kevin hosts a ...
Is the organic farming yield gap a sustainability gap too? New study argues for cooperation
Organic farming can't match conventional's yields. But if the acrimony could end, farmers now pitted against one another could crossbreed ...
Media shouting match over neonicotinoids isn’t helping bees
[Bees have] become pawns in the ag wars, the subject of dueling bee-death narratives. In one of those story lines, pesticides ...
Does rootworm resistance to Bt corn symbolize failure of GMOs, industrial agriculture?
In recent months, the rootworm has caused damage in fields planted with Bt corn, which is engineered to kill the ...
