Sustainability/Climate Change
Viewpoint: Are we in the midst of a ‘beepocalypse’ or besieged by ‘false bee alarmism”?
“Bee populations in the United States are declining at a rapid, unprecedented rate,” Ohio State University first reported in 2020. Phys.org added last ...
Viewpoint: Righteous Risks — Here’s how (and why) environmental advocacy groups misrepresent the risks from innovations but cynically ignore genuine dangers
Synthetic pesticides are under constant regulatory pressure, but not organic pesticides. “Green” renewables and EVs have very little regulatory scrutiny ...
Urban farming sounds great in theory — but releases more CO2 than conventional agriculture. Here’s what needs to change
A new study in Nature Cities compared carbon emissions from small farms and gardens in major cities across the U.S. and Europe with ...
Only 9% of plastic waste is recycled. Here’s how plastic-eating mealworms can munch on shopping bags, yogurt cups, and packing peanuts
Plastic-eating enzymes in the guts of mealworms are one of the ideas being studied, but it dodges the real solution: ...
Boost to regenerative agriculture: Nanotechnology-enhanced bacterial fertilizer might could reduce farmers’ synthetic chemical dependency
Claims we may only have 60 harvests left appear to be hyperbole but the fact remains that our agricultural land ...
Changing livestock diets: Here’s how crickets will help address agricultural sustainability challenges
During the late summer and early fall, you can hear the commotion in a customized, food-grade shipping container on the ...
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 ...
Viewpoint: ‘Villainous’ methane-burping cows may be part of an integrated solution to climate change
Beef and dairy cattle have been demonised by many as one of the main causes of increased green house gas ...
Grow in the dark vertical farming? Here’s how gene-editing could allow crops to grow without light
Startup Square Roots announces a new program to prove that light can removed from a commercial vertical farming system and ...
Viewpoint: Evolutionary trap — ‘Forces that encouraged our ancestors to compete for resources fueled early human success but now threaten to end it’
Evolution has led us into a dark corner, as the scale and impact of human groups has kept growing, 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 ...
Beverages, meats, fruits and vegetables: CRISPR poised to offer more sustainable alternatives
Although vegetarian and vegan diets have risen in popularity over the years, humankind’s appetite for meat is still insatiable. By ...
Hybrid seafood? Shrimp added to expanding roster of 3D printed, cultivated seafood products
Israeli startup Steakholder Foods has added a 3D-printed shrimp prototype to an expanding roster of alternative seafood products. The company ...
In face of diminishing freshwater resources, new gene-edited tomato variety can withstand droughts without compromising yields
A new discovery by Tel Aviv University has succeeded in cultivating and characterizing tomato varieties with higher water use efficiency ...
Gene-edited fungus-resistant rice variety slated for field trials, first genetically-engineered crop trial in Italy nearly 20 years
For the first time in almost 20 years, a new entry appeared in the public database that lists proposals to test ...
Lab-cultured eel alternative to an over-fished delicacy? Israel-Japan partnership looks to 2025 launch
Forsea Foods, the only known company working on cell-based eel, has created the first prototype of its cultivated eel. The ...
Tomatoes ready for harvest in 40 days? Gene edited prototypes could transform one of the world’s most popular fruits
Scientists have just genetically modified cherry tomatoes to make them easier to grow, and the future applications could include making them more ...
Urban farming impact: Growing food in cities has six times the carbon footprint of conventional agriculture
A new University of Michigan-led international study finds that fruits and vegetables grown in urban farms and gardens have a ...
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 ...
USDA: Why cell-based meat is critical to address climate change
In a historic move, USDA-NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative's Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) program invested in cultivated meat research ...
Here’s how we can genetically modify soil microbiomes to reduce use of synthetic fertilizers and improve yields
There has been a great deal of buzz in recent years about the importance of the human microbiome; much of it ...
Viewpoint: As concerns about plastic pollution in the ocean mount, there is a yet untapped solution — genetically-engineered bacteria that “eat” plastic. Will activists and the government block it?
Spain’s northern coast has been fighting a months-long assault from a ‘white tide’ of plastic pellets dumped by a Dutch-registered ...
Viewpoint: With only 4% of New York farmland organic, why is the state letting this narrow special interest group dictate crop protection policy for all farmers?
The 1980s farm crisis wasn’t only a fiscal and economic burden on the states and the farm workers, it also ...
Clothes made of banana peels: How fruit waste can be turned into a sustainable cotton alternative
Every year, the world produces about 10 million metric tonnes of bananas a year. 35% of the banana’s weight are ...
Next breakthrough CRISPR crop? Turning wild rice species into a domesticated crop
[Jiayang] Li, a plant geneticist at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology in Beijing, is working on a wild ...
Here’s how CRISPR is evolving into a tool to protect small African farmers
A research team has used genome editing to produce a rice variety resistant to yellow mottle virus, which is responsible for high ...
Viewpoint: ‘Drought-sensitive crops keep Kenya on the precipice of famine’ — Why anti-GMO court challenges stall biotech solutions to Kenya’s food security
Dr Chris Ojiewo of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) says Kenya is on the path of a ...