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?
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As anti-pesticide sentiment builds, USDA backs plan to combat invasive Russian wheat aphid with wasps
Turning loose a non-native wasp to sting and kill an aphid that feasts on wheat and barley in the Western ...
Viewpoint: Coronavirus pandemic accelerates progress toward tech-driven, sustainable food system
COVID-19 presents our food system with unprecedented challenges that we must learn from. We must also remember that COVID-19 is ...
COVID-19 may stall Nigeria’s rollout of GMO cowpea
The COVID-19 pandemic may delay the rollout of pest-resistant Bt cowpea, Nigeria’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop. The country’s ...
Can the gene editing technology known as CRISPR help reduce biodiversity loss worldwide?
CRISPR “could be such an amazing tool if we are respectful [and] responsible and use it properly.” ...
COVID pandemic illustrates how seed banks help combat hunger in times of crisis
In our daily search for pasta and flour, not to mention toilet paper, we are now learning the hard way ...
Agriculture is ‘ecocide’? Third-generation farmer takes on environmental objections to modern food production
When times are tough and people are struggling, we tend to look for someone to blame. The op-ed “Link between ...
Book review: Sheldon Krimsky’s ‘GMOs Decoded’ cherry-picks data to spur fear of biotech crops
Judith Heimann reviews “GMOs Decoded: A Skeptic’s View of Genetically Modified Foods,” by Sheldon Krimsky ...
Second massive locust swarm hits East Africa, exacerbating already severe food shortage threat
They’re back: Trillions of locusts descend on East Africa in second wave. Think of locusts as giant, hormonally charged, very ...
Podcast: GMOs = witchcraft? ‘Big Ag’ didn’t cause coronavirus; Remdesivir for COVID-19
We finally have a drug to treat COVID-19 in remdesivir, but how well does it work? Anti-GMO activists have blamed ...
Impossible Foods rolls out plant-based GMO burger to 1,700 new stores as COVID-19 strains meat supplies
As more meat plants temporarily close or operate at reduced capacity as coronavirus spreads, plant-based brands “have a window of ...
Facing weak yields and poor weather, Bolivian farmers demand access to new GMO seeds
Facing declining yields and inclement weather, smallholder farmers in Bolivia are asking the government to approve of the use of ...
Viewpoint: COVID-19 food shortages—Why the pandemic is a warning to embrace agricultural technology
The question worth asking is this: will we learn from this trying experience and embrace agricultural technology to build a ...
Precision (plant) medicine: Biotech drug delivery system fights diseases pesticides can’t control
A new method developed by engineers at MIT may offer a starting point for delivering life-saving treatments to plants ravaged ...
Viewpoint: ‘Monocultures’ unnatural? Mother Nature grows them, too
....[Wh]at’s often in the crosshairs of activists is the philosophy of the planting system — the “dreaded” monoculture. Row crops ...
11 GMO, gene-edited animals and plants that will help us battle hunger and disease
The Genetic modification of foods, organisms, and animals, is very controversial, for quite obvious reasons. And yet, the practice has ...
Want fewer pandemics? Intensify agriculture to combat hunger—the root cause of disease spread
A number of activists and opinion writers have recently argued that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can be traced ...
CRISPR could stop destructive whiteflies from infecting food crops with viral pathogens
Whiteflies are among the most important agricultural pests in the world, yet they have been difficult to genetically manipulate and ...
Podcast: Norman Borlaug a hero? Spread coronavirus for herd immunity? CRISPR v. agroecology
Norman Borlaug's Green Revolution saved an estimated billion people from starvation, but critics contend his work brought severe environmental and ...
Does ‘factory farming’ increase our risk of experiencing pandemics?
Some experts have hypothesized that the novel coronavirus made the jump from animals to humans in China’s wet markets, just ...
COVID-19 nudges us to rethink our approach to the existential threats of our time
The world as we knew it ended a few months ago. What we have now is a seemingly alien muddle ...
GMO success story: South African farmer accused of witchcraft after achieving 1,600% corn yield increase
TELA maize products are transforming livelihoods at [the] household level in Matibidi village, Mpumalanga province in South Africa. Meet Mr ...
Fluorescent foliage: Researchers grow glow-in-the-dark plants with help from mushroom DNA
Fans of the "Avatar" movie will have long dreamed of lush jungles teeming with glowing plants. But fluorescent foliage may ...
Viewpoint: Journalism or propaganda? Animal rights group pays UK newspaper The Guardian to bash agriculture
We grew up in an era when the mainstream media reported the news straightforwardly, but now much of it is ...
Viewpoint: Norman Borlaug saved millions of lives, would his critics prefer he hadn’t?
Norman Borlaug is perhaps the most important person in human history whose name and legacy remain largely unknown. A hero ...
‘Climate proofing’ the world’s food supply with edible microorganisms
We need a global food production system that is tolerant to unpredictable climate fluctuations ...
Beyond Meat debuts plant-based menu options in China’s just-reopened Starbucks, KFC locations
As China reopens restaurants and cafes, more plant-based "fake" meat products are popping up on menus. On [April 22], Beyond ...
Consumers may pay more for lab-grown meat once told about its perceived benefits
A study at Maastricht University claims people are prepared to pay more for lab-grown meat after being told of its ...
