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.
Newly identified protein could help safeguard plants against climate change
A team of scientists from the United States announced that they have identified the protein in plants responsible for its ...
United Nations FAO: 14 percent of food wasted before it reaches consumers
Around 14 percent of global food goes to waste after harvesting and before reaching the retail level, including through on-farm ...
Viewpoint: Trust experts over activists on GMOs, climate change, vaccines
Science occupies a special place in our society. It is subversive in the sense that it recognizes no authority other ...
Viewpoint: Don’t ‘oversell’ veganism as the only solution to climate change
Meat consumption plays a huge role in global warming, producing nearly 15% of all carbon dioxide emissions, even more than ...
‘Big meat’ vs. scrappy startups: Nestlé, Tyson, Hormel roll out plant-based products to compete with Impossible, Beyond
Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, scrappy start-ups that share a penchant for superlatives and a commitment to protecting the environment, ...
Podcast: The ‘what, how and why’ of GMOs, a crash course on genetic engineering
Agricultural scientists Karen Cox of West Virginia University and Dan Lima of Ohio State University offer a crash course on ...
Molecular-level insight into virus transmission could help cut $30 billion in annual crop damage
For the first-time we can take a molecular-level look at one of the world's deadliest crop killers. The Luteoviridae are ...
Viewpoint: Legal crusade against Bayer’s Roundup herbicide threatens fish and wildlife
You’ve seen the ads flooding television and social media: “Have you been exposed to weed killer Roundup? If you have ...
How CRISPR could produce tastier wine and beer
Whether it’s grape juice or liquid malt, yeast is essential in converting sugary liquids into alcohol, to produce the final ...
Where’d pineapple come from? Study explores the evolution of an ever-popular tropical fruit
Researchers have now gained new insights on how human agriculture helped shape the evolution of pineapple. Led by University of ...
Viewpoint: New EU Parliament should stop ‘shunning science’ and embrace GMOs
The recently elected European Parliament (EP) should bring with it a ray of hope. Hope that Europe will rise to ...
USDA scientist: Cover crops check soil degradation—major threat to global food security
Visit the typical almond farm in California and you’ll see rows of trees stretching to the horizon, forming an arching ...
Fungus-treated tomatoes see 65% higher yields in salty soil, greenhouse study shows
Plant scientists in the Middle East have discovered that adding a desert root fungus, Piriformospora indica—first isolated in India—to the ...
Podcast: Synthetic fertilizer pollution threatens our ecosystems. Are nitrogen-fixing microbes the answer?
Farmers need nitrogen fertilizer to maximize crop yields. Without it, our food supply would be nowhere near as abundant as ...
Viewpoint: Hectoring Americans to go vegan will do ‘almost nothing’ to combat climate change
Eating meat is bad for the climate—or at least that was one of the main conclusions highlighted in a flood ...
Nigerian farmers, scientists celebrate success of GMO insect-resistant cowpea field trial
Nigerian [bean] farmers have commended the performance of .... Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) Cowpea .... on the field over the ...
GMO wheat varieties boost crop yields 20-30% in field trial
Studies conducted at the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF) showed experimental genetically modified (GM) wheat lines [have] the potential to ...
Gene editing could yield heartier, tastier berry varieties
Biting into a fresh, sweet berry might be a simple pleasure, but the berries’ genomes are surprisingly complex. The strawberry ...
Viewpoint: Don’t buy organic food if you want to increase farm yields or seriously address climate change
As consumers, our most climate-responsible buying behavior should be to reject organic and its false narratives ...
Biofuel from GMO trees could cut global oil use, but EU biotech rules slow development
The looming threat of climate change is increasing the pressure to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels. New technologies to ...
African farmers could boost crop yields with GMO seeds—if their governments would let them
An air of Malthusian gloom hangs over smallholder farmers in Sironko, in eastern Uganda. In the old days, they say, ...
Raging debate: Ghana’s move to commercialize its first GMO cowpea met with mix of optimism and fear
The country plans to release the modified seeds this year or next. Will they benefit the small farmers they were ...
If consumers fear GMOs, why do they keep buying Impossible Burgers?
Used to be that GMOs ranked right up there with child porn as a blight on society no one should ...
Controversial GMO American chestnut could provide blueprint for saving endangered species
To those who are fearful of GMOs, it is the most dangerous tree in the world. To the rest of ...
Fertilizer, pesticides from microbes could help make urban farming more productive
Singapore could be an urban farming oasis and achieve government-set guidelines for produce self-sufficiency as researchers there pioneer the development ...
GMO Impossible Burger top-selling item at many grocery stores across US
Impossible Burger debuted on store shelves earlier [in September], immediately becoming the No. 1 product sold at some of America’s ...
Debate over GMO, CRISPR crop rules ‘essential’ as EU agriculture adapts to changing climate
In the hot summer of 2018, German farmers received €340 million in drought aid, and it will certainly not be ...
