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.
Infographic: Eliminating synthetic fertilizer won’t solve agriculture’s nitrogen pollution problem
The proposed solution is worse than the problem it hopes to solve ...
The coming ‘vegan economy’? Billion-dollar plant-based food industry rushes to satisfy eco-conscious consumers
Veganism is on the rise. The phenomenon has spawned a burgeoning industry in alternatives to animal-derived products that’s already worth ...
AI-powered devices deliver ‘micro-dose’ of herbicide to cut agriculture’s chemical use
Above a Saskatchewan field, a line of drones rises in formation, sensors primed to pick out enemy targets below. But ...
McDonald’s teams up with Beyond Meat to test plant-based burger in Canada
McDonald's is teaming up with Beyond Meat. On [September 26], the fast-food giant announced that it will partner with Beyond ...
Wait, corn is a fruit? Yes—here’s the biology that explains why
We all know the is-a-tomato-a-fruit debate (correct answer: yes, but you still shouldn’t put it in a fruit salad). Now ...
Can controlled burns crack down on herbicide-resistant weeds?
Weeds are thieves. They steal nutrients, sunlight and water from our food crops. In the case of sugarcane, yield refers ...
Podcast: Farming without chemicals: Pesticide-carrying bees poised to revolutionize agriculture?
While the GMO controversy rages, a handful of companies are taking another innovative approach to crop protection ...
Drought resistant farming breakthrough: GMO corn survives nearly two months without water thanks to tomato genes, in field study
The intense desert to the south of the Coquimbo Region in Chile makes molecular biologist Simón Ruiz think about how ...
US ‘Insect Allies’ program engineers bugs to fight plant disease: Are they high-tech helpers or horrific threats?
Scientists dream of one day being able to construct viruses or bacteria from a collection of building blocks. Like a ...
Examining Sweden’s ties to anti-GMO conference in Africa, through taxpayer-funded Swedish Society for Nature Conservation
How the environmental movement neglects the environment ...
Podcast: GMO insects loose in the wild? Inside scoop on controversial Oxitec mosquito in Brazil
The tiny mosquito is a nuisance in the industrialized world, yet in developing countries it is a ruthless killer, spreading ...
AI-powered smartphone app helps safeguard African staple crops against climate change
A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool available for free in a smartphone app can predict near-term crop productivity for farmers ...
Podcast: What Doctor Who can teach us about protecting California’s grape industry from ‘alien’ bugs
Are you a fan of the long-term sci-fi comedy Doctor Who? It's the bizarre but entertaining story of an extraterrestrial ...
Sustainable dyes and fabrics created through synthetic biology promise to revolutionize fashion industry
The fashion industry is responsible for 10 percent of global carbon emissions; that is more than air and sea transport ...
Sorghum gene could help cut massive crop damage caused by birds without harming them
A single gene in sorghum controls bird feeding behavior by simultaneously regulating the production of bad-tasting molecules and attractive volatiles, ...
Could drought-tolerant seeds save East Africa’s sunflower production?
Climate change has brought more droughts to Tanzania. This not only affects the cultivation of sunflowers, but also the production ...
High-yielding desert crops? Soil-free growing system could boost food security in world’s arid regions
A lush, green mat of fresh animal fodder is an unlikely sight in the harsh Sahara Desert, but a project ...
‘Abstinence vs. innovation’: What Amazon fires can teach us about GMO, CRISPR-edited crops
The Amazon rainforest fire debate is another edition of “abstinence vs. innovation” (here’s the aviation edition). Global agro-consumption and demand for ...
Viewpoint: ‘GMO’—the dirty three-letter word used to demonize life-saving biotechnology
The demonization of this technology funds numerous NGOs and has even become a cottage industry ...
CRISPR gene editing poised to streamline next ‘agricultural revolution,’ plant scientists say
As a growing population and climate change threaten food security, researchers around the world are working to overcome the challenges ...
Viewpoint: GMO Impossible Whopper can help save the planet—and lots of cows
[In September] I stepped inside a Burger King for the first time in three years. I wanted to try out ...
North American bird populations dropped 30% over 50 years, but causes hard to ‘pin down’
North America’s birds are disappearing from the skies at a rate that’s shocking even to ornithologists. Since the 1970s, the ...
South Korea develops 13 GMO crops in 7 years to battle drought, pests
In South Korea, the National Center for GM Crops (NCGC) aims to enhance national food security and to turn agriculture ...
Citrus Greening bacteria finally grown in the lab—key ‘first step’ to saving Florida’s orange industry
Washington State University researchers have for the first time grown the bacteria in a laboratory that causes Citrus Greening Disease, ...
Weed-pulling robots are here. Can they eliminate chemical herbicides?
Early this year, 85-year-old Bonipak Produce unleashed an orange, 8,000-pound autonomous robot upon its California vegetable fields. It was one ...
Higher yields, reduced pesticide use fueled by GMO crops boost farmer welfare in developing world
Up to 17 million smallholder farmers planted GM crops in 2018, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of ...
Viewpoint: Activist myth-making, anti-science lobbying undermine Uganda’s path to food security
The president's trepidation about crop biotech is science-free and largely due to the influence of Western environmental groups ...
