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.
Neonicotinoid pesticides ban proposed in Chicago
Poisonous chemicals that can “decimate the population” of bees, butterflies and other pollinators would essentially be banned in Chicago under ...
What is the best strategy to market new GMO produce like pink pineapple?
Despite reservations many consumers and public health advocates have about genetically modified foods, researchers, farmers and ingredient suppliers continue to ...
Biologist, environmental lawyer, food columnist: GMOs shouldn’t be controversial
Two UCLA faculty members — molecular biologist Robert Goldberg and international law and policy scholar Edward Parson — defended the ...
Fertilizers helped food keep pace with population growth but with Faustian bargain?
Most people don’t think about fertilizer, but few innovations are as central to modern life. In the 20th century, manmade ...
Addressing all farmers’ challenges: Taking ideology out of the glyphosate and ‘superweed’ debate
Hardy weeds that develop from continued use of a limited control system are problems for all farmers. This is not ...
Bumblebees fed high doses of neonicotinoids in laboratory setting did not buzz as much or release pollen
The world’s most widely used insecticides harm the ability of bees to vibrate flowers and shake out the pollen to fertilise crops, ...
Making meat sustainable: ‘Intensive’ livestock farms more ecological than the ‘natural’ alternative
As global demand for meat grows, the environmental “hoofprint” of livestock production could grow, too. Demand-side strategies are unlikely to ...
Science and technology in food production can limit environmental footprint while increasing production
The Breakthrough Institute is in the midst of releasing a series of articles on the future of food. The latest article ...
Europe risks becoming ‘museum of world agriculture’ because of aversion to genetic engineering
Europe is mired in a “shallow debate” around GM technology while the rest of the world benefits from advances in ...
Traditional African grains cannot increase yield enough to meet population growth
Maximizing cereal crops yields in sub-Saharan Africa would still fail to meet the region's skyrocketing grain demand by 2050, according ...
How Rodale Institute, organic advocates manipulate data to ‘prove’ yields approach conventional farming
In July a new report by a panel of scientists under the banner IPES FOOD (International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food ...
New sequencing technique will make cloning genes for disease resistance in plants easier
[The] constant evolutionary arms race between plants and pathogens, whereby the organisms causing disease in plants are mutating to avoid plant ...
How crop insurance discourages use of sustainable cover crops
Cover crops feed soil microorganisms so they can, in turn, deliver more nutrients to the cash crop. They also improve ...
Nitrogen-efficient GMO rice uses less fertilizer, improves yields
According to FAO projections, by 2035, a 26% increase in rice production will be necessary to feed the growing population ...
Biotech firm Oxitec says genetically engineering fruit-damaging medfly ready for field trials
Oxitec announced [Dec. 12] that after a series of successful contained environment studies across multiple countries with its self-limiting Mediterranean fruit ...
Are millennials’ attitudes on GMOs anti-science?
If you have noticed the selection of organic, GMO-free crackers encroaching on the shelf space of the Pop Tarts and ...
Talking Biotech: Missouri’s Mel Oliver on the myth of GMO terminator genes
Missouri’s Mel Oliver on the myth of GMO terminator genes ...
Boulder commissioners suppressed report showing GMO crops more sustainable than organic
The County Commissioners’ March 17 decision to ban GMOs from Boulder County open space was rigged. Commissioners Elise Jones and ...
How Michael Pollan and the ‘foodie’ movement hurt small farmers
...[I]n some ways I am glad the "foodie" movement encouraged people to learn more about agriculture and how farmers provide the ...
New York Times unresponsive to scientists’ criticism of Danny Hakim’s error-filled article on GMO ‘failures’
The New York Times has conducted a decades-long vendetta against the ... techniques of genetic engineering applied to agriculture. Bias and inaccuracy ...
Breakthrough Institute: Outdated romantic notions of farming crippling innovation
Since the dawn of agriculture, humans have been converting forests, grasslands, and other ecosystems to farmland. The long-term conversion of ...
Norman Borlaug’s daughter Julie calls GMO opponents “anti-innovation”
The use of ... GMOs, is an important topic to many consumers. We recently talked with Julie Borlaug, granddaughter of Norman Borlaug ...
‘Precautionary’ delays in deploying GMO technology could cost $1 trillion
This article introduces a simple framework to assess the economics of delaying the introduction of GM technologies due to concerns ...
Oregon teacher: Anti-GMO activist Vandana Shiva talk slippery on facts
On November 21, 2016, prominent GMO critic Vandana Shiva, gave a presentation at the Peace Center at Lane Community College ...
UN Biodiversity Conference: Anti-technology NGOs aim to block gene drive, CRISPR, synthetic biology
The UN Biodiversity Conference is taking place in Cancun through December 17. Activist groups and ... international NGOs can have a ...
New Zealand won’t permit field trials of sustainable GMO ryegrass
AgResearch scientists have developed a genetically modified (GM) ryegrass that has a 40 per cent increase in production and a 30 ...
Bug gene therapy: Helpful insects could carry genes to protect diseased crops
...[S]cientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) want to capitalize on insects’ natural relationships with plants. They believe ...
