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.
Cow burps are one of the biggest contributors to global warming, Here is what farmers are doing to curtail methane release
The Dirt Did you know cattle can play a positive role in climate change? Farmers and ranchers are proactively working ...
Can agricultural robots cut down on weeds without chemicals or carbon-releasing tilling?
Weeds are the bane of all farmers. They compete with crops for soil moisture and nutrients and can block out ...
Why bananas are the original ‘frankenfood’
The banana has shaped civilizations and sparked scientific inquiry. From its origins in the lush forests of New Guinea to ...
What is the future of no-till farming?
No-till farming holds significant promise as a sustainable agricultural practice that can help address some of the key challenges facing ...
AI can help accelerate the transition to regenerative farming
Slightly preceding the global momentum towards regenerative agriculture has been a focus on the digitalization of agriculture. It offers benefits ...
Plants, cells, and microbes could help clean the environment but consumers seem indifferent
The challenge of our food system’s climate impact is only getting more tricky: richer countries tend to eat more meat, and ...
Hydroponics: Can growing food without soil be mass scaled?
Growing plants in water rather than soil actually uses a small fraction of the water used in traditional farming—since there’s ...
Islamic eco-systems a millennium ago supported farming in marginal desert environments but were largely abandoned. They could be sustainability models today
As global water resources become more strained, the insights gained from traditional agricultural systems could pave the way for the development of ...
We are well on our way to automating science
Many scientists are already excited about AI. In a Nature survey of 1,600 scientists published in September 2023, more than half of ...
Viewpoint: The US government and corporations are funneling billions into cover crop research to combat climate change. Is the money and the hype worth it?
Cover cropping, the practice of planting secondary crops during the off-season to improve soil health, has roots stretching back to ...
Cooling the planet one balloon at a time? Geoengineering experiment worries scientists
Luke Iseman has a plan to cool the planet, inspired by a science fiction novel, using balloons full of heat-reflecting ...
Viewpoint: New York Times’ series ‘What to Eat on a Burning Planet’ is elitist hubris (and also gets the science of climate change wrong)
Journalists, academics and policymakers often talk about the “global food system.” But if there is such a thing, it isn’t ...
RFK Jr. is touting regenerative agriculture. The problem is no one knows what it is.
Indigenous farming practices are the trendy new agricultural craze sweeping both sides of the political aisle. The fight is over ...
What impact can regenerative farming have on climate change?
Regenerative agricultural practices are a set of rejuvenating farming and agricultural sustainable practices that seek to boost soil health, water resources, soil organic ...
The hornet has landed: Scientists combat new honeybee killer in US
In early August 2023, a beekeeper near the port of Savannah, Georgia, noticed some odd activity around his hives. Something ...
35% greenhouse emissions: Agriculture is one of the largest contributors to climate change. How can we turn that around?
Plants rely on nitrogen to grow, but they fail to take up a lot of the nitrogen in fertilizers applied ...
How has climate change reduced crop yields over the past quarter century
Agriculture is arguably the industry most sensitive to changes in the climate. Crops need CO2, water — not too little ...
How to improve crop yields
Conventional plant breeders [have] already optimized factors like plant size and [are] working on disease resistance. Based smack in the ...
Viewpoint: Facing steep agricultural challenges, Spain turns to technological innovation
The panorama of biotechnology ... such as genetic editing [enables] development of crops resistant to pests and diseases, and the optimization ...
The first AI-guided garden where the plants tell you when they are thirsty
Have you ever joyously stepped out to your backyard garden, freshly brewed coffee in hand, only to find your meticulously cared-for ...
European Green Deal: European Union rolls out sustainable food agriculture monitoring platform
Transforming the food system is an urgent challenge to achieve the sustainable development goals and key EU policy priorities, among ...
Gene-edited soybeans are the latest plant to pave the way towards sustainable agriculture
A new experiment in soybeans is genetically engineering soybean plants in ways that improve their resistance to differing stresses like ...
The global food system is already under stress from climate change. Here’s what the future might hold
The impact of climate change on yields will depend on several factors: the type of crop, how much warmer the ...
Breakthrough Institute report: New technologies are poised to reduce the carbon footprint of agriculture — if public financing is forthcoming
In recent years, startups, university researchers, and government laboratories have developed a suite of new technologies capable of revolutionizing agriculture ...
With climate change threatening commodity foods, these technologies are coming to the rescue
Food staples like coffee and cocoa are already suffering the effects of severe weather brought on by climate change and ...
As risks in agriculture from climate change escalate, gene editing offers potential remedies
In the words of Luis Planas, Minister of Agriculture [of Spain]: “ The future demands producing more and better and ...
Podcast: Scientists harness gene editing to engineer disease- and climate-resilient wheat
By 2030, Africa will account for 53 percent of the world’s population living in hunger, primarily due to climate change and ...
