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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AI is helping farmers sequester more carbon in soil, improving agriculture’s sustainability profile
Our soil ... holds about double the amount of carbon that’s in the atmosphere, and almost three times the volume ...
‘Our planet is choking on plastics”—They are challenging to recycle, but what if we could vaporize them
Some of the worst [plastic] offenders, which can take decades to degrade in landfills, are polypropylene—which is used for things ...
Viewpoint: The FDA should not be bullied into taking away consumer’s choice to eat cell-grown meat
Consumers might already be weirded out by the prospect of eating lab-grown animal products, so the ideal product should taste ...
Viewpoint: Africa’s opportunity to develop crops that can weather climate change depends whether it embraces gene editing
South Africa’s agriculture faces increasing climate challenges, particularly for vulnerable crops such as fruit. Dr Peter Johnston, a climate scientist, highlights ...
Elon Musk is getting jittery about meeting his self-imposed deadline for human flights to Mars
Elon Musk sounds like a man grappling with the reality that there are only so many trips left for him ...
What’s regenerative agriculture and what are its market prospects?
Regenerative agriculture focuses on improving soil health, increasing biodiversity, and enhancing ecosystem services while also producing food and fiber. This ...
Disease-carrying mosquitoes are exploding in number globally and in the U.S. as the world heats up
West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), malaria and dengue are gaining new ground in the US. The mosquitoes that ...
Will lab-based meat upend the trillion dollar global meat industry? Would it be any better for our health?
Worldwide, 80 billion animals are slaughtered every year for meat. Raising all those animals has already claimed most of the ...
Soil footprint: Measuring soil degradation caused by farming
The “soil footprint” is emerging as a crucial concept in sustainable farming, measuring the impact of agriculture on soil erosion ...
Tastier and healthier Chardonnays in Italy: More sustainable fungal fighting gene-edited vines planted in Italian trial
“This is the first field trial with edited vines in Europe,” says Sara Zenoni, who teaches agricultural genetics at the ...
Precision breeding enable by gene editing edges closer to reality in the UK
The [British] Government has announced new laws to support precision breeding technology which will increase food production, reduce costs to ...
Insect farming (and eating) is booming in Africa but a backlash is growing
Insect farming is rapidly becoming a key player in sustainable. ... [I] as the fastest-growing sustainable protein industry in the ...
Feeding the Future: CRISPR gene editing key to preserving crop genetic diversity
Excessive farming of domesticated plants over the wild-type cultivars could threaten the conservation of the wild-type genetic variant causing genetic ...
‘Growing food in space isn’t exactly a walk in the park’
Picture a future where astronauts harvest fresh lettuce on the Moon and bake bread on Mars. It might sound like ...
Corruption, water scarcity, and outdated farming are undermining food security in Africa
Africa is grappling with a severe food insecurity crisis, with over 282 million people undernourished and more than a billion unable to ...
With urban expansion and reductions in arable land, vertical farming is thrust into the limelight
Vertical farming promises to revolutionize how we produce food in urban and extreme environments by optimizing plant growth through dynamic ...
Viewpoint: Greenwashing irony—Organic food and farming exempt from Europe’s green regulations despite evidence of sustainability lag
On 17 June 2024, the EU Council of Ministers adopted its position on the Green Claims Directive, a regulatory proposal first ...
Is there a market for hydroponically grown food?
Consumer behavior around food production remains largely disconnected from how the food they consume is actually grown. "The majority of ...
Pet owners are pushing for more sustainable food options
Pet food consumers are more likely to switch brands or products due to concerns about sustainability, according to a recent ...
AI enables first indoor vertical farm dedicated to berry production
Plenty Unlimited Inc. has launched the world’s first large-scale, indoor vertical farm dedicated to berry production. ... This marks a ...
Contrasting European Union and United States approaches toward sustainability and agricultural genetic modification
The food industry plays a key role in feeding the global population, but as the number of people is continuously ...
Wild wheat: Genetically-tweaked varieties that are not just climate-resilient, but also environmentally regenerative or in the wings
Modern wheat can thank its “wild relatives” — grassy cousins millions of years old and tested through extremes of earth’s ...
6 novel ways technology is addressing ‘planetary problems’, from making bacon-tasting insects to turning food waste into energy
Demanding times call for adaptive measures. As the world faces escalating challenges, UBC researchers are thinking outside the box to ...
Viewpoint: Have green, ecological, and environmental movements lost the plot? Why demonizing GMOs builds a toxic narrative
Environmentalism should be a serious movement: important, vital, and a harbinger of innovations. [...] ... Let's look at some examples ...
Organic or conventional farming? Which system better preserves our fragile insect population
A three-year run of fragmentary Armageddon-like studies had primed the journalism pumps and settled the media framing about the future ...
Sustainable mining: How plants can be deployed as ‘phytominers’ to suck up valuable minerals
Nickel may not grow on trees—but there’s a chance it could someday be mined using plants. Many plant species naturally ...
‘It can happen in just a few generations’: These animals are evolving fastest
Evolution occurs over millennia, but it can also happen in just a few generations. ... "I don't know if any particular ...
