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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Why do lab studies suggest neonicotinoid pesticides can harm bees, while field research suggests they have minimal environmental impact?
Pollinators play a crucial role in the production of food crops. While many crops are open pollinated, meaning they don’t ...
We need another source of omega-3 supplements for food and animal feed. Enriched genetically modified rapeseed could fill the gap
In March this year, Norway’s Food Safety Authority became the latest country to conclude that using Omega-3 enriched GM rapeseed ...
Traits found in roots of desert plants could help crops survive escalating droughts due to climate change
Germinating Arabidopsis (thale cress) and alfalfa with a microbe taken from the roots of a common desert plant has been ...
A feast for bioengineered yeast? How leftover agricultural waste can be transformed into bioplastics, pharmaceuticals and fuel
Yeast has been used for thousands of years in the production of beer and wine and for adding fluff and ...
Bioengineer or die: The genetically-engineered toolkit plants need to survive a climate-changed future
Climate change is affecting the types of plant varieties we can cultivate, as well as how and where we can ...
‘Stabilize the climate, halt mass extinction, and reduce the risks of new pandemics’: Can rewilding help nature restore itself?
Rewilding has gone global, and rewilding projects are growing in more than 70 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, Latin America and ...
Untapped renewable energy: Roasting cast-off pistachio shells
Pistachios, a popular snack worldwide, generate a substantial amount of waste in the form of hard shells. Typically, these shells ...
Pineapple scraps don’t have to go to waste — they can be used to make bioplastics
A collaborative research between universities in Thailand and Malaysia have developed a unique kind of bioplastic sheet using pineapple stems from ...
Another AI task: Addressing global hunger and food security
Producing what we need to eat puts an enormous burden on both the climate and the environment. Yet, at the same time, ...
Viewpoint: Canadian government incentives to boost agricultural sustainability lags while billions are given away to high-tech ventures. Here’s why that needs to change
This federal government appears to look at almost every decision through a climate change lens. For better or worse, Ottawa ...
Viewpoint: Simplistic anti-agrobiotech narrative — ‘Companies lie; activists are outraged; regulations are tightened further; companies lie again… Wash, rinse, repeat’
Today’s narrative has a simplistic view: Companies lie; activists are outraged; regulations are tightened further; companies lie again… Wash, rinse, ...
In surprise finding, transition to organic farming leads to decline in bats – at least temporarily
Organic food without pesticides, hormones, fertilizers, herbicides, antibiotics, artificial chemicals, and genetically modified organisms is regarded by many as being better ...
Viewpoint: Outdated organic fanaticism holds back agricultural sustainability — Recent head of Swiss-based Research Institute for Organic says organic embrace of gene-editing would end ‘polarization’
The EU plans to exempt techniques such as CRISPR from the strict restrictions on green genetic engineering, provided that the ...
Viewpoint: ‘Think globally, act locally’? It’s a buzzy environmentalist catchphrase, but it may not be the best way to address climate change and conservation challenges
Few bumper stickers have made as large of an impression as “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Plastered on the back of ...
‘More than just eating bugs’: Future proteins made from fungi, algae, and bacteria offer sustainable alternatives to current global diet
Would you eat a burger enriched with mealworms? Fake bacon sliced from a mass of fermented fungi? Milk proteins extruded ...
Feeding China’s gargantuan meat appetite releases gigatons of carbon. Could cultured meat address soaring demand and climate disruptions?
The largest protein markets in Asia need to massively scale up their adoption of novel meat substitutes in the coming ...
Here’s how to capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — and why it’s so important
Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide — the most commonly produced greenhouse gas — and storing it in ...
Downside of the amateur beekeeper craze: Honeybees are not endangered and raising them reduces food availability for native bee species
It's morning on a City of London rooftop. But that rooftop itself is a little oasis: a tennis court-sized patch ...
Combining AI and CRISPR: Gene-edited hardwood trees increase carbon sink potential of deep forests
Researchers are using the revolutionary gene-editing technology CRISPR to breed unique, pulp-abundant poplar trees that, as laid out in a study ...
Viewpoint: Queen of Green Social Justice or Reckless Green-Revolution Rejectionist — Who is the real Vandana Shiva?
Indian activist Vandana Shiva opposes the tools and practices of modern agriculture and science and advocates regressive policies that cause ...
Future protein: ‘If meat-loving habits prove too hard to shift, the obvious solution is to replace meat with meat’
Globally, 80 billion animals die for our dinners each year — and a joint report by the United Nations and the ...
Rethinking sustainability: Does nutritional value of dairy products offset environmental impacts of milk production?
Researchers from Virginia Tech's School of Animal Sciences analyzed global data to better understand the holistic role of the dairy ...
Balancing economics and sustainability: What would a future without glyphosate weedkiller look like?
Ongoing public debate about glyphosate has led some to question what the impacts would be if it were no longer ...
Here are the real reasons why Greenpeace rejects genetically engineered crops even when they are more sustainable
Greenpeace was very positive about green genetic engineering in the 1980s because the environmental organization saw it as an opportunity ...
Sheep ‘burp’ methane gas, which has 80 times the warming impact of carbon dioxide. Can we genetically engineer them to be more sustainable?
Farmers are looking to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in a weird and wonderful way: using genetically engineered, low-methane sheep ...
Viewpoint: ‘Even if it seems like breaking a taboo, CRISPR gene editing techniques and organic farming are an excellent match’
Even if it sounds like breaking a taboo, new gene editing techniques and organic are an excellent match ...
The world is quickly getting too hot for human bodies. Can we adapt to rapid climate change?
By the time Homo erectus appeared about two million years ago, our ancestors were on their way to becoming endurance ...
