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.
Four billion American chestnut trees have been killed by a deadly fungus. Can genetic engineering help scientists build a better tree?
Over the course of the 20th century, an estimated four billion [American chestnut trees], one-fourth of the hardwood trees growing ...
Podcast: Growing jetfuel? How genetically-engineered camelina is making sustainable biofuels a reality
The future lies in our farmlands — as the fossil fuels industry fades, crops like camelina, a flowering seed oil ...
Insect-resistant Bt eggplant recently approved in the Philippines could triple farmers’ incomes
The most destructive insect pest that attacks the crop is called the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB). Scientifically, it ...
What New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) are in the pipeline to address EU’s farming sustainability challenges?
During the April 25th meeting of the Parliament’s committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Stella Kyriakides, the EU Commissioner of Health ...
Viewpoint: Do we need to curtail economic expectations to ensure that we have enough food to feed the planet?
A little over 200 years ago, one of the noted economists and philosophers of the day, Thomas Malthus published an essay ...
3D-printed cell-based fish? Sounds bizarre, but it tastes like the real thing and could eventually help save our oceans
Israeli firm Steakholder Foods announced that they’ve used 3D printing technology to make ready-to-cook cultivated grouper. They boast the taste and ...
Viewpoint: ‘The Amazon Rainforest is not only a natural heritage, but also a biocultural heritage.’
Until the turn of the 21st century, the ruling paradigm was that the soil in the Amazon was too poor ...
Edible insects: Cultures around the globe eat environmentally friendly bug protein. Why shouldn’t the United States?
Although edible insects are far from common in American and European cuisines, over 3,000 ethnic groups in 130 countries eat them regularly ...
Fact: Genetically modified crops safe for the environment, farmers and the consumers
I have been involved with public education about Genetically Engineered (GE also known as GMO) crops and food for 25 ...
Curse of good intentions? New York’s Birds and Bees Protection Act could undermine climate-adaptive farming
S. 1856/A. 3226 also known as “The Birds and the Bees Protection Act” does nothing to address the actual threats ...
Does the US rely too much on GMO crops? Hear from scientists and farmers in this FDA, EPA and USDA-produced video
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and U.S. Department of Agriculture ...
Viewpoint: Decarbonizing farming — Comparing regenerative agriculture with ‘sustainable intensification’
An interesting report crossed my desk the other day. Entitled ‘Scaling Regenerative Agriculture: An Action Plan’, it came from the Sustainable Markets ...
From Cavendish bananas to Arabica coffee, many favorite foods may succumb to disease and go extinct. CRISPR gene editing offers a solution
Some of our most beloved crops are currently under existential threat. Coffee, cacao, banana, and citrus fall into this unfortunate ...
Chronic food insecurity threatens many low-income countries. What can be done?
After more than fifteen years of heartening declines, global food insecurity and malnutrition are again on the rise. According to ...
Gene editing targets pathogens that limit rice yields
As global food insecurity climbed to a perilous high in 2022, scientists ramped up their efforts to perfect best practices ...
A plant pandemic is destroying wheat crops across the globe. Here’s how we can use genetics and fungicides to stop it
Wheat, the most important food crop, is threatened by a blast disease pandemic. Now a new study, conducted by an ...
Breeding ‘green’ cows? CRISPR poised to reduce climate-polluting methane gas emissions
Scientists and companies are coming up with plenty of ways to curb cow methane, from simply changing their food source ...
Scientists say East Africa’s farmers need improved seeds to counter pests and effects of climate change
About 12 kilometers from Uganda’s Kampala City, along the Bombo-Gulu Highway, fleshy and dark-green banana plants thrive on a farm ...
Video: World’s first climate-resistant strawberries developed in steamy Singapore
The strawberries growing at Singrow’s indoor farm at the Science Park are derived from a Japanese varietal, but have been ...
Moth sex pheromones: Tweaking plants with gene editing can replace some pesticides
By using precision gene engineering techniques, researchers at the Earlham Institute in Norwich have been able to turn tobacco plants ...
Anti-biotech activists claim biotech crops promote “unsustainable” monoculture? Let’s separate facts from ideology
Biotech critics frequently claim that conventional agriculture and GMOs promote monoculture farming, which is harmful to biodiversity. A closer look ...
Here’s how drones can optimize harvests and save on labor
Drones are being used for an ever widening range of agricultural applications enabled by new technology and diminishing regulatory constraints ...
United States promises Africa 7 billion dollars to tackle climate crisis and food insecurity
United States vice president Kamala Harris’s nine-day visit to Africa saw her discuss with leaders measures to tackle the continent’s ...
Biodiversity collapse? How ancient fossils can help signal future threats
Over the past 500 million years, five large-scale extinctions have taken place, with current predictions indicating that humans are rapidly ...
Plant microbiomes: Humans are not the only organisms that need healthy biomes. Here is how to grow safer and more nutritious food and feed
A “physical examination” is the standard way to track human health. It involves a variety of measurements such as blood ...
Adult Monarch butterflies not threatened by neonicotinoid insecticides, independent university study finds
Numerous studies have documented the negative effects of neonicotinoids on bees; it remains crucial to examine how neonicotinoids affect other ...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to detect crop diseases are on the way
Swarms of locusts devastating crops in East Africa, corn rootworms wreaking havoc in the Midwestern US. Blights destroying rubber trees in Brazil and ravaging potatoes in South India ...
