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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A French startup has engineered houseplants that scrub toxins from the air. Could it make a difference?
Nestled in a jelly-like growing medium, it looks like a canapé—or, possibly, the future ...
Forbidden meatball: Genetically-engineered wooly mammoth meat illustrates future of food
Australian cultured meat company Vow unveiled a meatball made of wooly mammoth meat and grown entirely in a lab. But ...
Viewpoint: GMO crops are key to sustainable farming — why are some scientists afraid to talk about them?
A shallow piece in the journal Science downplaying the importance of GMO crops belongs in a New Age publication ...
Nations agree on a compromise for biodiversity, what happens next is up to all of us
Around 200 nations attended the 15th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal at the ...
Video: From scorpion-venom cabbage to human breast milk from cows, here are 9 of the most unique genetically-engineered products likely to come to market
In this video are some of the strangest genetically modified products. We know that these products aren’t handcrafted by Mother ...
Zimbabwe smallholder farmers struggle to match climate science with practice
Justin Mlalazi’s crop is only knee-high, and this being the month of March, other smallholder farmers across the country are ...
GLP podcast and video: ESG undermines sustainable farming? Top-10 anti-biotech propagandists; FDA’s ‘healthy’ food labels
Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) metrics are supposed to help promote sustainable industry, but could they actually undermine efforts to make farming more ...
Viewpoint: Why the EU’s Farm to Fork policy doesn’t measure up to tech-driven sustainable US agriculture
Recently, the USDA hosted the Agricultural Outlook Forum, and as someone who covers food and trade policies in Europe, the ...
Agriculture and climate change: Taking the best of all farming systems could tip the carbon scale in the right direction
Agriculture contributes a significant portion of the world's climate-changing greenhouse gases. In turn, changes in climate will reduce agricultural yields ...
Here’s how synthetic biology can support eco-friendly agriculture
Methane from cattle and livestock accounted for 37.5% of greenhouse gases in 2020. Added to this is the carbon footprint from gas ...
Crops that tolerate droughts and climate change? Here’s how cactus genes could help
This past summer, a widespread drought across the United States lowered crop yields by as much as one-third as corn, ...
Clear plastic from slimy seaweed? Wild algae poised to become packaging alternative of the future
There’s seven million square kilometres of seaweed already growing around the world — about the same size as the Amazon ...
How do plants respond to stress? Noisily
Stressed plants make audible sounds that can be heard many feet away, and the type of sound corresponds with the ...
GLP podcast and video: ‘Clean’ cosmetics aren’t so clean; England embraces CRISPR crops; Gene-edited animals produce 30 percent more meat
So-called "clean" cosmetics have become a big business in recent years. But as with food fads like "Non-GMO," clean cosmetics ...
Climate change threatens to undercut boom in seaweed farming
While scientists are still pinning down if and how kelp farming might be a climate change champion, the case is ...
Viewpoint: How the European Union’s proposed sustainable food initiative could hurt US farmers
The European Union is carving out the legislative framework for so-called Sustainable Food Systems (SFS). In essence, these new regulations ...
Defining regenerative agriculture
According to IFIC’s 2022 Food and Health Survey, 43% of consumers want to purchase food and beverages that were produced in a ...
Tweaking one gene could help crops survive and thrive in salty water
Chinese scientists have discovered a crop gene that, once deactivated, can allow plants to thrive in saline and alkaline soils, ...
Viewpoint: What’s killing bees? Reviewing the impact of parasites and climate change on pollinators
Bees are vital to our lives; without them, there would be no almonds, and few apples, onions, blueberries, carrots, or ...
Viewpoint: ‘The Netherlands’ hyper-efficient food system is both a triumph and a cautionary tale’
Going back nearly 80 years, anxieties over food security have driven the tiny Netherlands to become a global leader in agriculture despite ...
India green lights field trials for two genetically modified crops — disease-resistant potatoes and nutrient-boosted bananas
After mustard, India is set to begin trials of two more genetically modified (GM) food crops — bananas and potatoes ...
Lab-grown meat and other alternatives to farming could free up Earth’s farmland for conservation or development
Here’s the basic problem for conservation at a global level: food production, biodiversity and carbon storage in ecosystems are competing for ...
Plant-based clean energy solutions are on the horizon
At a laboratory at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) in Bergen, we find Professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai hard ...
Rethinking the ‘clean cosmetics’ movement: ‘It’s reductive to think that just because it’s biotech it’s inherently more sustainable’
For a class of ingredients that stack so many sustainability wins, why aren’t more of our everyday products packed with ...
30% more meat: Switching off just one gene with CRISPR produces animals with larger muscles
Switching off a gene in animals using a technology called CRISPR can make them produce more muscles, leading to meatier ...
GMO wheat poised to address climate challenges — but US regulatory foot-dragging blocks innovation
Challenges in agricultural production over the past decade and a renewed regulatory push could be setting the stage for the ...
Viewpoint: How Environmental—Social—Governance (ESG) screens can be manipulated to promote misleading science and damage sustainability efforts
While the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investor point system has had a bit of a rough time over the ...
