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.
Here’s why much-maligned glyphosate and herbicide-resistant crops are critical to sustainable farming
A newly publicized study by researchers with the University of Saskatchewan confirms what many farmers already knew ...
Viewpoint: ‘Imposing impoverishment’ — How European leadership has failed by promoting ideological solutions to sustainability challenges in farming
It is hard to find anyone with anything positive to say about 2022: economic, social, ethical, political, geopolitical success stories ...
What do ‘sustainable’ and ‘humane’ food labels mean?
Americans tend to think that the farmed animals we eat were treated better than they actually were. In one 2017 survey, ...
Electricity from thin air? Energy-producing bacteria has ‘potential to power small, sustainable air-powered devices in the future’
It may sound surprising, but when times are tough and there is no other food available, some soil bacteria can ...
How industrial waste from cheese-making could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels
John Lucey, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research, wants to turn whey into the chemicals used ...
Gene-edited banana that limits Panama disease and protects against browning in development in Panama
Panama disease, also called Panama disease Tropical Race 4 (TR4), is a serious banana disease and is one of the ...
Viewpoint: ‘These forests will never recover’ — Climate change-associated fires stump reforestation efforts
On April 6, 2022, a prescribed fire driven by unusually strong spring winds jumped a control line northwest of Las ...
3D-printed fish? Cultivated filets could preserve dwindling fish populations
Forget your hook, line and sinker. An Israeli foodtech company says it has 3D printed the first ever ready-to-cook fish ...
Combining the best of organic farming with limited, targeted use of pesticides – and saving consumers up to 30%
Cost-prohibitive organic food is being disrupted by an increasingly popular type of farming called integrated pest management (IPM) where natural ...
Will plant-based seafood soon be on the menu?
Pearlita has spent “months and months” experimenting with shellfish alternatives in its leased commercial kitchen at the Piedmont Food Processing ...
Viewpoint: Green activists claim we can feed the world with organic-grown crops. Here’s a reality check
It is commonly believed that organic farmers do not use pesticides and that organic food is therefore safer to consume ...
Superbugs: Climate change spurs dangerous rise in antibiotic resistance in humans and animals
he next time you need to take antibiotics, they may not work. So you may be prescribed a different antibiotic, ...
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 ...
