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.
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 ...
Algae contains high levels of protein and nutrients. Could it help boost food security in the face of climate change?
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) believe that algae could be a new type of superfood, thanks to its ...
Here’s how natural biologicals can produce environmentally-friendly fertilizers and pesticides
There are few problems larger than the climate crisis. But one potential solution is so small it cannot be seen ...
Viewpoint: Challenging myths — Organic farming fleeces consumers and does not significantly promote sustainability
As I discussed in Part 1, many Americans have begun to seek “authenticity” in many aspects of their lives. There’s ...
Green pesticides are plagued by fast-developing insect resistance. Here’s how that can be addressed
For more than 70 years, agriculture’s response to pesticide resistance has been to seek new pesticides in an endless race ...
Viewpoint: How genetically-enhanced crops can help chronically food-insecure Africa achieve self-sufficiency
With Africa currently struggling to meet its annual food needs, using genetically engineered (GE) or modified seeds should be an ...
Genetic engineering is not as trivial and straightforward as activists against GM crops try to portray it
Genetic engineering refers to the intentional and direct manipulation of DNA to enhance or modify an organism’s characteristics, for example, ...
Facing food security disruptions from climate change, Indonesia greenlights GM drought-tolerant rice
The Indonesian government has approved a variety of GMO wheat for human consumption designed to better resist drought, leading Argentine ...
Viewpoint: ‘10 billion by 2050’ — How gene editing can increase quantity and quality of calories for a world where 800 million go hungry
“When we talk about food insecurity, we know that over 828 million people worldwide are hungry,” says Sarah Evanega, lead ...
How using solar panels in agriculture can increase yields and fight climate change disruptions
Farms have a lot of open land and that has made them ideal for solar power installations. For example, though ...
How genomic-focused farming can reduce climate and population pressures
Many governments and scientists are now turning to agrigenomics to tackle food sustainability and security. Agrigenomics involves the genome sequencing ...
Viewpoint: ‘Only 60 harvests remaining on Earth’? Environmentalist exaggerations obscure dramatic advances in biotechnology-boosted agriculture
A little over 200 years ago, one of the noted economists and philosophers of the day, Thomas Malthus published an essay ...
Video: NASA data rebuke ‘green wisdom’ on cattle and carbon pollution. With 50+ million heads of cattle, Argentina has net positive carbon balance
Argentina is one of the few countries in the world with a positive carbon balance, according to a study published ...
Great-tasting heirloom wine grape varieties can survive climate change with CRISPR gene-editing
The winters that climate change is bringing — ones that are milder on average, but still experience drops to extreme cold — ...
GLP podcast and video: Low-carb diets cause heart disease? Economic de-growth or ‘green’ growth?
Many people have turned to low-carb diets as a way to shed unwanted body fat, but a new study suggests ...
