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.
‘We’re in the biotech era’: The push to make cattle and dairy production more sustainable
With rising temperatures and worsening drought, scientists are dreaming up ways to ensure farming and agriculture can be better for ...
Viewpoint: Changing mindsets — Organic agriculture is less efficient than conventional farming and has a larger carbon footprint
The United Nations recently confirmed that the world population has officially reached 8 billion. However, what should be a celebration ...
Viewpoint: Could crop biotechnology mitigate dislocations from climate change? Anti-GMO activists say ‘no’. Here’s why they are wrong
We’ve heard a lot about climate change, and its impact on crops, especially in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the ...
Heat-tolerant wheat: How we can increase yields of this staple crop despite rising temperatures
Wheat now provides 20% of the calories consumed by humans every day, but its production is under threat. Thanks to human-induced ...
Viewpoint: Plant-based foods need tighter environmental and regulatory scrutiny
So far, research on meat substitutes has emphasised commercialisation, technological enhancements and lowering costs, with little attention paid to regulatory ...
Why biodiversity is so essential to pollinator health
Biodiversity is essential for effective crop production and the health of our natural resources. It sustains the ecosystems that underpin ...
Next generation climate-sensitive agriculture: Slew of CRISPR crops are in development that limit buildup of carbon in the atmosphere
There is a push to use CRISPR to make agricultural technologies that pull carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the air and store ...
Viewpoint: Can large-scale agriculture overcome stigma it is not sustainable? Here’s a 10-step regulatory guide to make that happen
Regulators seem blissfully unaware, especially in Brussels, how much their pandering to the idealistic aspirations of small environmental activist groups ...
Unlike most of the rest of the world, the European Union uses 30-year old ‘precautionary principle’ to regulate GMOs and gene editing, effectively banning them. Here is a primer
The European Union (EU) has been at the forefront of the debate around genetically modified organisms (GMOs), with the region implementing a ...
Podcast: Preventing crop damage from pests, diseases, and weeds? Here’s why South African farmers ‘can’t afford to overlook biotech seeds’
On this week’s episode of Farmer’s Inside Track, Chantel Arendse, the lead for plant biotechnology at CropLife SA, joins us ...
Video: Darling 58 American chestnut tree — Tik Tok video addresses deploying genetic modification to restore one of America’s most ecologically valuable keystone species
A genetically modified American chestnut tree is being reviewed for deregulation! The public comment period is open until 12/27/22 ...
European Council of Young Farmers: Why the European Parliament should approve use of CRISPR and other New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) in plants
Based on the strong belief that there is no single pathway to sustainability in agriculture, new genomic techniques (NGTs) – ...
427,000 global deaths a year? Study claims bee decline stunts yields of fruits, vegetables and nuts
The global decline of bees and other pollinators is stunting yields of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Scientists estimate that the ...
Will climate change lead to future food crises?
All the world organizations have already grasped the importance of this climate change, and they have rolled up their sleeves ...
Viewpoint: American agriculture is far more efficient — and sustainable — than in Europe. Here’s why
Toward the end of the 1980s, the divergence between Europe and the United States in terms of agricultural output became ...
Viewpoint: Why an EU ban on crop pesticide exports based on the misguided precautionary principle will hurt global farming
In France, on September 10, 2020, Le Monde headlined: ”The EU has authorized the export of more than 80,000 tonnes of ...
Everything you need to know about lab-created, climate-friendly cultivated meat
Cultivated meat is known under many names: cultured meat, synthetic meat, slaughter-free meat, and lab-grown meat, to name a few ...
How can we ‘climate proof’ our global seed system to increase yield and cut down on chemical usage?
We’re in a race against time to climate-proof our seed systems. Some estimates indicate that in countries faced with serious ...
Podcast: Behind the fungus-resistant chestnut that could save American forests
The American chestnut was a dominant tree in many of the forests of the eastern United States. In the early ...
Viewpoint: Anti-biotech advocacy group opposition to forest-restoring GM chestnut tree mimics their disingenuous rejection of nutrition-enhancing GM Golden Rice
Critics of scientists and science writers who speak plainly usually note it is better to be more neutral in tone, ...
‘Investing in a net zero economy’: Can ‘smart farming’ help steer us from climate disaster?
There is a strong investment case for including climate-smart agriculture and food security among a broader portfolio of net zero ...
Analysis: Climate mitigation funding imbalance? US government slow to fund climate-smart agricultural innovation — 1/35th of what’s spent on clean energy
Agriculture is a substantial source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for about 10% of the U.S. total. Farmers, ranchers, ...
Anti-biotech Canadian NGO ETC Group claims ‘precision agriculture’ would ‘further break’ global farming system
“We have a food system that is broken in so many ways — and this is even recognized by the ...
Viewpoint: ‘We take farmers for granted’ — The public doesn’t recognize the hard work and innovation of the farmers who grow our food
Farmers are using all kinds of technologies and innovations to grow your food. You’ve read about some of them here ...
Soaring butterfly levels: California county sees highest monarch numbers in two decades
More than 129,000 western monarch butterflies were counted in the San Luis Obispo county by Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation ...
Viewpoint: 7.4 quadrillion calorie shortfall by 2050 — Why we need to eat less meat and stop wasting food
If we are serious about cleaning up the mess we’re making for less influential species, there are four things individuals ...
Viewpoint: Are regulations on genetically modified crops too lenient?
Chantel Arendse, plant biotechnology lead at CropLife SA, gives insight into plant biotechnology, and the importance of quality and safety ...
