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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How CRISPR gene editing is emerging as powerful tool to counteract climate change
CRISPR technology could be deployed in a wide array of food and agriculture applications. One major issue that CRISPR could fight is ...
Blight resistant gene-edited potatoes now third genetically-enhanced crop approved in once anti-biotech Ethiopia
Ethiopia has given the green light to carry out observation field trials for genetically modified potatoes that are said to ...
Bacon-flavored algae and spirulina salmon? Here’s how aquaculture might provide enough protein to satisfy humanity’s growing appetite
A new paper published in the journal Oceanography speculates future global food production problems could be solved by growing protein-dense microalgae in ...
Benefits of increasing yields in the Amazon rainforest: Nature Sustainability study concludes ‘agricultural intensification’ could cut Brazil’s climate warming by 58%
The Amazon basin includes 550 Mha covered with rainforests, and 60% of this area is in Brazil. The conversion of rainforest ...
Viewpoint: ‘Organic-only policies are the new face of European colonialism’ — Here’s how crop biotechnology innovation is opening doors to Africa’s self sufficiency
Former colonies of Europe were banned from sale unless they obeyed Europe when it came to food. Yet Africa has ...
Viewpoint: Why Mexico’s ban on GM corn threatens job security and will spark outflux of immigrants
Mexico may soon join a growing list of countries that ban the importation of genetically modified (GM) corn, potentially affecting ...
Viewpoint: ‘Regenerative’ is replacing ‘organic’ as the latest green farming fad. Here’s why the reality falls far short of the hype
Politicians have a complicated relationship with science. When they think the evidence comports with their political goals, they love scientists ...
Biopesticides and robotics emerge as lower-impact alternatives to synthetic pesticides
Replacement of the old generation of pesticides with a new suite of technology-based and ecological-based solutions to managing pests is ...
Kenya approves GMOs after 10-year ban
Kenya has approved genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and broken free from a decade-long ban on the technology, a move that ...
Banana flavored beer? Gene edited yeast expands beer taste possibilities
Beer may have lost some of its past flavor. Beer had historically been brewed in open, horizontal vats, but the ...
Challenging ‘green’ wisdom: Why Africa desperately needs more, not less, access to synthetic fertilizers
The European Commission has opposed a plan to support expanding fertilizer production in Africa because it would clash with the European Union’s ...
Can ‘grow-anywhere’ micro-algae provide the nutrients and calories needed to sustainably feed our expanding species?
Most people are familiar with the largest form of algae, kelp or seaweed. It can grow up to three metres ...
Promise and peril of Kernza: This deep-rooted, erosion-fighting perennial beer grain grows back every year — but brewers struggle with transition from traditional wheat
Barley and wheat are also vulnerable to erratic weather patterns. Already, harvests of these staple grains have been disrupted across ...
Viewpoint: King Charles’ resistance to crop biotechnology has been a royal pain. Can the former ‘Dunce of Wales’ shuck organic propaganda and embrace sustainable agriculture?
King Charles III has repeatedly demonstrated some of the pitfalls of the inbreeding that has plagued the royal families of ...
Viewpoint: How to build a plant-based food system? Legislate, deregulate and flood the supermarket with vegan products
Imagine a world where plants, not animals, are the foundation of a resilient, sustainable food system that benefits not only ...
Fighting herbicide-resistant weeds: Statin molecule found in fungi (and common cholesterol medication) could be ‘as effective as glyphosate’
Farmers are battling increasing weed resistance to common broad-spectrum herbicides such as glyphosate, but Australian research could be a game ...
Future fruit: Meet the farmers painstakingly developing colorful and tastier new apple varieties
Imagine reaching up to a tree branch and plucking an apple that’s unusually tall and narrow — a variety called ...
Infographic: Just one mosquito species can spread 54 viruses. Here’s how genetic modification can help us conquer this disease-spreading, destructive powerhouse
Aedes aegypti is one of the most common mosquitoes in the U.S. that can spread disease. One of the best-known ...
Viewpoint: Sweeping advances open door to biotechnology innovation in the UN, US and Africa
At the United Nations on September 21, 2022, President Biden announced $2.9 billion in assistance to address global food insecurity and urged ...
Viewpoint: Regenerative farming and Big Ag — Organic agriculture is no longer just ‘family farms’
According to our “friends” at the EWG, “American consumers spent a total of $20.4 billion on organic fruits and vegetables, ...
Viewpoint: ‘Darwinian beekeeping’ — Bees have adapted for over 100 million years. Maybe saving them from parasites could be as easy as leaving them alone
Bees have been around for about 120 million years... says Brenda Kiessling, a retired physician and an Eastern Apicultural Society ...
Podcast: Industry-funded GMO studies; Food companies back ‘regenerative’ farming; Popcorn-flavored spinach?
Should we be skeptical of GMO safety studies funded by biotech companies? Major food makers including Pepsi and Nestle have ...
Growing rice in the ocean? CRISPR might be utilized to tweak ancient genes could be a future superfood
Around 75 million years ago, a remarkable group of flowering plants known as seagrasses migrated back into the oceans from ...
Viewpoint: Once a biotechnology innovator, Mexico puts its farm economy in a vise, jeopardizes grain trade with the US with GMO and herbicide bans
In power since sweeping to victory in 2018, Mexican center-left president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has relentlessly targeted conventional ...
CRISPR-pedia: Everything you need to know about gene-editing our way to a lower-carbon, more productive farming future
The world population is growing. At the same time, climate change is making it more difficult to grow many important ...
Viewpoint: European Commission must prioritize agricultural biotechnology or ‘the 2050 zero carbon emissions target will remain a mirage’
"Without further investments and simplification of procedures, the zero emissions target will remain a mirage. To achieve this, the European Commission must ...
Viewpoint: Facing unprecedented drought, Europe debates embracing sustainable, climate-flexible, insecticide-reducing genetically modified crops
Europe’s summer of drought has been impossible to ignore. Rivers dried up, exposing the skeletons of warships and ancient buildings. Images captured by ...
