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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Generative AI is shaping the future of plant gene editing
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the fight against viral infections in crops through precision CRISPR genome editing, strengthening global food ...
AI is already revolutionizing food and farming
Through satellite imagery, AI can highlight where irrigation systems are drying up, spot greenhouses that weren't there a decade ago, or flag fields ...
Black goats that endure hot days? Chinese scientists developed them using gene editing
Chinese researchers have produced the world's first gene-edited black goat designed to tolerate high temperatures and humidity, a breakthrough that ...
Ways precision genetics is revolutionizing agriculture
Agricultural engineering—often referred to as agri engineering—continues to be a catalyst for sustainable farming, productivity improvements, and precision practices worldwide. As global populations rise and climate change challenges intensify, the need for ...
The social roots of sustainable eating
The term sustainability usually elicits ideas of a green planet, solar panels, electric vehicles, and plastic-free oceans. However, this outlook—sustainability primarily focused ...
Why scare stories about crop chemicals outlive the science
For years, glyphosate has been the world’s most litigated molecule. The herbicide, first brought to market in 1974 under the ...
Our global food system is increasingly under strain. What needs to be done?
Much has been written about the inherent complexity of global food systems. They shape outcomes for individuals, organizations, communities and ...
How will climate change affect the flowers of the future?
We might notice the time of year they bloom and connect that to our changing climate. Perhaps we are familiar ...
Viewpoint: While overall cancer rates remain steady, it’s rising in Midwest farm country. Are pesticides to blame?
Cancer rates among young adults in the Corn Belt, a patchwork of golden fields and straight-line highways stretching across the ...
How AI can improve food safety and nutrition
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming food safety and nutrition practices by offering scalable, real-time, and personalized solutions. In food safety, ...
Video: 101 seconds on the plant biology synthetic revolution
There’s a famous quote attributed to the eminent scientist Richard Feynman: “What I cannot create, I do not understand.” Those ...
The world’s agricultural farmland is shrinking but production is up. Can this trend continue?
Throughout the 20th Century, humanity demanded more and more land leading to the loss of vast areas of natural forest ...
Will Europe squander its biotechnology opportunity?
Europe’s next wave of biotech innovation could determine how the continent feeds itself as climate disruption and supply-chain shocks intensify ...
Viewpoint: Frost season is nearing in Florida’s citrus-growing region. Here’s how backward science at the EPA has closed down a protective solution
“That morning I squeezed every orange and it felt like a wet sponge – I knew I lost the whole ...
Viewpoint: What’s on the line as India ponders the future of biotechnology and agriculture?
Reports suggest that over 60% of industrial products could be made using biotechnology, though technical difficulties need to be resolved ...
Can we expect a wave of corporate breakups as seed industries liberate themselves from litigation-laden pesticide businesses
Companies involved in both the seed and pesticide sectors see a pipeline of pesticide-related class action lawsuits, MDLs and unlimited ...
Viewpoint: Beyond Plastics: Here’s how ‘dark money’ funds activist environmental causes and keeps money flowing to tort lawyers
Tucked away in the quaint folds of Vermont’s Bennington College, a tiny liberal arts school with fewer students than a ...
Future of food security: The downside of the digitalization of agriculture for the most vulnerable countries
With an average temperature increase of more than 1.2°C, and extreme weather events compromising 30% of global harvests, applied genetics ...
‘Deficient, Unreliable, Corrupted’: Independent EU food science watchdog agency eviscerates junk studies weaponized by NGO activists to manufacture microplastic crisis and litigation
Not a day goes by where some study isn’t published on some micro or nanoplastic found in the environment, humans ...
Viewpoint: Organic fantasies—Why rejecting industrial agriculture for regenerative farming would be a big mistake for food security and sustainability
Last year, Scientific American published a short but ominous article titled “Only 60 Years Left of Farming if Soil Degradation ...
A remarkable discovery may open the door to gene editing, tripling yields of wheat and other grain crops
A groundbreaking discovery from the University of Maryland promises to revolutionize wheat cultivation and dramatically boost global food security. Researchers ...
Viewpoint: Indigenous groups and their Western NGO allies line up to block the genetic engineering revolution
[Members] of the International Union of Conservation of Nature, one of the world’s largest conservation groups, voted against a moratorium on the ...
Saving life from extinction: Why it’s critical to protect and preserve bacteria and other microbes
Hundreds of scientists have joined together to save a group of species from extinction, a group that might not seem ...
The EU passes landmark legislation to curb plastic nurdles threatening ocean ecosystems. It’s not enough. Genetically engineered bacteria could help
Spain’s northern coast has been fighting a months-long assault from a ‘white tide’ of plastic pellets dumped by a Dutch-registered ship ...
Farming in poorer countries suffers from poor weather forecasting. AI is poised to change that
For farmers, every planting decision carries risks, and many of those risks are increasing with climate change. One of the ...
Australia approves commercial planting of genetically modified cotton
Australia's Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has issued license DIR 216 to Bayer CropScience Pty. Ltd., authorizing the ...
Mexican scientists call for quick approvals of gene-edited crops even as restrictions persist on GMO agriculture
Researchers in Mexico are urging the government to develop clear regulations that distinguish gene-editing technologies, such as CRISPR, from genetically ...
