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.
How genetically engineered crops could super-charge efforts to address climate change
You can create a stable carbon capture system by genetically engineering plants to grow more extensive roots and pump more carbon ...
World Economic Forum: How genetically engineered crops can fight climate change
Food systems account for over one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Any successful strategy for reaching the ambitious — and critical ...
Facing rising pesticide and labor costs, Bangladesh poised to approve sustainable insect-resistant Bt GMO cotton
With Bangladesh likely to approve commercial cultivation of genetically modified Bt cotton varieties sourced from an Indian company soon, seed ...
Climate change-fighting rice? Plants trap carbon dioxide as they grow — and CRISPR gene editing can optimize this process
Can gene-editing technology CRISPR create new crops that help fight climate change as they grow? That’s what a group of ...
Viewpoint: Why Europe’s proposed Green Deal Farm to Fork strategy will be a disaster for Africa
Agricultural programs funded by the EU have in the past mainly focused on the technologies that Europe wanted to promote ...
‘43% lower yields’: Challenging common wisdom, organic farming is ‘less efficient, more expensive, and worse for the environment’
Consumers are misled about the alleged benefits of organic farming. Organic food is thought to be healthier (it isn’t) and ...
CRISPR is already transforming medicine. Next up? Addressing climate change challenges
The advent of CRISPR allowed us to create new molecular tools for potentially skipping the slow aspects of plant tissue ...
Road to sustainable GMO salmon production: AquaBounty’s endless slog through broken US regulatory system
AquaBounty's transgenic salmon is the first GM animal protein approved for human consumption in the United States and Canada ...
Climate Action Farming: What farmers need to do to adapt as our planet heats up—and why organic and ‘regenerative agriculture’ cannot meet the challenge
There are a number of practices that farmers could use to manage their land in ways that would optimally remove ...
Viewpoint: ‘Farmers don’t need nitrogen fertilizers at all’? — Why easy solutions to cut down on chemical fertilizers don’t work
Clover, it turns out, can be used to fix nitrogen and boost yields in pasture forages for dairy cows. Who ...
Viewpoint: GMO technology is ‘no threat’ to indigenous Ethiopian crops. Here’s why
Should we be worried about losing our indigenous crops because of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)? The answer is an outright ...
What role can genetics play in ‘designing’ more sustainable crops, livestock and trees?
Genome engineers have deployed CRISPR tools in species from viruses and bacteria to plants and trees including species used in ...
Video: Honeybee apocalypse? Yet another scientist challenges claims that bees used mostly in agriculture are under threat. Wild bees? That’s another story
German physicist Sabine Hossenfelder challenges what she calls the ‘myth’ that honeybees are facing catastrophic health challenges ...
Viewpoint: ‘Win-win for food security’ — Why Uganda needs both biotechnology and agroecology to feed itself as climate change roils farming
Over the past decade or so, many ordinary farmers especially in developing countries including Uganda, have been thrown into a ...
Farming of the future: Can precision indoor farming create an alternative food system?
A precision indoor farming system [PIFS] comprises numerous interrelated components, from the plants and animals to the enclosing structure(s), growing ...
Partnership on track to give Bangladeshi and Indonesian farmers disease-resistant GMO potatoes
Researchers will be testing genetically modified potatoes in Bangladesh and Indonesia this year in hopes of providing farmers with an ...
Viewpoint: Regenerative agriculture has become a popular buzzword. Here’s what needs to be done for it to become a transformative, sustainable movement
There isn’t a standard definition for regenerative agriculture, but it represents a holistic framework to understand and respond to global ...
Digital biology: What is it, and what is its role in advancing sustainable farming?
Preparing for a future of resilient and sustainable agriculture that produces nutritious calories for the globe’s growing population requires a ...
Viewpoint: Misleading claims on Mom’s Organic Market grocery bags deceive shoppers about bee health, pesticide dangers and neonicotinoids
I don’t deliberately avoid organic foods or markets, but I don’t seek them out either. Claims that organic food tastes ...
CRISPR crops: Can carbon-sucking gene edited crops help address climate change? Jennifer Doudna thinks so
The Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), a research group in Berkeley, California, founded by CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna, has announced a new program to ...
How mushroom waste can be turned into eco-friendly styrofoam packaging replacements
Styrofoam has become ubiquitous in the modern age of consumerism, and even synonymous with packaging. But containing toxic chemicals such ...
Viewpoint: ‘Double advantage’ — Why organic farmers should be allowed to grow GMO seeds to pursue sustainability objectives
In recent years, with the expectation of quality life, human beings have turned to organic foods with 30-40% less product ...
Viewpoint: How biotechnology can make geopolitical food security upheavals less likely — Ukrainian War prompts global rethink about Europe’s reliance on ‘obsolete technologies’
Celebrated in symphonies, and storied in literature and cinema, the steppes of central Asia have long played a key role in the history ...
With August decision date to approve GMO insect-resistant cowpea in sight, Ghanaian scientist stresses role in reducing chemical usage and ensuring food security
Ghana’s food security will receive a good boost if the country’s first genetically modified crop gets environmental release approval from ...
GLP Podcast: Why non-smokers get cancer; Spotting diseases during pregnancy; Earth-friendly industrialized farming?
Many smokers don't get lung cancer. But why do so many non-smokers end up with the disease? A preliminary study ...
Appeal to nature: Daily Kos Logical Fallacies Bootcamp dismantles myth that natural products are automatically better for us
The argument is a simple one, and one that you’ve probably come across before. It runs along these lines: X is ...
Viewpoint: Innovation vs. ideology — How the US and Europe differ on the goal of ‘green’, sustainable farming
With its new Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, the EU plans to expand organic farming, an approach that rules out ...
