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.
Reversing deforestation and biodiversity loss: Can synthetic palm oil help protect the world’s tropical forests?
The world’s cheapest and most widely used vegetable oil, palm oil production is a primary driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss in ...
‘Current varieties of coffee aren’t optimized for current conditions’: CRISPR is key to developing climate change-resistant brews
Humanity consumes a half-trillion cups annually of the caffeinated brew — almost double from a decade ago — yet coffee ...
Viewpoint: What drives agricultural sustainability? Not what many ‘environmental organizations’ promote
Anyone who has flown over the Canadian prairies in any of the previous summers will notice the tremendous number of ...
‘An increase in food production does not necessarily result in less hunger’: Why we need a second Green Revolution embracing genetics and organic farming
Most people believe hunger is caused by food scarcity, however this is wrong. There is currently more than enough food ...
GLP Podcast: COVID vaccines; Lab leak scandal; UK embraces CRISPR crops—the biggest stories of 2021
The COVID-19 vaccines saved a lot of lives in 2021, but convincing some Americans to take them proved to be ...
What’s the key, mostly missing, innovation that can help us adapt to severe climate change? Agricultural biotechnology
The major food staples are essential to human survival. Chocolate and coffee are not essential, but try to imagine a ...
How gene editing livestock protects farmers from climate change
In temperate regions such as Europe, cows are able to lose excess heat to the environment, as certain cattle breeds ...
The biggest threat to honeybees is not pesticides but Varroa mites — and beekeepers may have accidentally fueled the plague
Propolis is a sticky material that bees make from a mixture of wax and resins gathered from a wide variety ...
Viewpoint: Environmental Working Group on the wrong side of science with simplistic attack on animal agriculture’s impact on climate
With Christmas just around the corner, you're probably finalizing your dinner plans and wrapping those last few presents before sticking ...
Viewpoint: With more than 70 countries producing GM foods, it’s time to get beyond tired debate over technology and embrace innovation
Transgenics began nearly three decades ago in world agriculture with the aim of increasing agricultural productivity. In other words, produce ...
How can we produce more food with less environmental impact: Book review of ‘The Economics of Sustainable Food’
Aimed at the army of advocates, activists, and policymakers engaged with food and agricultural politics, [Nicoletta] Batini hopes that The ...
A second Green Revolution: How gene editing could revolutionize photosynthesis and transform agriculture
Stephen Long is a professor of plant biology and crop sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the director ...
‘It will be a wonderful day when these potatoes get into the hands of farmers’: Uganda develops genetically engineered disease-resistant version of the country’s most important crop
Late potato blight is the most destructive potato disease in the world costing developing countries USD 10 billion every year. This CIP@50 story digs into a new rapid-fire approach to potato breeding that makes farmer-favorite ...
Viewpoint: Regenerative farming modeled on organic agriculture could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, pro-organic study claims
A recent study by Bain & Company and Nature United, the Canadian affiliate organization of the Nature Conservancy, shows that transitioning to regenerative farming techniques ...
Viewpoint: Engineering biology — Which agricultural innovations are driving sustainability?
“Canada is one of a few global net exporters of food and a leader in sustainable production; agri-innovation is driving ...
UN Food and Agriculture Organization notes worsening soil and water health, says agri-food systems could help reverse trend
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) [December 9] launched a landmark report highlighting the worsening state ...
Scientists seize ‘once in a decade’ opportunity to advocate for genetically engineered trees
Nearly 700 scientists from across the globe have signed a petition urging the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to allow genetically engineered ...
Viewpoint: ‘Agriculture is the only carbon emitting sector with the potential to become a net emissions sink’
Of the major emitting sectors, agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) is currently the only one with serious potential ...
Viewpoint: ‘The strength of US agriculture is that we have many diverse production systems’ — How organic agriculture and biotechnology can coexist
The debate about GMO safety and sustainability is ongoing, but one fact remains: food security is paramount. Does the absence ...
Gene editing and agriculture: Challenges and opportunities to significantly address climate change
Excess emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from human activities have accumulated in the atmosphere at levels sufficient to disrupt global ...
Nigeria needs biotechnology to weather climate change impacts on farming, say West African scientists
Agricultural biotechnology will help Nigeria respond to climate change issues and support food security, asserts a new study by West ...
4 million tons of rice is destroyed each year to flooding in Southeast Asia. This genetically-engineered rice variety could limit losses
Global rice production will likely be hit by the devastating effects of climate change as early as 2030, according to ...
No bones, no scales, no waste: Is that enough to convince consumers to eat cultured, cell-based seafood?
Cell-based seafood—derived from commonly consumed fish (for example, salmon and tuna) or shellfish (for example, crustaceans such as shrimp and ...
Viewpoint: ‘Plant breeding innovations help ramp up food production while making farms more climate resilient, profitable, and environmentally friendly’
One in four people globally, and rising, are unable to afford a healthy diet. COVID-19 has exacerbated this trend by disrupting food ...
Microbes as sustainable fuel: A better way to make chemicals currently derived from oil and gas
A team of chemists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota has now engineered microbes to ...
Animal-free real dairy products are beginning to roll out
General Mills moves into the emerging ‘animal-free’ dairy category with a brand called Bold Cultr – a lactose-free cream cheese ...
Viewpoint: By blocking CRISPR gene editing, Europe is rejecting a proven tool to address climate change and food insecurity
CRISPR technology is not the same as GMO technology; it does not introduce DNA from other species into plants. Yet ...
