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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Viewpoint: Global climate talks could expand agricultural research and genetic innovation to better address warming concerns
The worst-case consequences of rising temperatures and drought played out this year in Madagascar with the first famine induced by ...
Viewpoint on COP26: ‘Agriculture is a solution to climate crisis, not the main problem’
Among the many documents on the table [at the COP26 climate talks] will be the latest climate report from the ...
Regenerative agriculture catching on in Sonoma wine country
To Lauren and Alex Benward, sixth-generation owners of the Beltane Ranch vineyard in Glen Ellen, Calif., the word “sustainability” does ...
Video: Carbon capture is key to reducing greenhouse gases. Iceland’s new CO2-fixing facility is a tiny step toward that goal
As the world prepares for another UN Climate Change Conference, scientists are still searching for a cheap and easy way ...
Eco-friendly diets often call for banning animal products — but sustainability is not that simple for many people around the world
Sustainability discussions breed controversy, often pitting animal products and meat alternatives against each other. However, this dichotomous framing may impede ...
A shortage of healthful omega-3 fatty acid from fish looms as the global climate heats up. Here is a plant-based biotechnology solution
Consumption of fish and other seafood has played a pivotal role in human history as a nourishing protein. This warrants ...
Ugandan scientists developing drought tolerant coffee varieties to save valuable cash crop
After releasing coffee varieties resistant to wilt disease, Ugandan agricultural scientists have begun developing Robusta varieties that are drought-tolerant as ...
Lab grown coffee could cut deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, but may also upend the lives of poorer plantation workers
The coffee industry is both a contributor to the climate crisis and very vulnerable to its effects. Rising demand for ...
Viewpoint: ‘The definition of agroecology has become lost in translation’
Agroecology has become the latest buzzword in the agriculture sector—a mashup of the words “agriculture” and “ecology” with the latter ...
Could seaweed replace synthetic fertilizers?
When it comes to ocean health, the work of convincing farmers to ditch their synthetic fertilizers can’t happen fast enough ...
The American bumblebee species is in decline in the US. Here’s why
The [American bumblebee] species has vanished from at least eight states, mostly in the Northeast, according to the Center for ...
‘Protein expansion’: Modified wheat developed in England and Chile could increase yields by 12%
Wheat is one of the most important food crops in the world, providing 20 per cent of human calories; with ...
Why technology alone will not save us from climate change — Book review: The Human Scaffold
Josh Berson, an independent anthropologist, invites readers into a world that turns upside down conventional arguments about how we are ...
Precautionaria: Risk-averse Europe is undermining innovation in sustainable farming and battling climate change
Europe has been suffering from a disease outbreak that is debilitating its population, leading to economic malaise and destroying its ...
To feed billions more people in coming decades, bugs will likely be on the global menu
Filling in the gaps in the world’s food web requires unlearning some tastes and preferences. Consider the insect. Around 1,900 ...
Switching from beef to chicken can have big environmental benefits — but it also means many more animals to miserable lives and death
We often talk about steak, lamb chops, bacon and chicken nuggets as if they’re on a level playing field. Just ...
Viewpoint: By rejecting biotechnology and synthetic pesticides, France is ill prepared to address mildew and organic copper pollution crisis
2021 was a difficult year for the production of French farmers: tomatoes and potatoes were devastated by various pests. The ...
Study: ‘Land sparing’ — Farming has to be pragmatic, concentrated and as high-yield as possible to prevent an ecological catastrophe
Farming should be as high-yield as possible so it can be limited to relatively small areas, allowing much more land ...
Meet Kernza, the climate change-fighting seed: Wheatgrass perfect for baking that sustainably grows back year after year
Most commercial crops are annual. They provide only one harvest and must be replanted every year. Growing these foods on ...
CRISPR making inroads in aquaculture — but commercial viability is still a ways off
The gene editing tool CRISPR is now being used to generate a range of traits in a variety of farmed ...
What’s on the menu in a climate-sensitive diet — and will we eat it?
What if people who shared the distaste for today’s food system could encourage the building, seed by seed and cell ...
Two new herbicide-tolerant — but non-GMO — rice varieties released for sale in India
The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has developed the country’s first-ever non-GM (genetically modified) herbicide-tolerant rice varieties that can be ...
American bumblebee has declined in numbers by more than 90% in 8 states across the northern US
American bumblebees are a vital pollinator for wildflowers and crops, and their decline could have severe consequences for the environment ...
Climate change-induced droughts and floods put one of the world’s most important staples — rice — in peril
Farmers in China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam — the biggest rice-growing countries — as well as in Nigeria, Africa’s largest ...
Genetics and chemistry could make cow meat and milk extinct
Henry Ford, an early industrialiser of plant-based milks as well as a carmaker, production-system innovator and anti-Semite, saw animals as ...
Vertical farming and sustainability: We can now grow fruits and vegetables in urban areas without soil or sunlight
Most vertical farms share a few attributes. One is a lack of soil. Their stacked rows of crops are grown ...
How monitoring environmental DNA (eDNA) can help us conserve forests, rivers and other ecosystems
Today, about 1 in 4 freshwater creatures face extinction. Wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests. Across the globe, ...
