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.
‘100 peer reviewed safety studies’: Here’s the skinny on eradicating disease-carrying insects with ‘self-limiting’ genetic technology
Oxitec’s Friendly male mosquitoes are engineered using precise genetic tools; they are just like their wild relatives — but with ...
Viewpoint: How the hazard-based, European-promoted ‘Precautionary Principle’ has undermined global agriculture — and why we should kill it
Twenty years is a long time in the wilderness. Since 2001 and the European Environment Agency’s publication, Late Lessons from Early ...
How CRISPR gene editing technology can eliminate disease-spreading mosquitoes
Scientists have uncovered a new technique they call the “precision-guided sterile insect technique,” or pgSIT. While most CRISPR procedures affect ...
Viewpoint: Plight of the honeybees? ‘Not only are they not in need of saving, they could be causing problems for native pollinators who are’
I’d first read about the plight of bees in 2006, when people started noticing that honeybees were dying in large ...
‘No simple answer’: Will cell-based meat and fish gain acceptance as Halal or Kosher?
As cultured animal proteins begin to hit markets worldwide, consumers are looking to religious authorities for answers on whether lab-grown ...
A million animal and plant species are at risk of extinction. Could we tweak their genes to help them adapt to a changing world?
The United Nations has warned that about a million animal and plant species are at risk of extinction. In response, conservation breeding ...
‘Stretched to a breaking point’: UN report outlines sustainable farming roadmap to address climate change and environmental challenges
Almost 10% of the 8 billion people on earth are already undernourished with 3 billion lacking healthy diets, and the ...
Pandemic has highlighted resilience — as well as weaknesses — of the global food system: UN Food and Agriculture Organization report
Countries need to make their agrifood systems more resilient to sudden shocks of the kind witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic, ...
Remaking meat: On the cusp of a new era of plant-based protein products
Exciting up-and-coming plant-based startups across the world are quietly amassing millions of dollars, innovating on novel technologies and getting ready ...
Reducing insecticide use with CRISPR: Gene editing could naturally rollback pesticide resistance evolution in disease-carrying insects
Insecticides play a central role in efforts to counter global impacts of mosquito-spread malaria and other diseases, which cause an ...
Video: Dramatic visual evidence of the insect-resistant power of Bt maize, without chemical treatment
In clearing out my office recently I came across a DVD of the video Life in a standard and in ...
5 ways gene editing is making crops climate-resilient
Our world is undergoing climate changes that have triggered a spate of calamitous disruptions on agricultural production and overall food ...
How climate change is roiling the global insect population
The climate crisis is set to profoundly alter the world around us. Humans will not be the only species to ...
Viewpoint: Why aren’t Canada and the United States growing sustainable, genetically modified wheat?
It’s safe. It would help farmers deal with drought, support biodiversity, protect the environment and decrease a farms carbon footprint ...
Ethical concerns drive embrace of plant-based proteins — but not cultivated meat
The ultimate success of cell-cultured meat depends on consumer acceptance. What factors are driving, or hindering, uptake? Consumer studies indicated ...
How DNA floating in the air can help us protect animal biodiversity
Two new studies published [January 6] in the journal Current Biology show that environmental DNA (eDNA) collected from air can be ...
Genetic cloning may be the only viable solution to biodiversity-threatening animal extinctions
“Extinction is an abstract concept to many people. It was to me as a kid,” says Oliver Ryder, director of ...
Breakthrough technologies reduce the carbon footprint of US beef production
In 2019, the United States produced approximately $111 billion worth of beef, exporting about 3 billion pounds and employing hundreds ...
CRISPR climate game changer: What if we engineered rice to dramatically cut methane emissions?
The complexity of microbial communities has been a major obstacle to discovering technologies that can prevent diseases and improve agriculture ...
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 ...
