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.
Podcast: ‘GMOs’ are more natural than you think; CRISPR mosquitoes fight malaria; Dating apps and syphilis
A growing body of research shows that dozens of naturally transgenic plants have existed for millions of years, undermining a ...
‘It’s simply difficult to grow crops organically, on a large scale’: Gigantic organic farm failure in South Dakota underscores challenge of scaling up production
The food company General Mills, maker of Cheerios, announced in 2018 that it would convert [Gunsmoke Farms, located northwest of Pierre, ...
A race against time: One biologist’s mission to ‘fight climate change with plant genetics’ before her Parkinson’s disease advances
People needed to find new ways to grow plants — and soon. The scientist’s urgency came not only from what ...
The Green Revolution was built on manipulating genes to breed higher-yielding, disease resistant crops. Here’s an ode to one of its pioneers, Sanjaya Rajaram
Few people are aware of the heroes behind the surge in yields of wheat and other crops that began in ...
Over 2,000 Nigerian farmers ready to grow GM cowpea this year
More than 2,000 Nigerian farmers are planning to plant Bt cowpea, the country’s first genetically modified food crop, in July ...
Viewpoint: ‘Genetically modified crops are not deadly mutants produced in a lab. Consider them pest-resistant, famine-fighting Avengers’
The wild version of the banana plant had inedible fruit filled with tons of seeds. Humans have, through a meticulous ...
‘Alternative proteins doesn’t mean adopting a vegan diet’: A vegan makes the case for the meatless meat revolution
About a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions are traceable to the food supply chain. Animal agriculture accounts for about three-quarters of those emissions ...
Viewpoint: Why technology alone cannot solve world hunger and food insecurity
Among technologies expected to aid the production of more and safer food in the future are cultured meat, precision agriculture, ...
Viewpoint: ‘Regenerate or die?’ Fashion industry co-opts sustainability buzzwords like ‘regenerative’ and ‘circular’ — but what do they really mean?
The North Face and Patagonia now tout clothing made of regenerative cotton. And Secteur 6, a new Indian-American brand that ...
Viewpoint: Higher food prices, increased food insecurity, trade impacts? The EU’s Farm to Fork strategy has devastating potential outcomes
A recent study by the USDA Economic Research Service shows potential negative impacts to the global market if the European ...
‘Little crop of horrors’? Genes harvested from carnivorous plants and genetically engineered into tomatoes and other crops could fend off pests
They won’t devour insects with leafy jaws, but with help from carnivorous plant genes, tomatoes, tobacco and other crops could ...
Blocking innovation: How Canada’s novel plant-breeding rules hinder progress in food production
You’ve heard it before on SAIFood: Canada’s plant breeding sector is facing regulatory barriers to innovation. Today’s blog provides further ...
Some Florida Key residents incensed about pending release of Zika- and malaria-stopping GMO mosquitoes, but others believe cutting-edge science will help control health menace
Oxitec will release half a billion gene-hacked mosquitoes, engineered to kill off the local bloodsucker population along a lengthy swathe ...
‘Current GMO legislation not fit for innovative technologies’: European Commission calls for revamp of agricultural biotechnology rules to allow gene editing, promote sustainable farming
The European Commission published, at the request of the Council, a study on New Genomic Techniques (NGTs). The study shows ...
Organic farming has a sustainability problem — and now the EU is in a dilemma of their own making
European Union (EU) agricultural scientists are in a bit of a pickle. I’m not sure to what extent it is ...
800 million undernourished people: UN says we need ‘overhaul of the world’s food systems’ as COVID highlights devastating and ongoing hunger
The COVID-19 crisis has added between 83 and 132 million to the 690 million people worldwide who were already undernourished, ...
GM crops are not a ‘magic fix to climate change,’ but they are key to keeping us fed as temperatures rise
Future farmers face a big challenge: feeding everyone on Earth while being kind to the planet. Could genetically modified food ...
Sierra Club endorsement of disease-resistant chestnut tree divides the anti-GMO movement
Across the eastern seaboard, the majestic American Chestnut tree once dominated forests. A main source of timber for cabins, shipbuilding, and ...
Can CRISPR gene editing help address climate change while producing lower impact biofuels?
Biofuels have long been proposed as the alternative fuel source of the future. Despite these high hopes, the commercialisation of ...
Kenyan farmers reap bountiful first harvest of GM cotton
Winfred Kasambu, a 50-year-old farmer and a grandmother of two from Kenya’s Eastern region, is cherishing high hopes of prosperity ...
‘Future proofing’: Rediscovered wild coffee species could protect against production drops caused by climate change
In dense tropical forests in Sierra Leone, scientists have rediscovered a coffee species not seen in the wild in decades ...
‘Tools for sustainable agriculture of the future’: Biopesticides will be able to control pests, diseases, and weeds — and make crops more resistant to climate change
Biologicals are tools for the sustainable agriculture of the future... Biologicals are a class of agricultural products that include biopesticides, ...
Viewpoint: ‘Consumer activist’ concerns over Florida proposal to use gene drives to extirpate Zika-carrying mosquitoes is thinly veiled anti-biotech attack
Now that their nemesis Monsanto is no longer a thing, [the Organic Consumers Association and the Center for Food Safety] ...
Kenya aims to multiply production of GMO insect-resistant cotton seeds 10-fold by 2022, and distribute across Africa
Farmers in Kenya have been harvesting an average of 5,300 tonnes lint of cotton against a demand of about 38,000 ...
Viewpoint: While China is investing heavily in addressing climate change’s impact on agriculture, US dallies. Here’s why we need to fix that
Popular proposals to cut food’s large environmental footprint rest on the idea that we have all the technologies and information ...
Book review: Jennifer Thompson’s ‘GM Crops and the Global Divide’ addresses Europe’s neo-colonialist attempt to intimidate Africa into rejecting crop biotechnology
Jennifer Thomson’s excellent new book, “GM Crops and the Global Divide” (CSIRO Publishing, 2020), is a highly informed, lucid, and ...
Viewpoint: Earth Day needs a sustainability do-over. It’s devolved into environmental Cassandras prophesying apocalypse, dishing antitechnology dirt and proselytizing for a ‘woke’ agenda
Sadly, today’s Earth Day shares something with the current political environment: It reeks of divisiveness. Earth Day has devolved into ...
