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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Bamboo: Invasive nuisance, or untapped climate change solution for farmers?
Bamboo has a reputation problem in North America, registering in the collective imagination somewhere between tiki torches and a pain-in-the-ass ...
GM plant grows insect sex pheromones as alternative to crop pesticides
Scientists have discovered how to genetically modify the camelina plant to produce pheromone precursors that can control agricultural insect pests ...
‘Back to the future’: The case for returning to risk-based animal gene-editing regulations
So what is the USDA’s proposal for the regulation of genetically engineered animals? In a nutshell, it proposes moving regulation ...
Taco Bell begins offering plant-based meat at UK, EU locations to win back vegan and vegetarian customers
Starting January 7th, Taco Bell locations throughout the UK [began offering] plant-based meat from the brand Gold & Green ...
Impossible Foods is on a mission: ‘Eradicate the meat and fish industries by 2035’
Patrick Brown is on a mission: to eradicate the meat and fish industries by 2035. The CEO of Impossible Foods, a ...
Regulation gone wrong: A critique of the FDA’s nonsensical animal gene-editing rules
The “Guidance for Industry #187” entitled “Regulation of Intentionally Altered Genomic DNA in Animals” was published in the Federal Register ...
Microalgae could help remove nitrates, phosphates and herbicides from polluted waterways
In recent years, the eutrophication that the [Spanish lagoon] Mar Menor has undergone, a process derived from the overload of ...
CRISPR-edited eggs offer novel way to eliminate slaughter of newborn male chicks
[Most consumers] are blissfully unaware that the egg industry also slaughters billions of animals every year, but not to put ...
Earth-friendly shoes: Adidas developing sustainable leather alternative made from fungus
The athletic-wear company [Adidas] announced on [December 28] that it's working on a new material, a plant-based leather that will ...
‘All foods contain pesticides, and 99.99% are natural’: 8 critical facts about chemicals that help us grow food
In the United States, we live in an affluent culture whose standard of living is high compared to other nations ...
Eliminating dairy cows would reduce US greenhouse gas emissions just 0.7 percent while cutting essential nutrient supply, study finds
A commonly suggested solution to reduce greenhouse gas output has been to reduce or eliminate [the dairy] industry in favor ...
We’ll all be vegans by 2050? How GM microbes and alternative proteins are changing our diets
The plant-based meat market is predicted to grow from $3.6 billion in 2020 to $4.2 billion by 2021. And by 2040, 60 ...
RNA technology gave us a COVID vaccine. It could also help control plant pests without insecticides
With the development of Pfizer’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, RNA technology has been dominating the news cycle. … A decade ago, ...
‘Like putting 5 locks on a door’: Wheat with multiple rust resistance genes could protect vital staple crop
[R]esearchers at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, led an international effort to develop wheats with a stronger and potentially more ...
Viewpoint: Impossible and Beyond Burgers are delicious, but are they good for you?
The leading companies offering fake meat are mission-driven, with vegan roots. Any benefits to human health are icing on the ...
Viewpoint: Why organic farming won’t help preserve the world’s biodiversity
A recent paper finds that if just 15 percent of farmland reverted to nature, it would wipe out nearly a third ...
Go vegan to save the planet? No-meat diet won’t stop climate change, environmental scientists say
People in industrialized regions like the United States of America or Europe are generally urged to eat less meat and ...
US grew 13 million pounds of genetically modified apples in 2020, but most fruit growers still resist growing biotech crops
[G]rape and nut growers appear to have sustained a particularly rough 2020. But that was probably due at least as ...
Burger tax? Study says we should raise meat prices to cut greenhouse gas emissions
As the planet continues to warm, researchers continue working to better understand the sources of greenhouse emissions. In this new effort, ...
Machine learning helps battle life-threatening diseases. Could it end world hunger, too?
When was the last time you read an online magazine or newspaper, only to find yourself bombarded with shopping ads ...
Drought-tolerant GM corn comes with added, unexpected benefit—pest resistance
Water stress arising from drought conditions can trigger outbreaks of bark beetles, wood borers, and sap feeders like spider mites ...
GM trees that suck up more CO2 could help stem growing threat of climate change
In order to fight the growing threat of global climate change, scientists are now suggesting that we genetically modify trees ...
Viewpoint: Do we really need GM fish? The case for growing (and eating) AquaBounty’s biotech, fast-growing salmon
Innovation and creative thinking in the protein industry is ever-evolving. You may have read some of our posts on the ...
GM, insect resistant Bt cotton and 11 billion sterile moths eliminated pink bollworm from the US and Mexico
Invasive organisms pose a global threat and are exceptionally difficult to eradicate after they become abundant in their new habitats ...
‘Circular economy’: Turning waste into reusable products makes food and energy production more sustainable
We need to find a way to reduce waste, and the answer could be moving to a circular economy, which ...
Calyxt gene-edited, heart-healthy soybeans help alleviate America’s biggest soy shortage in years
[Calyxt Inc has] agreed to sell all the gene-edited soybean grains it produced in 2020 to agricultural merchant Archer Daniels ...
Why grow GMOs? A farmer explains 4 environmental benefits of crop biotechnology
Unfortunately, biotechnology has taken quite a beating in public perception. We’ve seen activists’ smear campaigns disseminating misinformation. The most ridiculous ...
