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: How prosperity and technology are defeating ‘environmental pessimism’
In 1980, the year that PERC was founded, I spent three months in the Himalayas working on a wildlife conservation ...
USDA invites public comment on petition to approve GMO chestnut tree
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is inviting public comment on a petition ...
Video: GMO insect-resistant Bt corn vs conventional corn—which is more vulnerable to pest attacks?
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. A video of my farm on social media has attracted more than ...
Podcast: Covid conspiracies; Cuba embraces GMOs; biotech vs. nature’s ‘mindless dangers’
A fearful public accepts conspiracy theories because they offer a sense of control in an uncontrollable situation, says a young ...
Viewpoint: ‘Bird apocalypse’? Study wrongly blames neonicotinoid pesticides for declining bird biodiversity
Though periodic deaths of bees continue to happen, and have been documented for as long as records of bees have ...
Vegan eggs, lab-grown beef jerky and 10 other alternative proteins we could be eating soon
[On August 11], Big Idea Ventures (BIV) announces the launch of its second food technology accelerator program in New York City ...
Sustainability report questions Beyond Meat’s environmental benefits, but is it a fair analysis?
Beyond Meat is lacking in environmental impact disclosures when compared to conventional meat giants Hormel and Tyson Foods, according to ...
Viewpoint: GMOs a ‘corporate plot’ to control the food supply, and 9 other biotech myths, debunked
GMO stands for “genetically modified organism.” It most commonly refers to organisms—often plants—that have been modified to achieve desired traits, ...
Regenerative agriculture is a ‘nonsense’ solution to climate change, soil scientist warns
People need to "wake up" and realize regenerative agriculture is "just nonsense", says Dr Doug Edmeades. In fact, the Hamilton-based ...
Viewpoint: Europe must abandon ‘fear of progress’ to defeat anti-science chemophobia
A site like European Scientist has one hope: that the 2020s will be the decade of renewal for European scientific ...
Viewpoint: Animal agriculture is growing more sustainable, so don’t blame it for climate change
Simply put, U.S. cattle aren’t the major driver of climate change. So Americans can feel good about whatever kind of ...
Tinted solar panels could boost farm incomes
Tinted, semi-transparent solar panels can generate electricity and simultaneously produce nutritionally-superior crops, offering farmers the prospect of higher incomes and ...
Podcast: Arguing with vaccine skeptics works; Ban GMO labels? Agroecology keeps Africa poor
Contrary to popular belief, arguing with anti-science activists on social media helps combat the spread of misinformation. Organic food groups ...
Kenyan farmers could plant GMO insect-resistant Bt cotton by November, boosting $500 million textile industry
Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development Cabinet Secretary Ms. Betty Maina said farmers should expect to plant Bt cotton by November ...
‘No change in insect population sizes’: Massive North American study challenges ‘insect apocalypse’ claims
In recent years, the notion of an insect apocalypse has become a hot topic in the conservation science community and has ...
Rwanda controls COVID-19 but its farmers struggle
Rwanda has achieved astonishing results in controlling the novel coronavirus, recording just five deaths from COVID-19 even as cases continue ...
Viewpoint: GMO mosquitoes illustrate how and why science should confront ‘nature’s mindless dangers’
Wisconsin’s ubiquitous mosquitoes, it turns out, aren’t taking social distancing to heart at all. Sitting on the deck, browsing the ...
Viewpoint: Glyphosate-tainted hummus? Environmental Working Group’s latest pesticide scare short on facts
In the wake of a highly publicized legal settlement between Bayer, owner of former glyphosate-maker Monsanto, and lawyers representing plaintiffs ...
Viewpoint: Cuba needs GMOs to help combat poverty fueled by decades of communism
Cuba may be blessed with rich soil, but Communism has condemned its farmers to abject poverty. They lack the tools ...
Why grow GMOs? Because plants don’t naturally evolve into food fit for humans
Crop improvement has a history as old as human civilization. At its core is a strategy to pursue greater genetic ...
Viewpoint: Turning farms into carbon repositories can’t stave off ‘climate catastrophe’
In late June, overlooked amid pandemic, economic crisis, and protest headlines, a bipartisan cohort of United States senators introduced a ...
Viewpoint: While ‘elitist academics’ praise local food ‘industrial farming’ feeds us during a pandemic
With the world COVID-19 pandemic in its sixth month, food activists are back to trumpeting locally grown, and even home ...
Another pandemic coming? Expanding land use boosts exposure to diverse zoonotic diseases, study finds
Land use change—for example, the conversion of natural habitats to agricultural or urban ecosystems—is widely recognized to influence the risk ...
GM crops can lift farmers out of poverty, study shows
On a continent where more than 80 percent of the people living in extreme poverty are rural farmers, some have ...
7 years after the first lab-grown burger, is ‘cultivated meat’ any closer to commercialization?
Almost everything we consider a great invention is, in fact, a series of great inventions. Take the electric car, which ...
Viewpoint: Battling deadly disease with gene drives is worth the limited risk
The fate of society rests in part on how humans navigate their complicated relationship with insects – trying to save ...
Organic farming fraud is growing, prompting USDA crackdown proposal
Responding to increasing fraud threats to the organic industry, the US Department of Agriculture seeks to strengthen oversight and improve ...
