sustainability
CRISPR-Cas12b: Versatile gene-editing tool could help develop more high-yielding crops
In a new publication in Nature Plants, assistant professor of Plant Science at the University of Maryland Yiping Qi has ...
Corporate farms vs small family farms: Is one operation better than the other?
There is an ongoing debate in the agriculture industry between small family farms and large corporate farms. The controversy between ...
Feeding microbes expired bread during fermentation could yield cheaper, more sustainable food
Wine, cheese, yoghurt and bread: all these culinary delights owe their existence to the work of microorganisms like bacteria, yeast, ...
Wild wheat gene could boost drought tolerance and grain size of commercialized crop varieties
In new research published in Plant Biotechnology Journal, Harkamal Walia, associate professor and Heuermann Chair of Agronomy and Horticulture at Nebraska, and colleagues ...
Steak from CO2? How space-inspired technology could change the way we produce meat
Currently, it takes a couple of years to “make” a steak. That’s the length of time it takes to rear ...
Viewpoint: Energy-intensive production, contamination risks threaten to slow lab-grown meat development
Lab-raised meat is unlikely to make rapid strides in the consumer market due to steep economic and technological hurdles, according ...
Non-GMO, high-protein ‘smart peas’ slated for 2021 debut, with other ‘super trait’ crop varieties to follow
Equinom, an Israeli startup, raised $10 million in a Series B round of funding from BASF Venture Capital, Roquette, Trendlines ...
Fashion future? 5 surprising industries synthetic biology could take over
In this post, we highlight a few of the growing fields where burgeoning synthetic biologists can expect to find job ...
Wealthy consumers throw out nearly 530 calories per day, study finds, more than double previous food waste estimates
Consumers are likely wasting much more food than commonly believed, according to a study published .... in the open-access journal ...
Salt tolerant plants are on the horizon – and critical to address the looming crisis of a shortage of arable farm land
An important study brings us one step closer to cultivating crops in previously infertile soil ...
Insect extinctions happen every day, studies suggest, threatening food security and ecosystem functions
Humanity is pushing many ecosystems beyond recovery. As a consequence, unquantified and unquantifiable insect extinctions are happening every day. Two ...
GMO ‘fusion protein’ technology could expand genetic diversity in food crops, increasing farm sustainability
For many years, the only way to improve characteristics such as yield and nutritional value of crops was through selective ...
Bumblebees disappearing at rates ‘consistent with mass extinction’ as climate changes
When you were young, were you the type of child who would scour open fields looking for bumble bees? Today, ...
Microbes that treat parasitic infection could yield natural, safe insecticide
For hundreds of years, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine have used an herb called Stemona sessilifolia as a remedy for ...
Starbucks to launch plant-based breakfast sandwich as part of ‘environmentally friendly’ menu
Starbucks announced it will become the latest food chain to introduce a plant-based breakfast patty for its customers in the ...
A Rwandan farmer’s son: Why I advocate for GMO crops in Africa
Being raised in a family where all income came from my mother’s farm is something hard to forget. My mother ...
Glyphosate herbicide cancer fears could turn electricity, microwaves into viable weed-killing tools
Concern about glyphosate - the world's most widely-used weedkiller - has been growing since 2015, when the World Health Organization's ...
Malthusian inversion: Slowing population growth could mean cheaper food and a cleaner environment
I’ve noticed several articles in the past few weeks talking about slowing or even falling population growth .... The richer ...
Drones detect plant pests, dispatch natural predators to kill them
In Santa Monica, Calif., researchers flew drones with light-sensitive cameras over a strawberry field to locate pest-damaged plants. Armed with ...
Reforestation: Climate change solution or ‘ecosystem disservice’? Depends where you plant the trees
Reforestation is an important part of tackling climate change, but it seems we need to think carefully about where we ...
Saving seafood: Lab-grown microalgae could help sustain the world’s overfished oceans
Oceans once teeming with life are being whittled away. Larger, predatory fish – salmon and tuna included – are now ...
Natural pest-control market could hit $10 billion by 2025, as farmers seek new tools to battle pesticide-tolerant bugs
For decades, Adam Baldwin’s family used chemicals with multisyllabic names to keep caterpillars such as earworms and podworms from chomping ...
Viewpoint: GMO crops should become a bigger part of the food system if we want a sustainable society
If we all work towards understanding science rather than being afraid of it, we can build a world where we ...
Using GMO technology to restore the blight-devastated American chestnut: State University of New York awarded breakthrough $3.2 million Templeton Foundation grant
[The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry] has received its largest-ever charitable gift, $3.2 million, ...
Viewpoint: After years of bashing agriculture and GMOs, Chipotle reverses course with ‘Cultivate the Future of Farming’ campaign
Given Chipotle's past cozy relationship with organic food marketers, this seems more like a marketing stunt ...
Nigeria gears up for two GMO crops in the 2020 planting season
Nigeria made significant progress in agricultural biotechnology in 2019, approving two genetically modified (GM) crops — pest-resistant Bt cotton and ...
Beyond burgers: Why it’s so difficult to create ‘animal free’ steaks, bacon and chicken cutlets
A look at the food revolution of today, as well as Cultured Meat 2.0 ...
