Environment

CO2 Fertilization Greening The Earth

An international team has just published a study titled "Greening of the Earth and its Drivers" in the journal Nature Climate Change (doi:10.1038/nclimate3004) showing significant greening of a quarter to one-half of the Earth's vegetated l ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 25 2016 - 4:26pm

Wildlife Loss In Tropical Forests Is Bad News For Everyone

I had drinks with an old college friend last week. As we reminisced and I caught him up on my job leading the Tropical Ecology Assessment&Monitoring (TEAM) Network, he stopped me mid-sentence. ...

Article - Jorge Ahumada - May 5 2016 - 12:54pm

Farmers: Thanks For The Cheap Food, Now You're Blamed For Air-Pollution

A new study has implicated farms as a bigger source of fine-particulate air pollution than all other sources. This is no surprise in Europe, China, Russia and Europe, since food is the most important strategic resource everywhere.  And it's an easy e ...

Article - News Staff - May 17 2016 - 8:11am

The Real Cost Of Milk

The Australian dairy farming industry is in a state of crisis. Cheap dairy products and fluctuations in both the domestic and global markets have taken a financial toll on farmers. Consumers have rallied to help struggling dairy producers. But this is onl ...

Article - The Conversation - May 24 2016 - 4:37pm

Ancient DNA Shows Perfect Storm Felled Ice Age Giants

Giant Ice Age species including elephant-sized sloths and powerful saber-toothed cats that once roamed the windswept plains of Patagonia, southern South America, were finally felled by a perfect storm of a rapidly warming climate and humans, according to ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 20 2016 - 7:45am

Blockchains: Bitcoin Tech Could Increase Trust In The Food Supply

If the food industry is not in crisis, it certainly contains an increasing level of complexity and associated risks. A recent analysis suggested 50% of US food production is wasted, with global estimates above 30%. Retailers want perfect produce, leading ...

Article - The Conversation - Jul 19 2016 - 7:30am

Russia Loves Science When It Comes To Cheating In Sports, But Not In Food

Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin recently signed Federal Law 358-FZ, which bans genetic engineering of plants and animals for the indefinite future. ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jul 20 2016 - 5:36pm

Why Has Organic Farming Flatlined?

Organic farming should be in a Golden Age. Organic marketing groups, and the junkyard dogs they pay to attack scientists (1) finally got mandatory labeling on conventional food, the public is already spending $13,000,000,000 on organic food in the U.S. alo ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 1 2019 - 10:57am

Rice Crops That Can Save Farmers Money And Cut Pollution

There are more than 120,000 varieties of rice stored at the germplasm bank at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, but a new paper focused on varieties that met important criteria- currently grown by farmers, have a high yi ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 31 2016 - 11:00am

Farming Is Offsetting Natural Tree Cover Losses And Mitigating Climate Change

Farmers are doing a lot more than just feeding the world, they are also offsetting tropical forests declines, capturing nearly 0.75 giga-tons of carbon dioxide every year---but global warming estimates never account for that.  ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 2 2016 - 10:45am