When it came to making future predictions, Carnac the Magnificent was on top of his game. Too bad for us, it’s tougher predicting what the coming year may hold for food and agriculture. Unlike me, Johnny Carson had the benefit of a gifted sense of humour, complimented by a team …
The conflict for eNGOs The production of food has environmental impacts, there is no way around this. For food crops, like grains, vegetables or fruits, one has to disturb the natural environment in order to get from planting to harvest. One simply can’t walk into a naturally grassy area, stick …
Environmental Biodiversity Efforts with Gene Drives The bi-annual meeting of the parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is being held from November 17-29 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. With an estimated 8,000 attendees, governments from around the world are gathered to debate and discuss policies that …
Five takeaways for better nutrition in South Asia—and beyond By: Felipe F. Dizon & Anna Leigh Josephson This content was originally published on the World Bank End Poverty in South Asia Blog. Together with more than 1,500 academics, scientists, and policymakers, we participated last week in the Rice Olympics. The event—formally …
Will disease devastate spud production? The ease of growing and storing potatoes allowed it to spread around the world and onto our cultural menu. The delicious spud, McDonald’s #1 selling items are their French fries (and Big Mac, together accounted for 75% of worldwide sales in 2007), reached European cuisine …
The immense challenge facing us all While the science of increasing food security continues to make advancements, the politics of technology options for feeding a future population is increasingly hostile. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that yield increases of 2% per year are required to feed a …
What do African Farmers Think of GM Crops? In spite of genetically modified (GM) crops being available since 1995, very limited adoption has occurred in any part of Africa. In large part, this is due to the message coming from European governments and environmental organizations. European governments have continually rejected …
Plant diseases having increasingly devastating effects In June I was fortunate enough to attend a captivatingly interesting conference organized by the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Food Security on how to improve global food security and the technologies required to accomplish this. Of the numerous speakers, one stood out …
International effort to provide Ethiopia with food security through pulses Pulses are dry edible seeds, relatively inexpensive to produce and purchase, which are chalked full of nutrients, protein, and fibre. Globally, pulses are an important crop and food source, like in Ethiopia where pulses represent ~14% of Ethiopia’s cropland. After …
The Fishy Business of Rejecting Sustainable GM Salmon Science[shareaholic app=”share_buttons” id=”15180628″][printfriendly]The announcement on November 19th, 2015 of regulatory approval for genetically modified (GM) salmon highlights the communication gap about, and acceptance of, science. In case you were not aware, the US approved the commercial production and sale of AquaBounty Technologies, …
