Using historical records, researchers determine that wine harvests are happening earlier in France and that the changing climate could make it harder to grow in today’s wine regions.
Our modern crops need some help in the immunity department.
Andy / Andrew Fogg
Modern agriculture is synonymous with monoculture. That lack of diversity is bad news for plants’ natural immune defenses. Researchers are figuring out how to help plants fend off microbes – without pesticides.
Rice cultivation is one of the ways food production pumps methane into the atmosphere.
sandeepachetan.com travel photography/Flickr
Climate change means the number of overweight and obese people will fall by 2050, but these benefits will be massively outdone by a rise in underweight and malnourished people.
When agriculture is disconnected from the local economy, its contribution to local economic development is limited.
David Neves
Agriculture can only contribute to rural growth and development to the benefit of all if it links with an inclusive and diverse rural non-farm economy.
Fertilizer runoff and other activities have 60 percent of Chesapeake Bay in a virtual dead zone.
Chesapeake Bay Program
In its first environmental case post-Scalia, the Supreme Court rebuffs farm and ranching interests that opposed the EPA’s multistate plan to restore Chesapeake Bay using the Clean Water Act.
Artichokes growing in Werribee South, an area that uses recycled water for irrigation.
Jen Sheridan
Astrid R.N. Haas, London School of Economics and Political Science
To achieve its ambition of becoming a middle income country, Uganda must accelerate the movement of workers from agriculture and the informal sector into modern industries.
Sydney’s farms on the urban fringe produce 10% of the city’s fresh vegetables.
Alpha/Flickr
More than 90% of Africa’ small-scale famers get their seeds from informal systems. Governments and donors should shift their attention from the formal and invest more in the informal sector.
Cattle drink water from an almost dry dam in South Africa. The drought in the region is one of a number of troubling issues that remain largely hidden from public sight.
Reuters/Rogan Ward
One of the many intriguing ideas of the Austrian philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, was this: the limits of my language means the limits of my world. Does this explain the failure to see the gathering gloom…
The concerns about genetically modified foods are well known. But when we look at population and climate projections, what happens if we don’t use them to increase our food supply?
Biodiversity is known to suffer in human-altered agricultural areas. But the Verreaux Eagle is an exception and has seen its numbers increase in agricultural land..
Northern rivers could increase Australia’s irrigated land by 50%. But we need to think about the environmental impacts.
Robin Hutton/Flickr
It’s full steam ahead for bringing vast increases in farming to northern Australia. In fact, probably too fast to adequately consider the environmental impacts.
South Africa’s Western Cape is the first region in the country to put together a comprehensive plan to help farmers deal with changes in weather patterns brought on by climate change.
Managing Director, Triple Helix Consulting; Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Professorial Fellow, ANU Fenner School for the Environment and Society, Australian National University