Pumpjacks draw oil out of the ground as a deer stands in a canola field near Olds, Alta., in July 2020. Standard agricultural systems in Canada and around the world achieve high yields, but at times at great ecological costs. Agroecology aims to address these issues.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Knowing which parts of Africa best help to store carbon means funding and policy efforts can be directed to protecting and increasing this carbon ‘land sink’.
Legumes have a superpower: they can convert nitrogen in the air into a form plants can use to grow.
Aniel Arruebarenna, a team member from the Centro de Estudios Ambientales de Cienfuegos, prepares to collect flow measurements.
Joshua Brown/University of Vermont
We all need to eat. Experts imagine how the next agricultural revolution can feed us while fighting climate change and habitat destruction, instead of accelerating it.
Nature and technology can combine to help farms of the future nourish the earth and its inhabitants.
SimplyDay/Shutterstock
We’re not powerless to change the future of food. Nature and technology can combine to nourish both the earth and its inhabitants.
Montse Barado, casa Armengol (Sorpe). In summer, once a week, cattle ranchers and shepherds climb to the communal lands to have a look at the animals and give them some salt.
David Tarrasón i Cerdá,
Federica Ravera, Universitat de Vic – Universitat Central de Catalunya
In the Catalan Pyrenees, women shepherds and cattle ranchers try to valorise the ancestral agropastoral culture to save the mountains from climate change.
Urban farming can make it easier for city residents to obtain healthy, affordable food. But to raise big yields from small pieces of land, farmers need training and support.
A recent summit in Ottawa on what’s known as agroecology has shown that more equitable and sustainable methods of producing food are not only possible, they’re beginning to spread around the world.
A diversity of seeds on sale in Nanyuki market, Kenya.
K Dekeyser
Multiple reports have convincingly demonstrated that agroecology is the most promising pathway to sustainable food systems on all continents. But governments aren’t doing enough to support it.
Azteca ants, unsung heroes of coffee pest control.
Kate Mathis
The world’s ‘drylands’ – already home to 38% of the world’s people – are set to dry out even more. And that could harm the soil microbes that keep soils healthy and help crops to grow.