Bees need flowers for food, and flowers need bees to pollinate them, so it is of vital importance that bees emerge from their nests at the same time as plants are flowering each year. A new study led by researchers from the UK’s University of Reading has found that human-induced climate change is causing warmer […]
Vegan cheese is about to get a breakthrough. Climax Foods, a biotechnology company based in California, discovered a plant-based version of casein with the help of artificial intelligence. The findings could contribute to vegan cheeses with better melting properties. The company uncovered a plant-based protein that performs similarly to casein. Casein is a dairy-based protein […]
Organic farming methods mean less pesticides in our soil and food. They ensure agricultural runoff won’t contain toxic chemicals that can make their way into our waterways, polluting the water supply and potentially harming wildlife and ecosystems. They also consider animal welfare. So why do farmers continue to use synthetic pesticides? The answer is simple: […]
With increasing demand for plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy, researchers in the UK are looking for more sustainable alternatives to imported soy beans. They are working to develop a new kind of pea that lacks the typical flavor of peas and could be a more neutral-tasting substitute. “The world has changed,” Claire Domoney, a […]
When an unprecedented heat wave bore down on Portland, Oregon, in June 2021, Jonna Papaefthimiou, the city’s chief resilience officer, immediately thought of the city’s most vulnerable populations: older people sweltering, often alone, in their homes.
On a clear morning in April, after milking his seven cows, Tim Sauder looked over the pasture where he had just turned the animals out to graze. Like many dairy farms, Sauder’s fields swayed with a variety of greenery: chicory, alfalfa and clover. But they were also full of something typically missing on an agricultural landscape — trees. Thousands of them.
In the UK, experts have expressed concern that some foragers for wild mushrooms and garlic have been taking too many ingredients from protected sites, putting wildlife at risk, reported The Guardian. The National Trust is concerned that people have been gathering foraged foods to sell them, damaging delicately-balanced ecosystems. “Foraging brings us closer to nature […]
Faced with a wall of egg cartons at the grocery store, all plastered with different labels and phrases, it’s hard to know what to choose. Which is better: cage-free, free range or pasture-raised? What does “farm-fresh” mean? What lies behind the USDA Organic label? Are vegetarian-fed hens healthier and happier? Without uniform regulation of these […]
New research from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) shows half the number of farms that exist now will be gone by the end of the century, while the average farm size will double, a trend that could pose major risks for global food systems. The study is the first to follow the size […]