agriculture

By Soraya Kishtwari Carolina Mora Gaitan takes one of the striking-looking flowers from the blue bucket lying at her feet and shakes off the excess water. Using a toothbrush, she scrubs away any trace of dirt and proceeds to peel away an unsightly brown leaf with a pair of tweezers. Sitting opposite, her daughter-in-law mirrors […]

What if when you went grocery shopping, the food and drink labels at the supermarket not only had nutrition information, but details about the environmental impact of products as well? This could soon be a reality in the UK, as the first “transparent and reproducible method” of determining the environmental impact of food and drink […]

A new study has found an alarming loss in forest areas globally, including that global forest area per capita has dropped from 1.4 hectares in 1960 to just 0.5 hectares per person by 2019, a 60% decline. The research, lead by Ronald Estoque from the Center for Biodiversity and Climate Change, Forestry and Forest Products […]

Extreme heat in Kases last month killed so many cattle that carcases were dumped in landfills or buried in unlined graves, Reuters reports. Normally processed as pet food or fertilizer, the 2,117 cows that died from heat exhaustion the weekend of June 11 overwhelmed standard operating procedures. Burying cattle in unlined pits is a risky option and last resort because of the potential for waste to seep into groundwater.

The processing of sugarcane has an enormous impact on the environment due to the emissions, wastewater runoff and solid waste produced by sugar mills. It also causes biodiversity loss when animal and plant habitat is destroyed to make way for sugarcane cultivation, according to the World Wildlife Fund website.

As we strive for a more environmentally conscientious world, everything we eat, drink and buy can be looked at from the vantage point of sustainability. And that includes simple pleasures like wine. In California, wine means big business, and it’s standard practice for winemakers to coat their grapes with a sulfur-based fungicide in order to […]

In farming, high crop yields are often associated with the use of human-made fertilizers. But what if these abundant results could instead be achieved by using farming practices that were more environmentally friendly? An extensive new study of 30 farms in Africa and Europe has shown that the combination of small amounts of fertilizer with […]

The European Commission has proposed a new law that would cut pesticide use in half by 2030 and completely ban the use of these chemicals near schools, playgrounds and hospitals. The proposal is part of a larger set of goals to reverse biodiversity loss and restore 20% of land and seas by the end of […]