agriculture

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 […]

Women who work in agriculture face significant inequalities, and the climate crisis is only making the situation worse. That’s the conclusion of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s first report in more than a decade focusing on women who work in agrifood systems. “Women who work in agricultural production tend to do so under […]

Bees need a balanced diet of nectar, which gives them carbohydrates in the form of sugars, and pollen, which provides fat and protein, from a wide variety of plant sources. Different bee species have their own nutritional needs, but no healthy bee diet includes pesticides. According to new findings by scientists from Trinity College Dublin […]

Mountain forests are important habitats for many species, but a new study has found that habitat loss in these areas has been rapidly accelerating since 2000. In that time, more than 78.1 million hectares (approximately 193 million acres) of mountain forests have been lost, equaling an area greater than the size of Texas. A team […]

Samuel Taylor Coleridge first published the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in 1798, but, with the world running out of fresh water, the lines, “Water, water, every where, / Ne any drop to drink,” feel timely. Today, the planet is facing an unprecedented water crisis, with global freshwater demand predicted to exceed supply […]

A major 20-year-long study has revealed devastating impacts on native plants in UK and Ireland from climate change and agricultural activities. The findings show that native plants are now outnumbered by non-native species. The study, called the Plant Atlas 2020, was conducted by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) with the help of […]

Food production to meet modern human diets is expected to contribute enough emissions to push global warming past the 1.5°C target, according to a new study. The analysis found that emissions from current global food systems, which are primarily focused on meat, dairy and rice production, could contribute at least 0.7°C of warming by 2100, […]

Pesticides have been used, in one way or another, for thousands of years to protect crops against invasive species, fungi and other “pests.”   While there are organic options, chemical pesticides are commonly used, with industrial agriculture relying heavily on it for their crops. However, as many studies and literature over the decades have shown, […]