By Ermias Kebreab and Breanna Roque Methane is a short-lived but powerful greenhouse gas and the second-largest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide. And the majority of human-induced methane emissions comes from livestock. About 70% of agricultural methane comes from enteric fermentation – chemical reactions in the stomachs of cows and other grazing animals […]
By Iris Figueroa and Amy K. Liebman COVID-19 is having disproportionate impacts on our nation’s two million farmworkers, who as essential workers continue to toil in the fields despite numerous deadly outbreaks and no federal COVID-related workplace protections. COVID-19 has pulled back the veil on the strikingly poor workplace conditions of these essential workers, built […]
By Ajit Niranjan The way food is grown around the world threatens 24,000 of the 28,000 species that are at risk of extinction, according to a report published Wednesday that calls on world leaders to urgently reform the global food system. Plants and animals are dying out at a rate that is at least tens […]
In the outskirts of Newark, New Jersey, tucked between a packaging manufacturer and an aquatics center lies a farm. Except, if you’re driving down the nearby highway you probably wouldn’t be able to tell that this particular farm is churning out thousands of pounds of greens each year. In fact, all you’ll see is a […]
By Mahima Jain Over recent months Raja, a farmer in India’s Tamil Nadu state, has had a change of routine. Every few days, the 53-year-old leaves his 30-acre (12-hectare) farm in the Villupuram district — where he grows a patchwork of rice, sugarcane, coconut trees and vegetables — and joins a small group demonstrating outside […]
Two of the four interconnected crises prioritized by the Biden administration — climate change and systemic racism — converge on Black farmers, The New York Times reports. Decades of racial violence and racist lending and land ownership policies have nearly eliminated Black farmers in the U.S. — 2% of U.S. farms are run by Black […]
By Andrea Germanos Global environmental justice campaigners heralded a Dutch court’s ruling Friday that Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary must pay punitive restitution to Nigerian villages for oil spill contamination that brought death, illness, and destruction to Nigerian farmers and communities. “After 13 years, justice!” tweeted Friends of the Earth Europe. The legal effort seeking […]
By Karen Scofield Seal Demand for plant-based food and nutrition is growing. According to recent retail sales data, grocery sales of plant-based foods in place of animal products grew 29% in the U.S. to $5 billion between 2017 and 2019. Sustainably farmed seaweed could help meet this need, while also providing compostable, marine-safe packaging. UK-based […]
The Trump administration said Tuesday that federal protection for monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act is still a few years away. The reason? The administration cited 161 vulnerable species that are already waiting in line ahead of monarchs. Monarchs will likely have to wait until 2023 to be added by the U.S. Fish and […]