Agriculture & Nutrition

Wheat field at harvest time. Photo: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service/Blair Fannin
Wheat field at harvest time. See full study estimating wheat’s decline with climate change.  Photo: ©©  Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service/Blair Fannin. Click to see larger photo.

Wheat, one of the world’s most important crops, is being threatened by climate change

by Chelsea Harvey Washington Post September 16, 2016

A new study published Monday in Nature Climate Change reiterates concerns that wheat — the most significant single crop in terms of human consumption  — might be in big trouble. After comparing multiple studie...

Machine harvesting soybeans. Photo: United Soybean Board
Soybean harvest. Photo: ©©  United Soybean Board. Click link to see larger photo.

Behind the Monsanto deal, doubts about the GMO revolution

by Jacob Bunge Wall Street Journal September 16, 2016

Farmers are reconsidering the use of biotech seeds as it becomes harder to justify their high prices amid the measly returns of the current farm economy....

Emberá huts in a clearing in a forest protected by this indigenous people in Panama, in their 4,400-sq-km territory. Native peoples want global climate change accords to recognise the key role they play in protecting forests, and demand to be included in benefits arising from their conservation efforts. Photo: Government of Panama
Emberá huts in a clearing in a forest protected by this indigenous people in Panama, in their 4,400-sq-km territory. Native peoples want global climate change accords to recognise the key role they play in protecting forests, and demand to be included in benefits arising from their conservation efforts. Photo: Government of Panama

Indigenous people demand shared benefits from forest conservation

by Emilio Godoy Inter Press Service September 4, 2016

“Why don’t the authorities put themselves in our shoes?” asked Cándido Mezúa, an indigenous man from Panama, with respect to native peoples’ participation in conservation policies and the sharing of benefits from the protection of forests....

The flower petals and the labels represent different sustainability metrics that compare organic farming with conventional farming. They illustrate that organic systems can better balance the four areas of sustainability: production (orange), environment (blue), economics (red) and social wellbeing (green). Illustration: John Reganold and Jonathan Wachter/The Guardian
The flower petals and the labels represent different sustainability metrics that compare organic farming with conventional farming. They illustrate that organic systems can better balance the four areas of sustainability: production (orange), environment (blue), economics (red) and social wellbeing (green). Illustration: John Reganold and Jonathan Wachter/The Guardian

Can we feed 10 billion people on organic farming alone?

by John Reganold The Guardian August 17, 2016

In a time of increasing population growth, climate change and environmental degradation, we need agricultural systems that come with a more balanced portfolio of sustainability benefits. Organic farming is one of the healthiest and strongest sectors in agriculture today and will continue to grow and...

A prairie strip filled with black-eyed Susans lies next to soybeans on Smith's farm. Photo: Andrew Dickinson/The Washington Post
A prairie strip filled with black-eyed Susans lies next to soybeans on Smith’s farm.   Most farmers say the Midwestern prairie chokes crops. But, according to Iowa State University researchers, the wild thicket protects soil from erosion and serves as habitat for hundreds of species, including the threatened Monarch butterfly. Photo: ©Andrew Dickinson/The Washington Post

Iowa farmers ripped out prairie; now some hope it can save them

by Daryl Fears Washington Post August 9, 2016

There’s a wild presence in Tim Smith’s corn and soybean field that most farmers kill on sight. He stopped at the edge of a Midwestern prairie, a thicket of tall flowers and grasses more frightening to farmers than any horror movie madman lurking in a barn with a chain saw....

Child being weighed by health care worker to see if the child may be malnourished. ©Matthew Abbott/AP/SIPA
Child being weighed by health care worker to see if the child may be malnourished.  “In the Northern Region of Ghana, 30 percent of children under five are stunted or chronically malnourished,” the report said. “This not only affects their growth but also their educational development and economic potential, and consequently the future of the country.” Photo: ©Matthew Abbott/AP/SIPA

Malnutrition costs Ghana economy $2.6 billion annually

by Dasmani Laary The Africa Report August 9, 2016

Ghana loses $2.6 billion annually, or 6.4 percent of its gross national product, due to problems associated with poor nutrition in children, a United Nations report has revealed....

Nearly half the children in drought-stricken South Madagascar are malnourished. Photo: ©Miriam Gathigah/IPS
Nearly half the children in drought-stricken South Madagascar are malnourished. Photo: ©Miriam Gathigah/IPS

Malagasy children bear brunt of severe drought

by Miriam Gathigah Inter Press Service July 21, 2016

Voahevetse Fotetse can easily pass for a three-year-old even though he is six and a pupil at Ankilimafaitsy Primary School in Ambovombe district, Androy region, one of the most severely affected by the ongoing drought in the South of Madagascar. “Fotetse is just like many of the pupils here who, d...

Zhenyuan, China. 73% of the gains that the UN claims against hunger come from China, most of which occurred during the 1990s, before the MDGs even began. Photo: ©©Eric
Zhenyuan, China. 73%  of  the  gains  that the   UN   claims   against   hunger come from China, most of which occurred  during  the  1990s,  before the  MDGs  even began.  Photo:  ©©Eric

The true extent of hunger: What the FAO isn’t telling you

by Food First July 13, 2016

Changes in the way the FAO measures hunger reduced the estimated number of hungry people and increased the percentage reduction in the number of hungry people.  This article discusses those changes....

Miranto (left) and Sitraka were born on the same day in the same Madagascar village, but Sitraka is chronically malnourished. Photo: Tom Maguire/RESULTS
Miranto (left) and Sitraka were born on the same day in the same Madagascar village, but Sitraka is chronically malnourished.  Photo:  Tom Maguire/RESULTS

These 2 boys were born the same day in the same town, but their lives will be dramatically different.

by Lauren Weber Huntington Post July 13, 2016

How chronic malnourishment damages the bodies and brains of 1 in 4 children worldwide....

The fishing boats leave at dawn from the port city of Beira, Mozambique. Photo: ©Guy Oliver/IRIN

One in 10 people may face malnutrition as fish catches decline

by Clare Leschin-Hoar NPR July 7, 2016

Scientists are predicting more than 10 percent of the world's population, a whopping 845 million people, will experience deficiencies in critically important micronutrients including zinc, iron, vitamin A, vitamin B12, and fatty-acids in the coming decades if global fish catches continue to decline....

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