A distinguished team of scientists working for, affiliated with, or funding the CGIAR system of international agricultural research centers has issued a call for a new Global Crop Improvement Network (GCIN). The statement is entitled “Improving global integration of crop research” (Reynolds et al) and appears in the July 28, 2017 issue of Science Magazine. […]
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A Professor of Geography at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Dr. William G. Moseley, has written a short, compelling essay in Geographical Review that explains clearly why genetically engineered crop technology, and particularly today’s GE crops, are not now and never will contribute in a meaningful way to global food security. First, Moseley explains […]
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The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance is one of the well-funded, influential organizations seeking to educate the public about all-things-agricultural (albeit, mostly conventional ag). They address food and farming-related economic, trade, federal policy, conservation, food safety, biotech, and research issues. Their CEO, Randy Krotz published an opinion piece July 6, 2017 in AgriPulse, a widely […]
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Talk about swimming upstream, but overall feeling so glad that open-source seed initiatives are springing up around the world. This in-depth story explains why the trend toward patenting seeds and traits locks farmers and amateur breeders out of the process of incrementally improving crop genetics. Big mistake, unless you trust the biotech-seed companies to deploy […]
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A new report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s Global Panel on Agriculture says two billion people lack the range of vitamins and minerals in their diet needed to keep them healthy. This report also highlights a fact about global nutrition that few people realize: obesity and stunting from undernourishment now occur in the […]
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I follow statistics on global food trade closely, but was still shocked by some of the findings in the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG’s) assessment of whether, and to what degree, U.S. agriculture “feeds the world” as is so often claimed. A few key findings from this report: 86% of all US exports in 2015 went […]
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This great, long essay on soil health has unusually blunt discussion of the implications of declining soil health. Molly Jahn, a professor of Agronomy at my alma mater UW-Madison, seamlessly merges insights from a helicopter ride outside Des Moines during planting season, to the early crusade to expose and end slavery among sugar plantation workers […]
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Tamar Haspel is a talented food writer for the Washington Post. She often delves into food quality and health issues. In this “Unearthed” piece she uses dollars per calorie as the basic metric of the cost of “healthy” food, and compares basics like flour and vegetable oils to processed foods like Doritos and hot dogs. […]
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Cudos to the BBC and Nature magazine for highlighting the critical role of poor food choices in driving poor health and sustainability of our food systems. This BBC piece summarizes the chilling statements in a commentary in Nature, the #1 general science journal in the world. In the commentary, leading scientists make the point that […]
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Some people believe that high-yield, chemical-intensive cropping systems offer the surest path to sustainable food security. Others contend that agro-ecological systems that focus on building soil quality and diversifying agro-ecosystems will prove more cost-effective, socially acceptable, and resilient. The debate over these two and other paths is important and bound to go on for years […]
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