In India, farmers are producing biogas from cow manure to provide clean energy at home, and then using the leftover slurry to improve the soil in their fields
Conventional, industrialized agriculture causes severe decline in butterfly numbers
New research shows that meadows adjacent to high-intensity agricultural areas are home to less than half the number of butterfly species than areas in nature preserves. In the study, recently published in the scientific journal Insect Conservation and Diversity, the results emphasize the need for a more environmentally friendly agriculture.
Lab-grown meat might be worse for the climate than farting cows
Scientists and companies working to grow meat from animal cells will need to minimise energy use and avoid fossil fuels if claims that cultured meat is better for the climate than real meat are to hold true, researchers said.
Cultured meat production with high energy inputs could spur global warming more in the long-term than some types of beef cattle farming if the world shunned a low-carbon path, said a study published on 19th February by the UK-based Oxford Martin School.
Crop residue burning is a major contributor to air pollution in South Asia
Urban emissions of black carbon from fossil fuel combustion are not always the main contributor to severe air pollution in south Asian megacities like New Delhi, shows a new study by researchers from Stockholm University and the Indian Institute for Tropical Meteorology, published in the journal Nature Sustainability.
Warming waters heat up fishing costs along India’s Malabar Coast
Thankachan Polayalil has been a fisherman for 42 of his 65 years, long enough to remember when fish were visible from land, brimming just beyond the palm trees of the Malabar Coast. Now his boat is equipped with an echolocation machine, but fish still are hard to find – and the catch isn’t nearly as diverse. The anchovies are gone, and the mackerel now often swim in deeper water, making them harder to snare.
London’s RAW Wine fair to celebrate sustainable wines
This year’s RAW WINE fair (10th-11th March) will be celebrating the importance of sustainability by bringing together natural, organic and biodynamic wine producers who are all about minimal intervention in the vineyard and cellar. Promoting biodiversity and respecting life above ground and in the soil ensures vines are able to absorb key nutrients and increases the quality of the final wines.
Machine learning detects importance of land stewardship in conservation policy
At the southern tip of the Himalayas, farmers in the Kangra region of India’s Himachal Pradesh graze cattle among rolling hills and forests. The forests, under management by the state or farmer cooperatives, are thriving. But a new University of Illinois study shows, unlike state-managed forests, farmer cooperatives directly benefit both forest health and farmers.
In Ethiopia, climate change leads herders to retrain as farmers
The first time Mukulo Orgo cut open a tomato, he expected a mango-like fruit. Did it come from a factory, he wondered?
“People said first you wash it, and you cut with a knife and you prepare it with onion and you cook it, using oil,” said the 40-year-old.
But the first time he butchered a cow, well, he knew perfectly well what to expect.
Any ‘planetary diet’ must also work for the poorest and most vulnerable
Over the past two years, 37 experts from around the world have battled to develop a diet that is both sustainable and healthy. They integrated existing knowledge on the impact of diet on diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, with the impact of current food production systems on the environment.
Seed Fund opens for entries
On a mission to find the UK and Ireland’s future stars of food and drink, The Seed Fund has opened for entry, offering 12 places on its summer Academy run in partnership with Great Taste, the food awards.
Win a case of organic & biodynamic wine from Dynamic Vines
In partnership with our friends at Dynamic Vines, we have a fantastic prize to offer to anyone who signs up to our Newsletter by midnight on 31st March 2019.
The prize is 12-bottle case of specially selected organic and/or biodynamic wines, valued at £220.
Sites in Iran, Morocco & Spain recognized as important for global agricultural heritage
A traditional saffron cultivation system in Iran, an argan-based agro-pastoral system in Morocco, and an ancient olive trees system in Spain have been recognised by the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS).
All the sites feature unique ways to produce nutritious foods and/or spices using traditional knowledge and skills while improving local people’s livelihoods and preserving biodiversity.
Discovering lost skills at The School of Artisan Food
Hidden away in the ancient Sherwood Forest on The Welbeck Estate, the ancestral seat of the Dukes of Portland, is the rather unique School of Artisan Food. The Estate has a fascinating history, but it is its reinvention through The Welbeck Project, of which the School is a part, which will see it prosper and thrive for future generations.
Frenzy for fish means torturous life at sea for migrant fishermen
It was after nightfall when the folded sheet of paper was slipped under the door of the Mission to Seafarers building in South Africa’s Cape Town harbour.
“We are fishermen workers of the ship Fuh Sheng 11,” stated the letter written by the mostly Indonesian crew. “We have a problem in our ship.”
The letter helped to trigger an investigation which saw the Taiwanese trawler held in port in May. Over the following weeks, the crew showed photographs and video of squalid conditions on board – which they described as “hell”.
Global scientific eating plan forgets the world’s poor
A team of 37 world-leading scientists from 16 countries have just released the world’s first ever scientific eating plan. The diet sounds like a silver bullet, but we have found it to be slightly problematic. It doesn’t recognise the enormous differences across the world when it comes to food consumption and production systems.