There are more than 9 million dairy cows in the United States, and the vast majority of them are Holsteins, large bovines with distinctive black-and-white (sometimes red-and-white) markings. The amount of milk they produce is astonishing. So is their lineage. When researchers at the Pennsylvania State University looked closely at the male lines a few years ago, they discovered more than 99 percent of them can be traced back to one of two bulls, both born in the 1960s.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.