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Agriculture
Food Demand and Climate Straining Soils
August 30, 2007 05:10 PM - Reuters, Alister Doyle
World food demand will surge this century with a leap in population, highlighting a need to protect soils under strain from climate change, experts said on Thursday. About 150 scientists and government experts will meet in Iceland from August 31-September 4 to try to work out how to safeguard soils from over-use and desertification when more food is needed and some farmers are shifting land to biofuels.
New U.S. Test: CO2 Could Make Grasslands 'Unusable'
August 30, 2007 10:26 AM - Maryke Steffens, SciDevNet
Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could change the nature of grasslands and decrease their usefulness as grazing pastures, say researchers. The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week (27 August). If carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to rise, important grazing areas in parts of Africa, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Mongolia, and southern and South East Asia could be under threat, according to lead author Jack Morgan, a plant physiologist from the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service.
Demand For Organic Food Creating New Organic Farmers
August 30, 2007 07:30 AM - Joann Loviglio, Associated Press
U.S. Agriculture Department data shows the average age of U.S. farmers has been increasing for decades and is currently 55 to 56, while the overall percentage of young farmers continues to fall. But people within the movement say the numbers can be misleading. "Are there young people who are going into farming? Yes, more and more," said Dennis Hall of the Center for Farm Transitions, a Pennsylvania Agriculture Department office providing technical assistance to new and established farmers. He said the landscape started to change about 3 1/2 years ago.
GMO Contamination Sometimes Not So Obvious
August 29, 2007 05:18 PM - Ken Roseboro, The Organic and Non-GMO Report
IOWA - In spring 2000, Greg Matteson was preparing documents for the annual inspection of his organic farm in Shelby, Montana, when he noticed something disturbing. The label on a seed inoculant called “Dormal PLUS” that he had used on yellow blossom sweet clover said “genetically modified.”
Zambia Rejects GMO Crops
August 29, 2007 02:12 PM - Sci Dev Net
The Zambian government has rejected calls to use GM crops in the fight against poverty and hunger in the southern African nation.
Spilled GM Canola Takes Root, Spreads In Japan
August 29, 2007 02:01 PM - The Non-GMO Report
A recent survey of spilled canola (oilseed rape) shows that genetically modified canola contamination is much wider than expected throughout Japan. NO!GMO Campaign published its findings in July after surveying 43 of Japan’s 47 prefectures from March 2007 onwards. The citizen survey produced 1617 samples, of which 37 showed up GMO positive. Samples were not restricted to obvious industrial locations (ports, factories, transportation routes), but were taken on farmland and some urban locations as well.
Organic More Profitable For Farmers
August 29, 2007 01:17 PM - The Organic Non-GMO Report
A study the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has shown that Minnesota grain farmers could reap higher profits by switching to organic grain crops. The four-year study was conducted at the Swan Lake Research Farm near Morris, MN. While other studies have compared the cash values of organic versus conventional crop, the Minnesota study analyzed the economic risks and transition effects of switching to organic farming.
Biofuels Must Be Made Sustainably, Says European Commission
August 29, 2007 07:19 AM - Worlwatch Institute, Alana Herro
European Commission is developing legislation that will require minimum sustainability standards for biofuels development. "It is, of course, essential to ensure that this increase is fulfilled in a sustainable way; we cannot just sit back and assume this will happen automatically," Piebalgs said.
Drought Catastrophe Stalks Australia's Food Bowl
August 28, 2007 07:48 PM - Rob Taylor, Reuters
MOULAMEIN, Australia - A thin winter green carpets Australia's southeast hills and plains, camouflaging the onset of a drought catastrophe in the nation's food bowl. Sheep and cattle farmer Ian Shippen stands in a dying ankle-high oat crop under a mobile irrigation boom stretching nearly half-a-kilometer, but now useless without water. "I honestly think we're stuffed," he says grimly.
Brazil Trys To Calm Europe's Environmental Concerns
August 28, 2007 08:50 AM - Reuters
Delegates from Brazil's farm sector will visit Europe next month on a mission to convince customers that the expanding agricultural business is not harming the environment. They intend to show that many of the accusations made by green activists against Brazilian agriculture -- for example, that increased cane planting is destroying the Amazon rain forest -- do not reflect reality, Carlo Lovatelli, president of the Brazilian Agribusiness Association (Abag), said on Monday.