Move over, quinoa, kale, and açaí– 2016’s newest superfood might come in a familiar package (or can). Pulses — the dried edible seeds of legume plants, which include things like lentils, dried peas, and beans — are hoping to get their moment in the spotlight, thanks in part to a United Nations campaign to make 2016 the International Year of …
TERRA DAILY – Humus depletion induced by climate change
The yields of many important crops in Europe have been stagnating since the 1990s. As a result, the input of organic matter into the soil – the crucial source for humus formation – is decreasing. Scientists from the Technical University Munich (TUM) suspect that the humus stocks of arable soils are declining due to the influence of climate change. Humus, …
Bangladesh Cuts Hunger Rates in Half By Supporting Small Farmers and Women – Christina Sarich
Once a recipient of food donations from around the world, Bangladesh has now become a model for reducing food hunger. By supporting small farms and women, the country has reduced the number starving citizens significantly. A recent UN report outlines how Bangladesh, a South Asian country who was once among the poorest in the world, has turned the corner when it …
Food Security: a Hostage to Wall Street by COLIN TODHUNTER
In October of last year, World Food Day celebrated ‘Family Farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth’. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s website, the family farming theme was chosen to raise the profile of family farming and smallholder farmers. The aim was to focus world attention on the significant role of family farming in eradicating hunger …
Women and Biodiversity Feed the World, Not Corporations and GMOs – Vandana Shiva
The two great ecological challenges of our times are biodiversity erosion and climate change. And both are interconnected, in their causes and their solutions. Industrial agiculture is the biggest contributor to biodiversity erosion as well as to climate change.According to the United Nations, 93% of all plant variety has disappeared over the last 80 years. Monocultures based on chemical inputs do …
11 Million Yemenis Face Severe Food Insecurity Amidst Conflict
Conflict in Yemen has triggered food insecurity in the poverty-stricken country. The Food and Agriculture Organisation said recently: Amidst escalating conflict at a crucial time in the country’s cropping season, almost 11 million people in Yemen are severely food insecure and millions more are at risk of not meeting their basic food needs. Governorates in the far northwest and south …
World’s Water Future Demands Action Today
In 2050 there will be enough water to produce food for a global population of nine billion, but over-consumption and climate change will increase water scarcity in the planet’s neediest regions, finds a new report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Water Council. The report, “Towards a water and food secure future” was released Tuesday at …
Deforestation is messing with our weather and our food
New research published in Nature Communications provides insight into how large-scale deforestation could impact global food production by triggering changes in local climate. In the study, researchers from the United States and China zero in on albedo (the amount of the sun’s radiation reflected from Earth’s surface) and evapotranspiration (the transport of water into the atmosphere from soil, vegetation, and …
Ploughing On Regardless
Imagine a wonderful world, a planet on which there was no threat of climate breakdown, no loss of freshwater, no antibiotic resistance, no obesity crisis, no terrorism, no war. Surely, then, we would be out of major danger? Sorry. Even if everything else were miraculously fixed, we’re knackered if we don’t address an issue considered so marginal and irrelevant that …
Are Insects the Next Climate-Friendly Superfood?
Maybe you’ve see little cans of chocolate-covered ants or grasshoppers in the exotic food section of your grocery and thought to yourself, “Yuck—who eats that?” Insects may not come to mind when you think of superfoods. But they could be the next hot “alternative” protein. They’re low in fat and loaded with fiber. You might be surprised to learn you may …