As budgets are cut local authorities are selling off farmland without considering the long-term implications of losing a valuable asset for future generations. Tom Levitt reports
… 24th February 2011 News Food And Farming Land Agriculture Conservation Farmland … Everyone is caught up in the idea that agriculture should just make as much money as …
Members of the food movement share an infectious vision, writes Jonathan Latham - one which is constructive, convivial, classless, raceless, international, and embraces the whole world. Unled yet inspirational, it rests on a novel, harmonious philosophy that combines science, recognition of planetary boundaries, and the universal need for wholesome sustenance.
… the National Coordinator of its Organic Agriculture Movement is Miguel Ramirez who … oppresses farmers. The Salvadoran Organic Agriculture Movement wants much more than … not so very long ago food, and even more so agriculture, were painfully unfashionable …
With USDA proposing to redefine GMOs for the purposes of food labeling, the issue is more important than ever, writes Jonathan Latham. It's not just to give consumers' the 'right to know' when they buy GM food, it's also a vital means to empower citizens to fight back against the industrialisation of food and farming, and the monopolies of agribusiness corporations.
… to control both the present and the future of agriculture. GMOs are also conflated with … as the innovative and dynamic frontier of agriculture, in contrast to those people who … are true and that along with milkweeds GMO agriculture also decimated, or eradicated …
US officials say they remain ‘surprised and disappointed’ over Europe’s refusal to embrace technologies like genetic modification (GM) and nanotechnology in farming
… (GM) and nanotechnology in farming European agriculture is being left behind because of … Speaking to the House of Lords Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Farming, officials from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said both technologies …
Subsistence farming may be seen as a low rung on the development ladder but it can play a vital role in helping low-income countries to adapt to climate change says a government-funded report
… energy, low-carbon transport and low-input agriculture, which will help reduce reliance … agencies rethink any support for intensive agriculture in favour of subsistence farming, … NEWS UK overseas aid ignoring small scale agriculture Department for International …
Low-input farming projects, not reliant on chemical fertilisers and pesticides, have brought significant increases in food production in Africa, south-east Asia and South America, according to a UN report
… phase with a recent surge in interest in agriculture by foreign investors. A recent … NEWS UK overseas aid ignoring small scale agriculture Department for International …
EU Commission proposes compulsory environmental measures for farmers in reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) but campaigners fear member states will weaken final agreement
… provide to society as a whole. European agriculture needs to be not only economically … also environmentally competitive,' said EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Cioloş;. The … also a strongly held view that 'industrial' agriculture should have little place in the …
Ecological campaigner Million Belay talks about why protecting Ethiopia's biodiversity is so important and why he opposes the intervention of philanthropists like Bill Gates
… - mainly at a practical level in terms of agriculture, varieties of crops, medicinal … agri-initiatives and the western model of agriculture don't have respect for the … Any scientist will tell you that small agriculture produces more in total than a …
A rise in the uptake of technologies like aquaponics and aeroponics is helping to boost the growth of urban farming, but how much of our food can we really produce in the cities? Tom Levitt reports...
… of urban space being given over to productive agriculture (there simply isn't enough room in … out there pointing to a growth of urban-based agriculture over the next decade. It just may not be the agriculture we know. If you want to look for …
At what point are technologies so complex, uncertain, or unmanageable as to be beyond regulation? The question is key to human and ecological health, writes Jonatham Latham. But instead of learning from successful approaches, such as aviation safety, we are throwing the lessons away when faced with truly complex problems - like chemicals, GMOs, and now 'gene drives'.
… the reason that many GMO varieties used in agriculture are restricted in their … most long term interactions outside of the agriculture and food system. Thus the number …
Pastoralism is in crisis across Africa. But it could yet survive as the best available defence against climate change and famine. Tom Levitt reports from southern Ethiopia
… backwardness and a dependency on rain-fed agriculture. The country's 10 million or more … did not come from pastoralists but from agriculture,’ says Ato Muhammad Yusuf, an MP …
Monarch caterpillars are vulnerable to neonicotinoid toxicity at concentrations as low as 1 part per billion, writes Jonathan Latham, and that makes them vulnerable to residues from commercial crops - and even more so from horticultural use in plant nurseries!
… interest science organization. "Industrial agriculture is a lethal combination of methods … "The saddest irony is that, though industrial agriculture experts call their methods … this is that the very best results in all of agriculture come from farming methods that …
Coalition of environmental groups including RSPB and the National Trust urge government to introduce a levy on chemical industry and enforce bigger fines for polluters
Pesticide companies told to fund clean up of waterways Tom Levitt | 10th November 2010 News Water Pesticides Pollution Waterways Chemical Industry Health rivertrent.jpg Crop protection industry …
Increasing density of livestock production and poor biosecurity in Asia is encouraging epidemics, with a new disease emerging every four months, says new International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) report
… 'lost in time' land be the future of European agriculture? Transylvania has maintained … As it faces the twin threats of intensive agriculture and byzantine EU policies, its …
As controversial UK trials of a potato genetically-modified to be resistant to late blight get underway, we speak to research leader and plant geneticist Professor Jonathan Jones about why he is in favour of an expansion in GM crops
… reasons - to the current industrial agriculture and they'd like to replace it with … for reducing the environmental impact of agriculture is instead to take the existing varieties favoured by existing agriculture and reduce the impact by putting …
Theologian Martin Palmer tells Tom Levitt how we can learn from previous man-made ecological collapses in Britain and create a 'new narrative' that challenges our dominant consumer culture
Humanity has already had four major ecological collapses: how can we avoid a fifth? Tom Levitt | 27th February 2012 News Ecology Climate Change Natural World Population Sustainability stonhenge.jpg …
The purported mission of the Cornell Alliance for Science is to explain the science underlying biotechnology and GMOs, writes Jonathan Latham. So with a debate on the issue taking place tomorrow, 5th October, on the Cornell campus, how come CAS can't find a single speaker prepared to defend their zealously pro-GM stance?
… and dangerous consolidation being seen in the agriculture and seed sectors and have greatly … them. So he asked the Dean of its College of Agriculture, Kathryn Boor. She declined to …
Unlike tea and sugar, the fresh milk we drink with our cuppa is likely to come from farms in the UK. But as Tom Levitt reports, there are still serious environmental and animal welfare problems associated with the UK dairy sector
… gas emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) . The vast … water sources. In 2002, Defra estimated that agriculture was responsible for about 50 per … 60 per cent of this pollution attributed to agriculture. In some cases the pollution has …
The world's largest rainforest is under combined threat from deforestation and human-caused climate change. In an interview with the Ecologist, tropical forest expert Dr Simon Lewis explains what is happening
Dr Simon Lewis: we're playing Russian roulette with a large portion of the Amazon Tom Levitt | 27th May 2011 Comment Amazon Deforestation Climate Change Carbon Sink Carbon Emissions s_lewisbw.jpg Dr …
Financial speculation in key commodities, like wheat and maize, is being linked to recent volatile food prices but attempts to regulate are being delayed by lobbying from the banking sector. Tom Levitt reports
… from people with no interest or connection to agriculture or the food sector. These …
Hundreds of thousands of small-scale cocoa farmers in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire will be forced to adapt or relocate by higher temperatures
… from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) . 'They pick some pods and … pioneering campaign is challenging industrial agriculture in Africa, returning food …
Plans for GM 'Golden Rice' have divided critics, but Howarth Bouis from HarvestPlus explains why their non-GM biofortified crops with higher portions of key vitamins can succeed in tackling malnutrition
… sell for the same price in the market. Agriculture is risky, so our biofortified … is not whether we should go for intensive agriculture, GM crops or organic but future … pioneering campaign is challenging industrial agriculture in Africa, returning food …
Lab-grown meat could solve the environmental and ethical problems of industrial agriculture. But will anyone want to eat it?
… and ethical problems of industrial agriculture. But will anyone want to eat it? … managed to convince the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture to give him €2 million to … would be the ultimate de-materialisation of agriculture, a sort of logical conclusion to …
Agri-chemical companies like Syngenta don’t just make the chemicals that have been blamed for the decline in bees; they also breed the bees that are being used as a replacement for wild pollinators
… whether the dosage that honey bees acquire in agriculture is significant to cause damage to …