Agriculture

Midwest Flooding May Worsen Dead Zone

Originally Published by Houma Today

Scientists have predicted that this year’s dead zone - an area of the Gulf of Mexico that lacks enough oxygen to support marine life - will be the largest ever in part because of the recent floods in the region.

Posted on July 3rd, 2008
Agriculture, Disasters, Ecosystems, Water

Sugar for Biofuel to Displace Kenya’s Tana Delta Wildlife

Originally Published by Environment News Service

Kenya’s Mumias Sugar Company has gotten the okay to cover Kenya’s Tana River Delta - inhabited by 350 species of birds, lions, elephants, rare sharks and reptiles - with sugar cane fields for biofuels.

Posted on July 2nd, 2008
Agriculture, Ecosystems, Energy

Can Weeds Help Solve the Climate Crisis?

Originally Published by NYT > Environment

Weedy ancestors of our food crops, some scientists predict, will cope far better with coming climatic changes than their domesticated descendants.

Posted on June 30th, 2008
Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate

Agri-biotech Firms Committing “Intellectual Property Grab”

Originally Published by Environmental News Network

What’s in store when three of the world’s largest agri-biotech companies - BASF, Monsanto, and Syngenta - make a grab at patents for almost two-thirds of plant families resistant to climate change? Probably nothing good.

Posted on May 23rd, 2008
Agriculture, Economy

What Michael Pollan Hasn’t Told You About Food

Originally Published by Alternet

In an interview with Onnesha Roychoudhuri, Michael Pollan explains how his new book will show us why we shouldn’t feel guilty about our food choices but angry with a corrupt food system.

Posted on May 18th, 2008
Agriculture, Economy, Politics

Eel Fishing Multiplies The Accidental Capture Of Other Fish By Eight

Originally Published by Science Daily

Bycatch - the fish accidentally caught in nets that often end up dead - can amount to more than eight times the amount of the intended catch when it comes to Eel fishing.

Posted on May 14th, 2008
Agriculture, Biodiversity, Water

Afghan Northwest Hit By Plague Of Locusts

Originally Published by Environmental News Network

Plagues of locusts have descended upon Northwestern Afghanistan devastating agricultural fields and spurring officials to offer wheat as a reward for killing the pests.

Posted on May 12th, 2008
Agriculture, Biodiversity, Disasters

First Americans Thrived On Seaweed

Originally Published by New Scientist - Breaking News

Evidence found at the oldest human settlement in the Americas hints that early Americans’ diets included large, healthy portions of seaweed.

Posted on May 10th, 2008
Agriculture, Would You Believe?

Climate Modelers See Modern Echo In ’30s Dust Bowl

Originally Published by Environmental News Network

Finding that man-made dust in the U.S. Plains during the 1930’s helped turn a natural phenomenon into a disaster - the Dust Bowl - climate scientists worry about the threat of similar events in today’s America.

Posted on May 3rd, 2008
Agriculture, Climate, Earth Observation

Farm Animal Industry Must Change, Says Pew Commission

Originally Published by Environment News Service

A new report by the Pew Commission says that as resources become less available in the future, the American farm animal industry will have to change its ways.

Posted on May 2nd, 2008
Agriculture, Biodiversity