as well as diversification of crops, even more dire. In a study released earlier this year by the Polytechnic University of Cartegena
which are seen as less traditionally-Spanish crops, but are still popular foods here. In regions such as Madrid, barely a drop of rain has fallen in months,
where the two most important crops are olives and grapes. In Andalusia, they predict that they could lose 35 percent in the 2012 olive harvest.
--which is bad news for crops that rely on them for pollination. But, in a rush to identify the culprit,
The cost of CCD on almonds, one of the most important crops from a honeybee pollinating perspective,
--U s. chain restaurants and a group of congressmen are launching an assault against biofuels on the grounds that fuel produced from crops like corn are pushing up food prices.
The measures have been a major setback to seed giants like Monsanto who argue that GMOS--like those that produce crops resistant to disease--are feed necessary to a growing planet and pose no harm to humans or the environment.
In surplus years, farmers plow under perfectly edible crops because it costs less to do that than to bring them to a food bank.
it makes our system depend on a few crops that is used for animal feed and in processed food.
but so do the processes of relocating food crops and producing biofuels. Plowing, fertilizing and harvesting emit CO2 and other greenhouse gases,
and water as companies use land for biofuel feedstocks rather than for food crops, it notes.
and in some cases on poor soil that would not sustain food crops. Fuel producer Honeywell UOP says that camelina grows on fallow wheat fields
and part of it is growing crops in the right places. Israel has been very proactive in this area--in the areas of olives and dates,
if the crops are resistant to the very herbicides designed to kill them. The results came back quickly,
With more than 50 percent of the earth used for growing crops for food or forage,
with specific crops being selected while others are shunned. Hydroponic food production is also being tried, to avoid the evaporation losses of watering open soil.
The annual water wastage from growing discarded crops totals about 550 billion cubic meters IME reports.
and switching to crops that require less tilling in order to save on fuel. We'll think of ways,
Honeybees pollinate close to 90 crops such as avocados, cucumbers, sprouts, apples, onions, broccoli, coffee and tomatoes.
Around 90 agricultural crops-representing one third of global food production volume-are dependent to some extent on animal pollination.
In the past, there have been cooking classes using the farm s crops, which include papayas, corn, bananas, ginger, sugar cane, lettuce and tomatoes.
Advocates have promised next-gen biofuels will reduce greenhouse emissions and end the use of food crops for fuel.
The NRC warned the increased production of advanced biofuels could inadvertently push up food prices by competing with food crops for land.
the crops aren't used for human (food) consumption. Instead the city sells the crops to biofuel makers.
It's an  endeavor  that's turned into a money maker for the city, The Kansas city Star reports:
These crops will provide the crew with added nutrition and variety.//Courtesy of NASA Image, bottom:
How to improve crop yields while reducing climate changewith a one-two punch aimed at reducing climate change and improving crop yields worldwide, the for-profit company re:
char is turning agricultural waste into soil-improving biochar. I spoke last week with re: char founder Jason Aramburu, a 2009 Poptech fellow, about how biochar works--and how it succeeds in an ambitious double-barreled mission.
Traditionally when you fertilize or water your crops you lose a lot of it. The fertilizer runs off or it doesn't get in the soil where it needs to be.
How much can biochar improve crop yields? There has been quite a bit of study on this. We find that in the U s. and Canada,
biochar can increase crop yields between 20 and 30 percent. In a place like Africa, we find it can actually improve crop yields by up to 200 percent.
That's partially because they're starting with a lower baseline. Africa has some of the worst soil in the world.
If the farmers manage to produce successful crops for the market, Beddard s next task is an education campaign aimed at creating awareness about
and black sugarcane are just a few of the crops Keshav Tavre grows on his suburban plot on the outskirts of Mumbai--all of it from a supply of untreated sewage that snakes past his land.
he was able to ultimately channel reasonably clean greywater into ponds for growing crops and enriching his soil.
and backed by research that multiplies fish spawning cycles and boosts crop production. These facilities could be housed in vacant buildings in poor neighborhoods,
Leaked EU documents rank biofuel emissions higher than crude oileuropean Union politics website Euractive has gotten its hands on official EU data reporting that many biofuel crops release
when forests and wetlands are destroyed to clear land to grow biofuel crops. And with ILUC added to the mix, it looks like some top biofuel crops are worse for the environment, in terms of carbon emissions, than crude oil.
The EU's default value for measuring carbon efficiency for oil from tar sands is 107g CO2 equivalent per megajoule of fuel (CO2/mj.
incorporating ILUC, for various biofuel crops, thanks to Euractive: Palm oil-105g Soybean â oe 103g Rapeseed â oe 95g Sunflower â oe 86g Palm oil with methane capture â oe 83g
The top biodiesel crops--palm, soybean, and rapeseed oil--are all the least energy efficient. However, they are also the cheapest to produce,
and disease control, rotate the crops, and maintain the irrigation system. One of the things that people don t talk about
who have concerns about cross-contamination with other crops, among other environmental risks. Some Roundup Ready seeds had already been planted before the ban was enacted.
The crops contain a bacterial gene that allows them to withstand spraying with Roundup or its generic equivalents, known as glyphosate.
or conventional nongenetically engineered crops, hurting sales of organic farmers or exports to countries like Japan that did not want genetically engineered varieties.
Nestle also questioned the ability for regulators to prevent pollen from GM CROPS to contaminate organic crops nearby.
grows on slopes too inhospitable for other crops, and has a 10 times higher yield per acre than cotton.
the development of so-called next-gen biofuels made from non-food crops (or cellulosic ethanol) has fallen flat.
Their system is a simple network of polyethylene plastic tubing with strategically placed holes that allow just enough water to drip into to the roots of crops.
using cover crops like rye to maintain year round production. This is a green space that contributes to the overall health
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and end the use of food crops like corn for fuel.
wheat straw, switchgrass and other nonfood crops--into sugar which can then be fermented into fuels, feed and chemicals.
and manage crops, with the intent to reduce water use and carbon emissions and boost yield.
promising to reduce carbon emissions and water usage by 50 percent across the farming of its core crops in the next five years with the use of low-carbon fertilizers and new varieties of produce
Some of the codes will make it easier to own a commercial farm--with bee, crops, poultry,
and tomato crops throughout the U s. Flu has similar adaptability. Just this week scientists have found N1h1 infecting deeper into the lungs than seasonal flu
It estimates the demand for various crops based not only on changing populations but on the increased use of biofuels.
where both food crops and biofuels are produced, as evidence. The study reaches back into 1995 for its data.
using it to irrigate our crops and then letting it run off into the ocean. And then it goes into the cycle
Saltwater-cooled greenhouse grows crops in the Saharahow do you grow vegetables in arid areas?
Its Qatar pilot plant produced 75 kilograms of crops (like cucumbers) per square meter annually while consuming only sunlight and seawater, Science reports.
This cooling effect allowed the Qatar facility to grow three crops per year, even in the scorching summer.
the plant was able to grow crops like barley and salad rocket (arugula), along with useful desert plants around the seawater greenhouse.
-and-after crops have been hard to come by. The decontamination techniques so far have involved either deep tilling to shove the top soil down deep,
sensitive crops such as wine grapes. But the horto domi concept shows the convergence of the maker culture, organic and local food advocates and high-and low-tech.
Researchers are now designing robots for these most delicate crops by integrating advanced sensors, powerful computing, electronics, computer vision, robotic hardware and algorithms,
Grey mould (Botrytis cinerea) is a very damaging disease to strawberry crops worldwide. Symptomless infections can develop in strawberry flowers
which are introduced already commonly to commercial strawberry crops to ensure good pollination. The experimental approach (not yet approved in the UK) involves the bees moving through a specially designed dispenser
it was split equally between food and non-food crops. The team said there was no clear bias towards biofuel crops.
Invisible hand But apart from direct investment, the new database suggests there are some worrying trends emerging."
These farms are diversified growing crops on small acreage, using only low levels of mechanization, and without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers.
that will allow them to do everything from pollinating a field of crops to searching for survivors after a natural disaster.
Farm experts say that such efforts could lead to higher food prices, lower crop yields, rising farm costs and more pollution of land and water. oeit is the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have seen ever,
after Monsanto created its brand of Roundup Ready crops that were modified genetically to tolerate the chemical,
Today, Roundup Ready crops account for about 90 percent of the soybeans and 70 percent of the corn and cotton grown in the United states
and reach seven feet or more, choking out crops; it is so sturdy that it can damage harvesting equipment.
By combining Roundup and Roundup Ready crops, farmers did not have to plow under the weeds to control them.
In addition, some critics of genetically engineered crops say that the use of extra herbicides, including some old ones that are less environmentally tolerable than Roundup,
belies the claims made by the biotechnology industry that its crops would be better for the environment. oethe biotech industry is taking us into a more pesticide-dependent agriculture when they ve always promised,
There are roughly 170 million acres planted with corn, soybeans and cotton, the crops most affected.
Monsanto and other agricultural biotech companies are also developing genetically engineered crops resistant to other herbicides.
and the company is developing crops resistant to dicamba, an older pesticide. Syngenta is developing soybeans tolerant of its Callisto product.
saying that the emergence of resistant weeds jeopardized the substantial benefits that genetically engineered crops were providing to farmers and the environment.
instead go to thirsty populations rather than irrigating freshwater dependent crops. Even better algae require only a fraction of the land area of many other crops.
Read Bushnell op-ed for THE FUTURIST. 3. Ocean-current power. Tidal-current turbines and tidal-stream turbines tapping the power of sea systems like the Gulf stream could provide energy for power-hungry states such as Florida.
and simple pumps for irrigating crops during the dry season these are just a few simple technologies that deal with the everyday problems of the 90%of humanity usually neglected by the world top designers and the subject of a recent exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution
Growing Crops In Recycled Shipping Containerstake an unused parking lot in the middle of downtown Atlanta, Georgia on Ponce de Leon Avenue, put five 320-square foot recycled shipping containers tricked out with proprietary technology to reduce overall energy consumption
In addition to land degradation, there also increasing competition for land and water between urban and industrial users and within the agricultural industry itself between livestock, staple crops, non-food crops and biofuel production.
and crops could halve food price inflationresource conservation technologies in agriculture could potentially halve the staggering increases in food prices in the face of climate change,
They have worked hard to diversify their crops, protect their soil, conserve their water and forests,
taking water out of the air and irrigating their crops.""The James Dyson Award is an international competition that attracts designs and inventions from young creators all over the world.
agreed. oemeeting those needs with the same land area would require global crop yields to increase nearly 25%faster than historically.
Timothy Wise recently cited biofuel production as a oedemand shock that consumes crop production and yields price increases.
and a new generation of crops designed to be drenched in toxic chemicals.''We have to figure out this fusion of industrial and organic.
On 22 acres at Marsden Farm, his team planted three plots with different rotations of crops.
Having different crops with different life cycles made it harder for weeds to grow. What might flourish among corn and soy,
along with habitat provided by cover crops, allowed pest-eating bugs and birds to flourish. After eight years, Liebman and Davis used eight times less herbicide in the three-and four-year rotations than in the conventional plot,
and applied to other crops. While the new study details were local, the essential underlying principle,
engineered crops, pest control, fertilizers, etc. â environmental protection and remediation: restoration, monitoring, detection, etc. â consumer products:
genetically modified seeds and crops at $110 billion; and industrial biotechnology (e g.,, fuels, materials, and enzymes) at $115 billion.
rather than the monoculture crops that the big corporations prefer. Designing genomes will be a personal thing a new art form,
the ability to raise crops using fewer pesticides; an offer of greater food security; improved nutrition;
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