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Agriculture

Although antibiotics are often used to help combat infections in poultry flocks, overuse can lead bacteria to evolve resistance to the drugs. Image credit - Karol Klajar / Unsplash
agriculture | health
26 May 2021

Virus cocktails and ice guns could help to tackle food poisoning risk

Harmful bacteria found in chickens that can cause food poisoning outbreaks and devastate poultry flocks could be better controlled with innovative new solutions being developed by researchers.

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food sectors worldwide. It supplies about half of the fish that people consume globally. Image credit - Hanson Lu / Unsplash
agriculture
12 May 2021

Plant-based, probiotics and vitamins: what new diets mean for farmed fish health

Farmed fish are increasingly becoming vegetarian, with plant-based feed now widely used in Europe. Researchers now want to optimise feed to promote fish growth and nutrition. To do this, they are studying fish gut bacteria and the impact of probiotic additives as well as testing nutrient supplements.

Wildflower strips consisting of a mix of a dozen flowers attract beneficial insects, including predators of crop pests such as aphids, particularly ladybirds, hoverflies and lacewings, and some parasitic wasps. Image credit: Severin Hatt
environment | agriculture
17 March 2021

Pheromones, mulch and wildflowers – how to control pests without pesticides

Pheromones that interfere with insect mating patterns, crops that are grown together with others and fields edged with wildflowers are just some of the techniques being developed by European scientists to defend crops from pests without resorting to pesticides, which have been linked to widespread insect biodiversity loss.

New techniques aim to help Mediterranean wine makers and olive oil producers become resilient against climate change. Image credit: Łukasz Czechowicz/Unsplash
environment | agriculture
24 February 2021

Mediterranean wineries are in a climate hotspot. Climatologists are helping them adapt

From the possible demise of Merlot grapes in Bordeaux to loss of olive trees in north Africa, the impacts of climate change will be felt by farmers across the Mediterranean region, say climatologists.

Global food supply chains can provide some resilience against bad weather conditions, plant diseases, political disruption and wars, says Dr Tessa Avermaete. Image credit - Anne Kumps
interview | agriculture
01 February 2021

Q&A: Why shorter isn’t necessarily better when it comes to food supply chains

Fears over supermarket shortages during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic led many people to buy their food from local producers, raising the prospect of a transformation in the way people get their food in the future. But while eating locally and shorter supply chains are often viewed as a more sustainable alternative to our global food system, the reality is much more complicated, explains Dr Tessa Avermaete, a bioeconomist at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

Mushroom growing matter makes great compost but contains a lot of water, making it heavy and unprofitable to transport, so it currently goes to waste. Image credit - needpix.com//licenced under CC0
environment | agriculture
18 November 2020

Mushroom cultivation produces three times its weight in waste. It’s now being turned into burgers and fertiliser

Cultivating mushrooms produces a lot of waste. For every kilogram of mushrooms produced, about three kilograms of soil-like material containing straw, manure and peat is left behind. In the EU, this results in more than 3 billion kilograms of waste per year.

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the fragility of our food systems and provided an opportunity to think about how to change them. Image credit - www.pxhere.com/licenced under CC0
coronavirus outbreak | agriculture
15 September 2020

Post-coronavirus, how can we achieve food justice?

The coronavirus pandemic disrupted the global food system and emphasised its structural inequity – from unequal food distribution to workers in the system going hungry. Experts are calling for a reimagining of the way we produce and distribute food so that everyone can access quality food. Despite producing more food by volume than humanity has to date, millions of people remain food insecure. Agriculture is also a major contributor to environmental degradation and climate change.

Blockchain technology can be used to track olive oil from the grove to its point of sale. Image credit - Hans Bernhard/Wikimedia commons, licensed under CC BY 3.0
agriculture | environment
20 August 2020

Smartphone, blockchain technologies to open new frontier in fight against food fraud

Food fraudsters have found myriad ways to trick shoppers – from cheap horsemeat sold as beef to conventional apples labelled as organic. But new rapid testing and tracing technologies may help turn the tables on food crime.

Dairies generate a substantial amount of organic waste, including wastewater and whey, which are now being used to create products like bioplastics. Image credit - Keith Weller/USDA/Wikimedia, public domain
agriculture | environment
16 July 2020

Dairy waste is being turned into bioplastics and plant food

Dairies in Europe are major economic drivers in rural areas, but they produce significant waste from cleaning and processing. Wastewater and milk residue, which are typically disposed of, are now being turned into new products such as phosphate-rich fertiliser and bioplastics.

Urgent action is needed to feed people who can no longer buy food due to the pandemic and loss of income and to prevent hunger levels from soaring, say experts. Image credit - Pixabay/tyaqakk, licenced under Pixabay licence
coronavirus outbreak | agriculture
02 June 2020

For world’s poorest, coronavirus loss of income threatens ability to eat

The world’s poorest – who have lost their incomes from illness or because of lockdowns – are disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and, unless they receive enough support, hunger levels will soar and some countries may see rising violence, experts say.

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