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Agriculture

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.

Food that has travelled a shorter distance from farm to fork appears to be more environmentally and socially sustainable, but scaling up such supply chains is going to be a challenge. Image credit - Didier Provost/Unsplash
environment | agriculture
25 May 2020

Eating local and plant-based diets: how to feed cities sustainably

How do you feed a city? It is one of the great questions of our time. After all, for a species that ultimately depends on plants to feed ourselves, we do tend to cram ourselves into places that are rather unfriendly towards them. Our cities are built around cars, offices and perhaps the odd park – not fields of crops.

Ear tags with a wireless radio frequency identification antenna along with a smart robotic feeder can tell farmers every time a cow goes to feed and what dose of mineral supplements it receives. Image credit - Ivan Andonovic
agriculture | ict
18 May 2020

How crop and animal sensors are making farming smarter

Installing wireless sensors among crops and attaching ‘smart’ ear tags to livestock could help farmers produce more food with less impact on the environment.

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