Opinion: How farmers can be at the forefront of the climate solution
More than a half century after the first Earth Day, with our planet in worse shape than it’s ever been, the challenge of slowing global warming and the environmental, economic and social devastation underway can sometimes feel like too much — too expensive, too complicated and too politically divisive to overcome. But when we wake up every morning in rural Marion County, Iowa, we aren’t filled with despair. We’re filled with hope in a revolutionary idea: that farmers will help mitigate climate damage that farmers will help mitigate climate damage if we pay them to make their operations more resilient and sustainable. (No paywall)
FAO chief says ‘brain revolution’ will succeed Green Revolution
The Green Revolution of high-yielding wheat, rice and maize varieties, boosted by synthetic fertilizers, is credited with averting famine in the developing world. In a speech at a London think tank, FAO director general Jose Graziano de Silva said, "The future of agriculture is not input-intensive, but knowledge-intensive."
Scientists propose global research alliance to meet world food needs
The world’s need for food is growing faster than the projected supply, says a group of crop scientists in proposing the formation of a broad-based research network to develop new varieties and mitigate the impact of climate change on world hunger. Writing in the journal Science, the scientists say that the fruitful international collaboration on wheat, which began with the Green Revolution of the 1960s, can be a template for work on many crops.
‘Nobel Prize of agriculture’ goes to Green Revolution leader in Africa
The president of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, is the 2017 winner of the $250,000 World Food Prize for his two decades of work expanding food production on the continent through policy reforms, financial innovation, and modern farming practices. The award is known as the Nobel Prize of food and agriculture.