Water stress is growing risk for world’s crops, says think tank
One-quarter of the world’s crops, from bananas and plantains to rice, wheat, corn, and soybeans, are grown in areas where the water supply is highly stressed or highly variable, said the World Resources Institute on Wednesday. Rice, wheat, and corn, three of the most important crops, are particularly vulnerable, it said.
Ag must make big changes to reach climate goals, says report
Progress toward limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius — the goal of the Paris Agreement — is “highly insufficient,” “off-track,” “too slow,” and “inadequate” across almost every key sector: power, buildings, industry, transport, agriculture, and forests, the World Resources Institute and the ClimateWorks Foundation said Wednesday in their State of Climate Action report. (No paywall)
A road map to feed the world and cut emissions by 2050
What will it take to feed 9.7 billion in 2050 and prevent catastrophic climate change? The short answer: a lot of work. If today's system of food production and consumption continues unimpeded, the results will be disastrous for the climate, land use, biodiversity, equity and food access, according to a report produced Wednesday by the World Resources Institute and other institutions.
Indonesian Papua, the new frontier of palm oil plantations
In three months at the end of 2017 and start of this year, some 2,300 hectares (9 square miles) of forest in Indonesian Papua, the western half of the island of New Guinea, were cleared, most likely for palm oil plantations, says a new report from the World Resources Institute. Based on …
Sustainability think tank pushes mushroom-beef burger
With beef production accounting for nearly half of all land use and greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture, the World Resources Institute is touting what it calls a better burger.
A yardstick for measuring food waste
One-third of the food grown in the world goes to waste, from causes that range from spoilage in the field to uneaten food at the dining table, according to a common estimate. A public-private partnership unveiled a standard format for measuring losses, with the dual goal of a more precise measurement of where losses occur and a spur to prevent waste in the future.
World must produce 70 percent more food by 2050 if we don’t cut ‘food gap’
The world is facing a 70-percent “crop gap” between the calories available in 2006 and the expected caloric demand in 2050, says a report out by the World Resources Institute (WRI).
Cut back on crop-based biofuels to close the world food gap
The think tank World Resources Institute says the world food gap could be narrowed greatly if crop-based biofuels - made from corn, sugarcane or vegetable oils - are eliminated. In a working paper, WRI points to estimates that food production must rise by 70 percent by 2050 to feed the growing world population. "If crop-based biofuels were phased out, the 2050 crop calorie gap would decrease from 70 percent to about 60 percent, a significant step toward a sustainable food future," says the report by Tim Searchinger and Ralph Heimlich.
Fish farmers must double output to meet food needs
Fish farmers will need to double production of finfish and shellfish by 2050 to meet projected demand for fish, says a report by the World Resources Institute.
“Climate change is a food security issue”
The durable Thomas Malthus, who helped economics gain its nickname of the dismal science with his belief population growth would forever strain the food supply, takes a cameo role as the New York Times'...