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The world needs to step up efforts to preserve soils since they are crucial to climate change mitigation and food security, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has urged. “Soil is the foundation of agriculture, it is where food begins,” said FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo on World Soil Day which is […]

Farmers and the food industry should stop using antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned. On November 7, the global health body published new guidelines with the aim of preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics that are important for human medicine. According to WHO, the over-use

Organic farming can feed the world’s growing population, according to new research published in the renowned scientific journal “Nature Communications”. The study shows that organic farming could produce enough food without needing more land if we eat less meat and dairy products, use less concentrated feed in livestock farming and reduce food waste. The study

As global temperatures continue to rise, Earth is approaching dangerous tipping points, leading scientists have warned. Future Earth and the Earth League, two international organizations representing sustainability scientists, have published the statement “The 10 Science ‘Must Knows’ on Climate Change” to provide support to negotiators at the COP23 climate conference. According to Hans Joachim Schellnhuber,

The world’s three largest dairy and meat companies are emitting more combined greenhouse gases than all of France and nearly as much as some of the biggest oil companies. According to research released by the non-governmental organisations GRAIN and Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) as well as the German Heinrich Böll Foundation, business

Ever-fewer, ever-larger corporations are concentrating control at every stage of the food chain, from field to fork, a new report shows. According to the Agrifood Atlas released by Friends of the Earth Europe and two German political foundations, this could have dire consequences for future food production. Between 2015 and 2016, five of the largest

There is an urgent need for action if the goals of the Paris climate agreement are to be met. A new UN report says that current state pledges cover no more than a third of the emission reductions required to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, creating a dangerous gap. The agricultural sector could

Droughts are responsible for the loss of enough food to feed 81 million people every year, or a country the size of Germany, the World Bank said on Tuesday. According to the report “Uncharted Waters: The New Economics of Water Scarcity and Variability”, prolonged periods without rain around the world have shockingly large and often

Rural areas are key to the eradication of poverty and hunger and economic growth in developing countries, according to the 2017 State of Food and Agriculture report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. And with the majority of the world’s poor and hungry living in these areas, achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable

The loss of bees, butterflies and other flying insects has been more severe than previously feared, new research reveals. The total biomass of flying insects in German nature reserves has decreased by more than 75% over the past 27 years, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE on October 18th. The gradual