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Agroecology can increase the ability of agricultural systems to adapt to climate change and strengthen their resilience. This is the main finding of a study published in August by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Biovision Foundation. The study warns that climate change has negative impacts on food systems and […]

August 22 marks Earth Overshoot Day this year – the day humanity has used up all the resources nature can sustainably supply and renew in a year, according to data from international sustainability organization “Global Footprint Network” and York University in Toronto. For the rest of the year, we will be living on resources borrowed

Declines in bee populations and other pollinators could negatively affect crop yields in the US, according to new research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The study led by Rutgers University researchers found that a lack of pollinators could translate directly into decreased yields of key crops such as

A shift to sustainable agriculture is needed in order to halt biodiversity loss and restore nature, a team of scientists argues in an article in the journal „Nature Ecology and Evolution“. They call for the integration of agroecological principles in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) which will be adopted at the 15th Convention of

The number of undernourished people in the world has increased by more than 60 million people since 2014 and countries around the world continue to struggle with multiple forms of malnutrition, warns a report released on Monday by five UN agencies. According to “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World”, an estimated

A radical transformations of food systems is needed in order to achieve food security and nutrition for all, a new report finds. According to the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE), the science-policy interface of FAO’s Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed and exacerbated the

Only a fraction of agricultural research funding in Africa is being used to support sustainable agricultural practices, while the majority of funding still goes to industrial agriculture. This is the message of a new report published by Biovision, IPES-Food and the Institute of Development Studies on June 10. The authors argue that around the world,

Plants and animals derived from conventional breeding are not patentable in Europe. This is the conclusion of the Enlarged Board of Appeal, the highest judicial authority at the European Patent Office (EPO), which had repeatedly come under strong criticism for granting such patents. On May 14, the board issued its long-awaited opinion G3/19, which concludes

World food commodity prices declined for the third month in a row in April, largely due to the negative impacts on international food markets arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The FAO Food Price Index averaged 165.5 points in April, down 5.7 points (3.4%) from March. This

In 2019, 135 million people across the globe faced acute hunger, according to a report published on April 21 by an international alliance of UN and non-governmental agencies. In 2020, this figure could double to at least 265 million people being pushed to the brink of starvation due to the Covid-19 crisis, warns the World