Global cereal output hits record high
A significant surplus in cereal stocks is expected, for the first time since 1999/2000 as global cereal production hits a record 2.04 billion tonnes in 2004, says FAO in Food Outlook.
Food & Water
South America Seeks to Fill the World’s Table
Almost overnight, South America has driven a historic global shift in food production that is turning the largely untapped frontier heartland of the continent into the world’s new breadbasket.
Paul Ehrlich Interviewed by Robyn Williams (Audio)
Paul Ehrlich talks about his new book – One With Nineveh. He reminds us that agriculture began in a fertile land, around Nineveh, in what is now the Middle East, which is now desert.
The Corporate Attack on Organic Agriculture
What could be wrong with farming in concert with nature—eliminating toxic agrichemicals and the use of genetically engineered crops? Well, plenty if you are a CEO at Monsanto, Dupont, or any number of other “life-sciences” companies that have invested in an escalating smear campaign aimed at discrediting organic farming.
The Sunshine Farm Research Program
The Sunshine Farm’s goal is to calculate the amount of productive capacity a sustainable farm must devote to its own fuel and fertility. Several reports are available.
Can the planet feed us?
As part of Planet Under Pressure, a BBC News series looking at some of the biggest environmental problems facing humanity, Alex Kirby explores the challenge of feeding the world without destroying the planet
Fuel for nought: biofuels = disaster
The adoption of biofuels would be a humanitarian and environmental disaster
As the well runs dry
South Australia should be acting now to avert the economic, social and agricultural catastrophe that will come as oil reserves decline and prices soar.
US: Surging Imports of Food Threaten Wider Trade Gap
America’s appetite for imported food is creating problems for the
U.S. economy. Agriculture, one of the few big sectors of the economy that could be
counted on to produce trade surpluses, has recently generated
monthly deficits — a development that could worsen the nation’s
already significant trade imbalance.
NZ: Farming must clean up its act
Green Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says farmers should stop seeing environmental concerns as a threat and recognise that it is essential to their economic interests to clean up their act.
People cause more soil erosion than all natural processes
Human activity causes 10 times more erosion of continental surfaces than all natural processes combined, an analysis by a University of Michigan geologist shows.
Oil prices push up the cost of dairy processing
The cost of a litre of milk could be about to get dearer, as dairy processors are hit by high world oil prices
