Is there an agronomist in the house?
One of my colleagues has just passed me an interesting article entitled UK agronomy skills – a lost generation which she spotted in the 6th June issue of Chemistry & Industry. In this article, the chief executive of the Processors & Growers Research Organization, Salvador Potter highlights the shortage of basic agronomy skills facing the industry.…
Major Veterinary Achievement – Cattle Plague Eradicated
The World Animal Health Organization (OIE) has declared that the cattle disease Rinderpest (also known as Cattle Plague) has been eradicated, which means that all 198 countries and territories with rinderpest-susceptible animals were free of the disease. The global disease freedom status is expected to be ratified by Ministers of Agriculture at the Food and…
Why Washing Your Vegetables and Hands May Not Protect You from E. coli, Staphylococcus, Salmonella…?
Following the recent outbreak of E. coli food poisoning in Germany that claimed at least 37 lives as of 14 June 2011 and still counting, numerous articles have been written, but many fundamental questions still remain unanswered. As you will remember, contaminated Spanish cucumbers were initially blamed for the outbreak of E. coli infection, which prompted the Spanish…
Recent developments in the world of biofuels
Opinions on the use of crops for biofuel and bioenergy continue to be polarized – are they a ‘good thing’ or not? When are they a ‘good thing’? Who benefits? How do you measure the impacts and their interactions at a local, national and international level on food security, land resources, water, greenhouse gas emissions,…
Climate to exacerbate food insecurity in tropics: report
Areas where food supplies could be worst hit by climate change have been identified in a report from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The report matches future climate change "hotspots" with regions already suffering chronic food problems to identify highly-vulnerable populations, chiefly in Africa and South Asia, but…
Rising food prices could press the poor into hunger, warns Oxfam
This year, hardly a week seems to have gone by without the release of another report on global food systems and food security. Each has a different focus: earlier in May I reported on an FAO report highlighting the problem of food waste, while earlier in the year we published blog articles on reports arguing…
Developing crops for mild drought tolerance
Whilst we continue to have no rain in southern England (I’m sure this won’t last too long…), drought tolerance must be on the mind of many farmers. World reports on climate change and food security have identified water scarcity as a critical factor for agriculture this century. Breeding for drought tolerance is a major research…
Aid donors join forces to fight wheat rust
Emerging strains of stem rust disease of wheat, such as Ug99, are spreading out of East Africa and threatening the world's wheat supply. But the fight against this disease received a boost this week from a collaboration between the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The organisations have…
Global research efforts tackle food security.
On January 28, Dave Simpson wrote on Hand picked (‘Redesigning the global food system’) about the recent release of the Foresight report, The Future of Food and Farming, which argues for fundamental change to the global food system if a rapidly expanding global population is to be fed over the next 40 years. On 10…
Does rust-free rice hold the secret?
All cereals, except rice, are susceptible to rust. Wheat, maize, barley, millet, triticale, and oats all get rust. The spores of rust fungi land on a host plant, germinate, and grow toward a stomatal pore on the leaf surface to initiate infection. Rust infections produce red or yellow pustulating spores that give infected plants a…