Will the world fight poverty and eradicate hunger?
The FAO Summit on World Food Security-2008, held at Rome from the 3-5 of June, represented an opportunity for the world leaders to discuss high food prices, climate change and bioenergy. Solutions to the “food crisis” focused on the increase in land productivity through the use of traditional breeding lines and GMOs. While biotech crops…
Getting married? Got butterflies?
While awareness of invasive species and the impact they have on the natural environment is a hot topic, I recently read an article, on a warm and related topic if you will, about butterfly releases at weddings: ‘Are butterfly releases at weddings a conservation concern or opportunity?’ by T. R. New. And it got me…
Claire Beverley
Dr. Claire Beverley Editor, Content Development (Crop Protection) My interest in biological control developed when I worked as an Assistant Entomologist for Horticulture Research International, after completing a degree in Applied Biology. Originally taken on for 3 months to collect data for a cucumber trial, my stint in the entomology department lasted 3 years! And…
Is this really the future of food?
A few weeks ago we were discussing beer – or rather the lack of it expected as a result of climate change. This week, Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has unveiled a new superfood. Even less appealing than no beer, this rather unappetising dish is the Swedish equivalent of tempeh and was brewed up…
Biodiversity – The more the merrier!
May 22nd is the International Day for Biological Diversity 2008. This year’s theme is ‘Biodiversity in Agriculture‘. According to the Convention on Biodiversity who are co-promoting the day’s festivities along with such luminaries of food and nutrition as the FAO, modern food production is responsible for both increasing and decreasing biodiversity. One of the things…
The International Day for Biological Diversity – 22 May 2008
Biodiversity and Agriculture is the theme for 2008’s International Day for Biological Diversity. Agriculture is a key example of how human activities have profound impacts on the ecosystems of our planet. This year’s day seeks to highlight the importance of sustainable agriculture not only to preserve biodiversity, but also to ensure that we will be…
Vera Barbosa
Dr Vera Barbosa Content Editor, Environmental Science Team I’ve just re-joined CABI, having worked here previously, as a Scientific Information Officer in the Crop Protection Team, using my agricultural science background, from 1989-90, when I left to start a family. I continued working for CABI for many years as a freelance abstractor of the Spanish…
Convention on Biological Diversity
Thanks to Luigi over at Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog for this quick note. The COP9 meeting is currently in session in Bonn, Germany from 19 to 30 May 2008. Among the topics on the agenda is agricultural biodiversity and plant conservation. You can watch some of the sessions online if you can not get to the…
Climate change – good news for agricultural research?
The agricultural research drought – in need of a little climate change? This morning, office banter here at CABI turned to the post 9/11 affliction that affected newspaper and magazine columnists for many months, if not several years, after the event. For quite some time it seemed almost impossible to read a Sunday supplement without…
No, your car won’t glow in the dark
‘But will your car glow in the dark’ was the headline of an Irish newspaper article a few months ago describing a joint project between Irish-based company Greenfield Project Management, the Belarussian government and Swedish-based Chematur Engineering. The aim is to produce fuel ethanol from grain crops and sugarbeet grown on land contaminated by the…