How crop diversity could help secure our future food supply
Diversity within maize. Image source: Sam Fentress, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1293212 16 October is World Food Day (#WFD2016); this yearâs theme is âClimate is changing. Food and agriculture must too.â Jennifer Cunniff, plant scientist in CABIâs editorial team looks at how harnessing crop diversity is vital for us to meet the challenge. Of the wide…
Climate change to cause more diet related deaths
A young man in drought conditions in Ethiopia (Author: USAID African Bureau) We are all told to improve our diet; increasing our fruit and vegetable consumption and reducing our red meat intake. But a new study, âGlobal and regional health effects of future food production under climate change; a modelling study,â published in The Lancet…
Reducing hunger and undernutrition – how are we doing?
Hunger and undernutrition are amongst the most persistent global development challenges. Part of Millennium Development Goal 1 is to âHalve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hungerâ (UN, 2012). With global numbers of undernourished people static at 870 million for the past 5 years and undernutrition contributing to the deaths…
Epigenetics: epi what?
Pity the poor editor on BBCâs news programme âBreakfastâ (11 jan 2011) subtitling, as Professor Robert Winston and others discussed the possibility of gender selection to "complete your family in the way you desire" i.e. to finally achieve that longed for girl or boy. Throughout the discussion the text editor had kept up admirably, coping…