Food & Agriculture Stories
How do we feed a growing and more affluent population without the environmental collateral damage? The Anthropocene’s coverage of food and agriculture digs deep into innovations in farming, aquaculture, filling the global protein gap, reducing the carbon footprint of supply chains, and more.
Modern study of the ancient practice of mixing rice and fish farming uncovers striking trends
After four years peering beneath the surface of rice paddies in China, researchers quantify increases in rice yields and decreases in fertilizer use.
An overlooked opportunity for kelp farms to double as pollution cleanup sites
Macroalgae get a lot of attention for absorbing carbon. But a new study shows that select species are better at cleaning up nitrogen than carbon.
A wild grass gene endows wheat with the power to intercept fertilizer pollution
Applied to different cultivars, this discovery has the potential to not only slash nitrate pollution, but also agricultural greenhouse gases
Loading soil with biochar allows farmers to cut way back on irrigation
At high applications levels, researchers found that biochar can not only soak up a lot of carbon, but also reduce the need for irrigation by almost 40%.
Can industrial aquaculture grow vegetarian fish?
A study found that a new algae-based fish feed formula not only cuts aquaculture’s environmental footprint, but also produces larger, healthier fish
What Food Should Go Nude?
As consumers, we should worry less about the Styrofoam and plastic wrap encasing the ground beef—and take a pass on the shrink-wrapped broccoli.
Solar panels handle heat better when they’re combined with crops
New study finds that an optimal arrangement of solar panels on farms can cool the panels down by 10 degrees—crucial for their efficiency.
Takeout has a plastic problem. But just how much do reusable containers really help?
A new, intensive lifecycle assessment compared the benefits of buy-and-return container schemes with the costs of their production and use. The takeaway wasn’t clean.
What are the world’s 35 biggest meat and dairy companies doing to mitigate climate change?
Drawing on a vast dataset called OpenSecrets, researchers found that the amount that companies spent on lobbying against climate action
generally tracked with the intensity of their emissions
There’s a massive multi-billion dollar ecosystem just beneath the waves
Until now, there have been no thorough estimates of the value of kelp forests. When researchers recently tallied it up, the figured they came up with was $500 billion a year.
