It is difficult to find fault with a process that can create food from sunlight, water and air, but for many plants, there is room for improvement. Researchers have taken an important step towards enhancing photosynthesis by engineering plants with enzymes from blue-green algae that speed up the process of converting carbon dioxide into sugars. [...]
OVER the past five years, as farm wages soared, sugar-cane growers in southern China looked across the border to Vietnam for help. They hired Vietnamese workers—nearly a quarter cheaper than Chinese ones—to tend their fields, especially during the winter harvest. The immigrants were illegal but local authorities looked the other way. Some 50,000 Vietnamese streamed [...]
The United States' agricultural industry must continue to adapt, improvise, consolidate and automate in order to overcome the challenges of a rising population and an increased scarcity of resources. Robotics, smart technology and drones are among the technologies that will be increasingly incorporated into the industry as agricultural producers cope with increased global demand, declining [...]
Transformative changes are needed in our food, agriculture and trade systems in order to increase diversity on farms, reduce our use of fertilizer and other inputs, support small-scale farmers and create strong local food systems. That’s the conclusion of a remarkable new publication from the U.N. Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The report, Trade [...]
The average citizen of Nepal consumes about 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity in a year. Cambodians make do with 160. Bangladeshis are better off, consuming, on average, 260. Then there is the fridge in your kitchen. A typical 20-cubic-foot refrigerator — Energy Star-certified, to fit our environmentally conscious times — runs through 300 to 600 kilowatt-hours [...]
In Washington, the National Research Council arm of the National Academies has released its report, “Industrialization of Biology: A Roadmap to Accelerate the Advanced Manufacturing of Chemicals,” including a series of goals, recommendations and conclusions to expand the use of industrial biotechnology to transform the sustainability and cost of chemical production. In today’s Digest, we’ll [...]
Before Steve Case co-founded America Online 30 years ago and became a billionaire, his second job out of college was helping develop new styles of slices in Wichita, Kansas, for Pizza Hut. The food business, he quickly found, was packed with risks and surprises, making it a minefield for entrepreneurs. “It’s one thing to create one product in one particular [...]