Oil aside, we've reached peak chicken, peak rice, and peak milk
By ADELE PETERS.- We still haven't reached peak oil. But peak milk happened in 2004, peak soybeans in 2009, and peak chicken in 2006. Rice peaked in 1988.
View ArticleClimate impacts on European farmers' yields per field
By TIM RADFORD.- Farmers in Europe have already begun to feel the pinch of climate change as yields of wheat since 1989 have fallen by 2.5 per cent and barley by 3.8 per cent on average across the...
View ArticleChemical fertilisers poison our water, says study
Waterways - including human drinking supplies - are being poisoned by excessive use of chemical fertilisers, new research shows.
View ArticleNo matter how you cut it, the answer is ecosystem services
By SHAHID NAEEM.- As a professor of ecology, I know all too well that there's no shortage of environmental ills to keep us awake at night - global warming, the spread of diseases, dead zones in the...
View ArticleWe got it wrong, admits Ballance
Fertiliser manufactuer Ballance Agri-Nutrients is taking on the chin a $60,000 fine for illegally discharging sulphur dioxide into the air at Mount Maunganui last year.
View ArticleBeat-the-heat beans could keep feeding millions
By ALEX KIRBY.- Scientists believe they may have found how to safeguard a staple tropical crop, on which hundreds of millions of people depend, from the depredations of climate change.
View ArticleHi-tech farming seen as way to green the food chain
Connected agriculture - from farm to retail - has been promoted at an event in Brussels as the way to wean European agriculture off its addiction to chemicals, water and fossil fuels.
View ArticleIndustrial corn farming is ruining health and water
By DONALD SCAVIA.- A taxic algae outbreak last year in Ohio's Lake Erie shut down the water supply for almost half a million people in Toledo and the surrounding suburbs.
View ArticleMore cows means double the gas emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions from dairy cows in New Zealand have more than doubled since 1990.
View ArticleMinister happy with dairying emissions progress
The dairy industry is making progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Government says.
View ArticleThe word is out ... dairying costs more than income
Research claiming New Zealand's dairy industry could be costing the country more than it is making it has been published in an international science journal.
View ArticleMeat processor aims high to curb emissions
One of the world's largest processors of sheep meat, Alliance Group Limited, aims to reduce carbon emissions by 3300 tonnes over the next three years.
View ArticleYou asked for it ... organic milk heads for the shops
Anchor is launching a new nationwide line of organic milk on the back of strong demand.
View ArticleYou must find a way, academics tell farmers
Farmers must find ways of farming more sustainably while maintaining production, warns the Foundation for Arable Research.
View ArticleFarmers hold the key to nature conservation ... so give them a break
By FALKO BUSCHKE.- The town of Bethlehem in the Free State Province, South Africa, gets its name from the Hebrew words "Beit lechem" - house of bread. It is a fitting name for a town nestled within a...
View ArticleFarmers given early warning about hungry crop pest
By TIM RADFORD.- It is small, bright green and an unwelcome visitor. But global warming means that this particular agricultural menace arrives earlier than ever − and consumes more than ever.
View ArticleWe're overdoing farm fertilisers, says report
Nitrogen and phosphorus application rates in parts of New Zealand are exceeding known safe limits, a new report shows.
View ArticleCoffee drinkers beware, your brew will change with the climate
By ALESSANDRO CRAPARO.- We have known for some time that coffee is a climate-sensitive crop. Now we have the first global evidence that increasing minimum, or night-time, temperatures are having the...
View ArticleClean-green brand not working overseas, says report
Many overseas consumers are unaware their food originates in New Zealand, undermining attempts to promote our "clean and green" and premium brand image, a new study finds.
View ArticleHow modern crops can ensure food security in a heatwave
By NIGEL PAUL.- India's heatwave again highlights just how seriously extreme weather conditions threaten our ability to put sufficient nutritious food on all our plates.
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