CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

Rising food prices could press the poor into hunger, warns Oxfam

This year, hardly a week seems to have gone by without the release of another report on global food systems and food security. Each has a different focus: earlier in May I reported on an FAO report highlighting the problem of food waste, while earlier in the year we published blog articles on reports arguing for agricultural innovation and proposing changes to the global food system. Today's report, from the UK-based development charity Oxfam, has as its main focus rising food prices, and the impacts of climate change and the structure of agricultural production and trade. But all the reports share one common theme: that unless there is radical reform of global food systems, then the pressures of rising populations and prices will lead to more of the world's population going hungry.

Forest biodiversity - The International Day for Biological Diversity 22 May 2011

Forests and forest biodiversity is the theme for this year's International Day of Biodiversity (IDB), on Sunday 22^nd May 2011; because 2011 is also the International Year of Forests. This is also the year the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) launched the official Decade on Biological Diversity website.

Prostate cancer prevention – why do posters target women?

All of a sudden I’m seeing public health posters everywhere- about symptoms of bowel cancer and prostate cancer. The second one was a bit odd, as it’s a man’s disease but the poster was in the ladies toilets. And it was aimed at women. Why? Are there posters about breast cancer prevention in the men’s loo? I’m told not.

The impression this poster gave me is that men need their wives/girlfriends/mothers to look after their health. Wouldn’t it be better if men took responsibility themselves? Why don’t they?

Developing crops for mild drought tolerance

Whilst we continue to have no rain in southern England (I’m sure this won’t last too long…), drought tolerance must be on the mind of many farmers. World reports on climate change and food security have identified water scarcity as a critical factor for agriculture this century. Breeding for drought tolerance is a major research aim and there have been some successes using both conventional breeding and genetic engineering. Over the last 12 months for instance, new drought-tolerant maize varieties produced by conventional breeding have been released which have shown increases in seed yields of between 5 and 15% under water-stressed field conditions.

Drought tolerance is a complex area. Crops which can withstand severe drought may not perform well under conditions of mild or no drought; the response to drought is intricately woven with other conditions such as soil nutrients, soil quality, temperature and other environmental stresses; physiological responses of plants to increase their water use efficiency depend on the development stage of the crop; and thanks to these complex interactions several hundred genes have been identified which control or modify drought response.

Most research has focused on developing crops for severe drought stress, but new studies published in Nature Biotechnology and Plant Cell focus on the physiological responses of plants to mild drought stress. The team from the University of Gent has identified a mechanism that can be used to develop crop varieties which will produce high yields under mild drought stress, more commonly found in temperate climates. In trials with the test plant Arabidopsis, ethylene inhibited leaf growth at the first sign of limited water availability, and growth resumed after water became available. Overcoming this reaction could lead to crops which keep on growing during mild and temporary spells of drought that occur in the field, avoiding unnecessary yield losses and higher crop productivity.

As an indication of the amount of research, the number of records on “drought resistance” in CAB Direct has increased steadily every year - from one paper (in 1924!) to almost 1000 papers published in 2010. And just to prove the value of older research, the one paper from 1924 is surprisingly topical:
Clark, J. A. Segregation and correlated inheritance in crosses between Kota and Hard Federation wheats for rust and drought resistance. Journal of Agricultural Research, 1924, 29:1, pp 1-45.

Burning issues – Will a changing climate increase the incidence of wild fires?

Are wildfires going to be a common occurrence due to global warming and climate change? This is a subject discussed in a report presented this week at the 5th International Wildland Fire Conference in Sun City, South Africa. The report, entitled "Findings and Implications from a Coarse-Scale Global Assessment of Recent Selected Mega-Fires", examined recent fires in Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Indonesia, Israel, Greece, Russia, and the United States.

Food prices soaring, but a third is still lost or wasted: what can be done?

Food prices, along with the cost of energy, are one of the main current drivers of inflation around the world. Bloomberg reported last week that world food prices reached near-record levels in April, with corn prices almost doubling in the last 12 months and wheat prices going up by 57% in the same period. With the global population still rising, and changing patterns of consumption in countries such as China making supply of many food commodities struggle to keep up with demand, it therefore makes depressing reading to see that around a third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. And in developed countries, much of that figure is simply down to waste.

The figures come from a study commissioned by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and compiled by the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology. The report finds that an astonishing 1.3 billion tonnes of food gets lost or wasted each year. Roughly equal amounts are dissipated by industrialized and developing countries (670 and 630 million tonnes, respectively), but from different reasons. In industrialized countries, large amounts of food simply go to waste, while in developing countries losses are due more to poor infrastructure and technology. Read on to see what can be done.

Deepwater Horizon oil spill one year on - How have birds and marine life been affected?

The process of tallying and logging the harm the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico might have done to wildlife is still underway, one year after the disaster. However, indications are that the spill has not been as catastrophic as the worst predictions, but dead animals are still washing up on beaches.