Food and Agriculture

For the first time, researchers have found the presence of additives found in vehicle tires in leafy crops grown for human consumption. While residues from other substances, such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products, have been detected previously, there has been no investigation into how pollution from car tires may affect food, the authors noted. […]

A new study by researchers at University of Michigan (UMichigan) has concluded that almost half of food waste globally — roughly 620 million metric tons — could be saved by food supply chains being fully refrigerated. Each year, approximately a third of worldwide food production goes to waste, a press release from UMichigan said. Meanwhile, […]

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has found that as much as half of the natural pasture land on Earth has been degraded by the impacts of climate change and overexploitation, putting a sixth of the planet’s food supplies at risk. The new UNCCD report — Global Land Outlook Thematic Report on Rangelands […]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced a ban on the selling and distribution of lab-grown meat in the state, the first law of its kind in the United States. With the ban, DeSantis said he would be saving beef from the “global elite,” reported BBC News. “Today, Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s […]

A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has found that Tyson Foods dumped hundreds of millions of pounds of pollutants into U.S. waterways from 2018 to 2022. The pollutants came from company facilities including slaughterhouses and processing plants. UCS analyzed publicly available data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and found […]

A new report from Consumer Reports has found pesticide residue at levels that posed significant risks on about 20% of the foods analyzed. Among the foods with the highest risks are popular produce like strawberries, green beans and potatoes. Consumer Reports evaluated 59 common produce items using seven years’ worth of data from the U.S. […]

April 17 is International Bat Appreciation Day! In celebration of these sometimes unsung nocturnal pollinators, a new study has demonstrated how bats can be allies of agriculture, as they feed on important crop “pests.” The researchers found that encouraging bats can be beneficial for conservation efforts, as well as local farmers, a press release from […]

Humans have an enormous impact on planet Earth, but from both an animal welfare and an environmental perspective, perhaps nothing is more important than our diets. In 2022, more than 82 billion livestock animals were slaughtered for meat, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States, with the majority of those animals […]