NewsTrust - Food - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

A Coming Food Crisis?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

National Public Radio - By Daniel Costello - Nov. 23 (News Analysis) - After decades of decline, the number of undernourished people around the world has risen 20% since the middle of the last decade and the trend is expected to continue for many years even with a new global intervention.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Is There Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism?

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Andrew Rice - Nov. 22 (Special Report) - Fearing food shortages, investors from wealthy countries are snapping up land in poor countries to grow food there. Is this development or exploitation?

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Study raises more doubts about cholesterol drugs Zetia, Vytorin

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Lyndsey Layton - Nov. 21 (News Report) - A widely prescribed and expensive cholesterol drug does not unclog arteries as effectively as a modified version of Vitamin B3, a cheap alternative used to treat heart disease for decades, according to a new study.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

World on course for catastrophic 6 degree C rise, reveal scientists

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Steve Connor, Michael McCarthy - Nov. 18 (News Report) - The world is now firmly on course for the worst-case scenario in terms of climate change, with average global temperatures rising by up to 6C by the end of the century, leading scientists said yesterday. Such a rise – which would be much higher nearer the poles – would have cataclysmic and irreversible consequences for the Earth, making large parts of the planet uninhabitable and threatening the basis of human civilisation.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Report: More Americans going hungry

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Amy Goldstein - Nov. 17 (News Report) - The number of Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food shot up last year to 49 million, the largest number since the government has been keeping track, according to a government report released Monday that shows particularly steep increases in food scarcity among families with children.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Lard Lesson: Why Fat Lubricates Your Appetite

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Frederik Joelving - Oct. 20 (News Report) - When you've spent the weekend splurging on greasy fast foods, your bathroom scale isn't alone in reeling from the impact. Your brain does, too. New research shows just how saturated fat tricks us into eating more and elucidates the evolutionary basis for the propensity for poundage in developed nations. Our brain physiology, it seems, is glaringly out-of-date in the modern world.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Mie fish farm admits using hormone disrupter

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Japan Times - Oct. 04 (News Report) - A fishery cooperative in Owase, Mie Prefecture, halted virtually all shipments of its farmed fish after learning that a farm in the region used a banned hormone disrupter as a parasite repellent, the cooperative said Saturday.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Supermarkets get cold feet over fridge doors

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Fred Pearce - Oct. 01 (News Analysis) - What's the biggest and easiest thing that supermarkets could do to cut their energy bills and reduce their carbon footprint? They all know the answer. Put doors on their fridges.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Male bass in many rivers feminized

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Seth Borenstein - Sep. 15 (News Report) - Government scientists figure that one out of five male black bass in American river basins have egg cells growing inside their sexual organs, a sign of how widespread fish feminizing has become. The findings come from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in its first comprehensive examination of intersex fish in America, a problem linked to women's birth-control pills and other hormone treatments that seep into rivers.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

North Sea cod 'doomed by climate change'

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Times - By Simon de Bruxelles - Sep. 10 (News Report) - Cod are doomed to disappear from the North Sea because of climate change and not just as a result of over-fishing, researchers have discovered. In the past 40 years the average temperature of the North Sea has increased by 1C with catastrophic effects on its delicate eco-systems. Species of plankton, on which cod larvae feed, have moved away in search of cooler waters.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Delhi doesn't want to pay for climate change, but it's already bearing the costs

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Globe and Mail - By Stephanie Nolen - Sep. 09 (Special Report) - “But this year, the tree flowered in December. Even people who are 80 or 90 years old in my village say they have never known this to happen. And everyone is scared.” There is more to be afraid of than just one wonky flowering tree and its gods: Their environment has gone crazy altogether.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Lush Land Dries Up, Withering Kenya’s Hopes

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jeffrey Gettleman - Sep. 08 (News Report) - A devastating drought is sweeping across Kenya, imperiling agriculture and tourism as well as spawning ethnic conflict in the hinterland.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The cupcake boom is here. The cupcake crash is coming.

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Daniel Gross - Sep. 04 (News Analysis) - In recent years, the response to a popped economic bubble has been to create a new one. The pierced dot-com/telecommunications bubble paved the way for the housing/credit bubble. That punctured bubble may be giving way to an alternative energy bubble. But I've got my eyes on a smaller, but no less revealing, one: the Cupcake Bubble.[more ...]

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Feeding the future: Saving agricultural biodiversity

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - Sep. 04 (Special Report) - Thanks to a new $116 million global fund established this summer, the Quechua Indians are being paid to maintain their diverse collection of rare potatoes and ensure that they will be available to help the world adapt to future climate change. The Quechua are one of 11 communities around the world, chosen for the important collection of crops they farm, which together are part of a major new initiative to ensure that the world has the options it might need to cope with future food crises.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Scientists discover virus that could explain drop in bee population

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Times - By Mark Henderson - Aug. 26 (News Report) - The research, by a team at the University of Illinois and the US Department of Agriculture, has indicated that a group of viruses called the picorna-like viruses are likely to be involved, though they may not be the only cause. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists examined the way genes were switched on and off in the guts of bees from hives that later fell victim to CCD.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Expanding waistlines may cause shrinking brains

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Scientist - By Nora Schultz - Aug. 23 (Special Report) - Brain regions important for cognition are smaller in obese older people, making their brains look up to 16 years older than they are. As brain shrinkage is linked to dementia, this adds weight to the suspicion that piling on the pounds may up a person's risk of the brain condition.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Time - By Bryan Walsh - Aug. 23 (Special Report) - The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices. But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans. Those hidden prices are the creeping erosion of our fertile farmland, cages for egg-laying chickens so packed that the birds can't even raise their wings and the scary rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria among farm animals. Add to the price tag the acceleration of global warming — our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Nile Delta: 'We are going underwater. The sea will conquer our lands'

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Jack Shenker - Aug. 21 (News Report) - "Egypt is a graveyard for occupiers," observes Ramadan el-Atr, a fruit farmer near the antiquated town of Rosetta, where authorities have contracted a Chinese company to build a huge wall of concrete blocks in the ocean to try to save any more land from melting away. "Just like the others, the sea will come and go – but we will always survive." Scientists aren't so sure.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Asia facing unprecedented food shortage, UN report says

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By John Vidal - Aug. 17 (Special Report) - But the extra 1.5 billion people expected to live on the continent by 2050 will double Asia's demand for food, says the report from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Bank-funded International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Should Fat People Pay More for Health Care?

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Leonhardt - Aug. 16 (Special Report) - The debate over health care reform has so far revolved around how insurers, drug companies, doctors, nurses and government technocrats might be persuaded to change their behavior. And for the sake of the economy and the federal budget, they do need to change their behavior. But there has been far less discussion about how the rest of us might also change our behavior. It’s as if we have little responsibility for our own health. We instead outsource it to something called the health care system.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

India's Groundwater Disappearing at Alarming Rate

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Science - By Richard A. Kerr - Aug. 10 (Special Report) - For the first time, satellite remote sensing of a 2000-kilometer swath running from eastern Pakistan across northern India and into Bangladesh has put a solid number on how quickly the region is depleting its groundwater. The number "is big," says hydrologist James Famiglietti of the University of California, Irvine--big as in 54 cubic kilometers of groundwater lost per year from the world's most intensively irrigated region hosting 600 million people. "I don't think anybody knew how quickly it was being depleted over that large an area."

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Wish you weren't here: The devastating effects of the new colonialists

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - Aug. 08 (Special Report) - A new breed of colonialism is rampaging across the world, with rich nations buying up the natural resources of developing countries that can ill afford to sell. Some staggering deals have already been done, says Paul Vallely, but angry locals are now trying to stop the landgrabs.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Uproar over study on organic food

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Maureen O'Hagan - Aug. 05 (News Report) - Health-food advocates are up in arms after a new comprehensive British study concluded that organic food isn't more nutritious than conventionally grown food. Many say it's not so much about what's in the food; it's about what isn't.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Modified corn seeds sow doubts

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Globe and Mail - By Martin Mittelstaedt - Aug. 04 (News Report) - With so much crammed into one seed, the modified corn will be able to confer multiple benefits, such as resistance to corn borers and rootworms, two caterpillar-like pests that infest the valuable grain crop, as well as withstanding applications of glyphosate, a weed killer better known by its commercial name, Roundup. But a controversy has arisen over the new seeds, which were approved for use last month by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency: Health Canada hasn't assessed their safety.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Lawmakers, Enviros Maneuver in Last-Gasp Bid to Block Deepwater Aquaculture

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Allison Winter - Aug. 03 (News Report) - With a deadline looming for approval of a federal plan that would open the Gulf of Mexico to deepwater fish farming, House lawmakers and conservationists are plotting strategies to block such offshore ventures until Congress creates a system to regulate them.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer