Environment

Based on a study published last year in Nature, the Stanford School of Sustainability reports that at the current rate, climate change will reduce the yield of staple crops — wheat, corn, soybeans, barley, and cassava — by 24 percent by the end of the century. The exception to staples is rice, which benefits from higher nighttime temperatures. But the lower supply of most staples, combined with higher demand — there continues to be more mouths to feed — means we will pay more for the food we eat.

The Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Association is working to advance agroecological principles and practices in East, Central, and Southern Africa. Their Kenyan chapter, PELUM Kenya, engages in advocacy, networking, knowledge sharing and capacity building to support the country’s smallholder farmers produce food in a way that heals the planet and supports their livelihoods.

In this episode of Battle for African Agriculture, Million Belay speaks with ETC Group researcher Jim Thomas about the powerful shift from GMOs to digital platforms, artificial intelligence, and biodigital technologies. As corporations move from selling inputs to harvesting data, African farmers risk being locked into new systems of dependency disguised as innovation.

By studying Great Gray Owls, scientists hope to help more people see that snags offer vital habitat.

Ecosystem destruction will increase food shortages, disorder and mass migration, with effects already being felt.