Green Revolution's diet of big carbon savings

BBC News, June 14, 2010

The Green Revolution of the 1960s raised crop yields and cut hunger - and also saved decades worth of greenhouse gas emissions, a study concludes. US researchers found cumulative global emissions since 1850 would have been one third as much again without the Green Revolution's higher yields.Although modern farming uses more energy and chemicals, much less land needs to be cleared.The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read more...

Commission delays water saving obligations for farmers

Euractiv, July 16, 2008

The Commission has rejected the notion that farmers should implement river basin management schemes in exchange for agricultural subsidies, despite increasing fears over water shortages and droughts.
As part of the so-called "health check" of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Commission proposed a number of amendments to the rules governing how farmers can receive subsidies. Among these are a number of cross-compliance measures whereby in order to receive direct payments, farmers have to meet certain environmental, food safety, animal health and welfare standards. Read more...

Farmers defend pesticides in face of rising food prices

EurActiv, April 28, 2008

Agricultural scientists have called for a wide array of pesticides to be maintained, saying fewer of them will lead to more resistant pests. The move follows a vote by the European Parliament last year to ban more chemical substances in the products. In October last year, the European Parliament voted to extend a proposed list of substances to be banned from use in EU pesticide production (EurActiv 24/10/07), including substances that cause cancer, disrupt the endocrine system of humans or are harmful to reproductive health. It was expanded by Parliament to include those that are potentially toxic to the immune system (immunotoxic) or the nervous system (neurotoxic). Read more...

Paying Farmers to Protect the Planet is Future: U.N.

ENN, November 15, 2007

Paying farmers to protect the environment -- rather than just for their produce -- will be an important way to ensure a rapidly increasing demand for food does not destroy the planet, a U.N. agency said on Thursday.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said paying for "environmental services" is set to be an important way to link two of humanity's greatest challenges: beating poverty and safeguarding the environment.
"(Farming) has the potential to degrade the Earth's land, water, atmosphere and biological resources -- or to enhance them -- depending on the decisions made by the more than 2 billion people whose livelihoods depend directly on crops, livestock, fisheries or forests," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. "Ensuring appropriate incentives for these people is essential," he said in his foreword to the agency's annual report "The State of Food and Agriculture" which focused on environmental payments. Read more...