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Tag Archives: farming
KRUGMAN FLUNKS FOOD—AND HISTORY, BY: DENNIS T. AVERY
Paul Krugman is a big deal: Princeton professor, New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate (2008). Krugman wrote last week about the “food crisis, the second one to hit the world in the last three years.” His key statement: “what really stands out is the extent to which severe weather events have disrupted agricultural production. And these severe weather events are exactly the kind of thing we’d expect to see as rising concentrations of greenhouse gases change our climate—which means that the current food prices surge may be just beginning.” Continue reading
Posted in Latest News
Tagged agriculture, Avery, CGFI, farming, farms, Food, greenhouse, ice age, krugman, weather
1 Comment
MUDDY RIVERS: DON’T BLAME FARMERS, BY: DENNIS T. AVERY
When people hear that I’m an advocate of high yield farming to feed the world and protect the environment, assertions of farm runoff into the rivers are raised to support charges against modern farming methods. Urban dwellers, even some of my rural neighbors, tell me their concerns about large-scale farming ruining our rivers “because the rivers are muddy.” They worry about even more soil erosion as farmers gear up to double food production over the next 40 years to feed a peak population of 9 billion people. Continue reading
Posted in Latest News
Tagged Avery, CGFI, farmers, farming, farming methods, Food, no-till, rural, soil erosion
2 Comments
CITY FARMING—PIGS IN THE SKY?, BY: DENNIS T. AVERY
Green visionary, Dixon Despommier, of Columbia University has proposed growing our food in city high-rises, to cut food transport energy use. The bad news is that city farming would be impossibly expensive—as it always has been. The good news: the high-rise farms will never be built. Continue reading
Posted in Latest News
Tagged Avery, CGFI, city farming, columbia, corn yields, despommier, environment, farming, farms, Food, fruit, grow lights, vegetables
1 Comment
UN MILLENNIUM GOALS FLUNK REALITY CHECK, BY: DENNIS T. AVERY
On the10th birthday of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, officials are lamenting that the world has made little progress in meeting them. No one should be surprised.
Goal # 1 is to cut greenhouse emissions by 50 percent. The UN says this clearly within reach if there’s the “political will.” “Economic death-wish” would be a better term. The UN wants us to give up 85 percent of our energy system, and use expensive, erratic solar and wind that would do little to reduce greenhouse emissions. Continue reading
Posted in Latest News
Tagged agriculture, Avery, CGFI, crops, energy, farming, la nina, organic, power, solar, UN, united nations, wind power
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BIOTECH: TO SURVIVE THE MEGA-DROUGHTS, BY: DENNIS T. AVERY
When, O Lord, will the public turn its back on the ill-founded “concerns” of the Green movement that misinformed us about DDT, salmon extinction, deformed frogs, man-made global warming, and a host of other fake “calamities”? When will we support more high-yield farming research to meet redoubled world food needs in 2050? Especially since the alternative would be to plow down more wild species’ habitat to plant additional low-yield crops. Continue reading
Posted in Latest News
Tagged crops, DDT, drought, droughts, farming, farms, Green, irrigation, salt levels
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Tyrone Hayes—A Frog in His Throat
Dr. Tyrone Hayes of UC Berkeley—in his personal quest to demonize the herbicide atrazine just as a previous generation successfully demonized Alar—gave an encore performance before the EPA’s fourth Scientific Advisory Panel on this subject on Wednesday. Continue reading
HIGHER YIELDS: THE ONLY FARMING ANSWER, BY: DENNIS T. AVERY
Is the Green Movement finally ready to face the global need to triple crop yields over the next 40 years—and drop its dedication to land-selfish organic farming? Maybe yes, and none too soon. The planet’s wild biodiversity is at stake. Continue reading
Posted in Latest News
Tagged Avery, climate, Climate Change, crops, DuPont, earth, environment, environmental, farming, farms, green movement, wildlife
2 Comments
“EXTREME WEATHER”? NOT YET!, BY: DENNIS T. AVERY
The death toll from recent “extreme weather events” has been sharply declining since the 1920s, as my valued colleague Indur Goklany has valorously pointed out. Air conditioning, flood control, earthquake proofing and better weather forecasting have all helped. Despite vast media coverage, extreme weather now causes only a half-percent of global deaths. A large part of the gains came through crop production increases using fossil-fueled industrial fertilizers and irrigation pumps. This meant the world had fossil-fueled food to share with countries suddenly caught by devastating (but short- term) drought or flood. Continue reading
Posted in Latest News
Tagged Avery, CGFI, drought, earthquake, environment, environmental, extreme weather, farm, farming, flood, fossil fuel, Global, ice age, Indur Goklany, weather
2 Comments
CONFINED LIVESTOCK BETTER FOR THE PLANET, BY: DENNIS T. AVERY
Stanford University recently startled the world with its conclusion that conventional high-yield farming is far better for the planet than low-yield farming. And this includes the First World’s current icon, organic farming. We know that high-yield farms need less land to produce the same amount of food, protecting the huge amounts of soil carbon that would be gassed off if we plowed more land for low-yield crops. However, the Stanford study says that high-yield farming may have saved 600 billion tons of CO2 emissions. That’s equal to one-third of the greenhouses gasses emitted from the whole industrial revolution since 1850! Continue reading
Posted in Latest News
Tagged animals, Avery, cattle, CGFI, CO2, crops, dairy, environment, farm, farming, Global Warming, pesticides, stanford
7 Comments
MAKING GOOD SCIENCE DECISIONS, BY: DENNIS T. AVERY
I can’t help but praise Michael Specter’s new book: Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives. Specter warns that we live in a world where the leaders of African nations prefer to let their citizens starve to death rather than import genetically-modified food grains. Childhood vaccines have proven to be the most effective public health measure in history, yet people march on Washington to protest their use. Fifty years ago pharmaceutical companies were regarded as vital supports for our good health and lengthening life spans; now they are seen as callous corporate enemies of health and the environment. Continue reading
Posted in Latest News
Tagged african, Avery, CGFI, climate, crops, environment, farming, farms, first world, Food, foods, science, scientific, specter, third world
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