CORTELEONA E GENZONE, Italy — One of Giovanni Airoli’s sows tested positive for African swine fever in late August. Within a week, all 6,200 sows, piglets and fattening pigs on his farm south of Milan were slaughtered under strict protocols to halt the disease threatening Italy’s 20 billion euro prosciutto, cured sausage and pork industry. … Read more
BENGALURU, India — Unpredictable rains and increasing heat aren’t just making life more difficult for the people of Rayanpet, a village in India’s arid south. They’re also taking a toll on the thousands of acres of rice grown here. “We used to know when it would rain and for how long and we sowed our … Read more
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at a farm, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in Smithton, Pennsylvania. Alex Brandon | AP Former President Donald Trump on Monday threatened John Deere with a 200% tariff if the agricultural manufacturer moves production to factories in Mexico. “They’ve announced a few days ago … Read more
South Australian dairy producer Beston Global Food Company said it had experienced “a perfect storm of adverse events” prompting it to go into voluntary administration. The company is one of the largest exporters of dairy products from South Australia, employing 159 people in the state. It is well known for award-winning cheese products, whey, and … Read more
For example, two winters’ worth of snow followed by intense heat created a flood risk in 2023. State officials decided to release water from Lake Oroville and other reservoirs across Southern California and the Central Valley. Although this helped prevent flooding and sent water downstream, many Californians were upset that the fresh water was being … Read more
K0TWA, Zimbabwe — Since childhood, Loveness Bhitoni has collected fruit from the gigantic baobab trees surrounding her homestead in Zimbabwe to add variety to the family’s staple corn and millet diet. The 50-year-old Bhitoni never saw them as a source of cash, until now. Climate change-induced droughts have decimated her crops. Meanwhile, the world has … Read more
The amount and proportion of the powerful heat-trapping gas methane that humans spew into the atmosphere is rising, helping to turbocharge climate change, a new study finds. Tuesday’s study finds that in 2020, the last year complete data is available, the world put 670 million tons (608 million metric tons) of methane in the air, … Read more
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Climate change is stressing rainforests where the highly sensitive cocoa bean grows, but chocolate lovers need not despair, say companies that are researching other ways to grow cocoa or develop cocoa substitutes. Scientists and entrepreneurs are working on ways to make more cocoa that stretch well beyond the tropics, from Northern … Read more
Florida’s ban on cultivated meat is being challenged in federal court in a lawsuit that was filed yesterday. The case is being brought by the cultivated meat firm Upside Foods and the Institute of Justice (IJ), a nonprofit public interest law firm. Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed the legislation making the sale of cultivated meat … Read more
The plant-based meat industry is in a bad place. Sales in the US fell last year as the pandemic-era enthusiasm for vegan burgers and sausages continued to wane. Beyond Meat, once the darling of the plant-based boom and the first one of its cohort to go public, in 2019, has become a cautionary tale about … Read more
