Tagged With: agriculture
How genetics can reduce the threat from the world’s changing diet
Rebecca Nesbit is an ecologist, blogger and author of Is that Fish in your Tomato?, exploring the opportunities and risks of genetically modified foods. A trip to the supermarket gives me cheap and easy access to foods which would have been alien to my grandparents, and walking past food shops in London suburbs often introduces … Continue reading
How will environmental policy change post-Brexit?
“To protect nature, we need targets, investment and accountability, not grand promises with zero detail,” said activist lawyer and ClientEarth chief executive James Thornton to BBC News last week. He expressed his disappointment with yet another delay of the publication of a 25 year plan for England’s nature, a draft of which has been seen … Continue reading
Helping urban agriculture take root
Sam Lane AMRSB looks at some of the technologies and policies that will help cities grow their own food. What if I told you there was a way to meet growing demands for food security, reduce causes of climate change, shrink supply chains and improve public health? Well, some think that urban agriculture might just … Continue reading
What is dining going to look like in the future?
By Professor Les Firbank FRSB, University of Leeds. Professor Firbank is speaking on the expert panel at today’s Come Dine With The Future event, organised by the RSB and NRN-LCEE in Cardiff. We know that our meals change over time; we are now offered a range of dishes far greater than at any time in history. For tonight’s … Continue reading
Targeting Antimicrobial Resistance
By Josephine Hellberg MRSB, DPhil Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics student at the University of Oxford and science policy intern at the Royal Society of Biology. Take part in a tweetchat on AMR from 15:00 – 16:00 GMT on Friday 18th November by following and tweeting with #AntibioticFuture This week is World Antibiotic Awareness Week 2016; which … Continue reading
Tackling the Global Food Crisis at the NI Science Festival
By Anna Holderbaum, Marie Curie early stage researcher at the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast Staged at Belfast’s historical St. George’s Market, ‘The Hungry Games’ (February 2016) attracted young and old to learn about important facts and get advice about nutrition, not only in relation to the impact on our health … Continue reading
The ‘EU effect’ on our environment
Opinion piece by Matt Turley AMRSB, NERC-funded PhD student at the University of Brighton and policy intern at the Royal Society of Biology A panel debate held this week by WWF-UK, RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts, following the release of their commissioned report by the Institute for European Environmental Policy, aimed to draw attention to … Continue reading
Bovine TB – should we kill the badgers?
Opinion piece by Professor Nigel Brown FRSB, President of the Microbiology Society. The control of bovine TB (bTB) in farm animals is complex. We have heard a lot about the role of badgers as a reservoir of bTB, which is then transmitted to cattle. This is the argument for culling badgers and several trials have … Continue reading
Zfarming and creative use of land
Today the latest edition of The Biologist has arrived with Society of Biology members. Inspired by the article Running out of Land, Rebecca Nesbit considers some options for agriculture. Less than a third of Earth’s surface is land, yet only 18% of this is suitable for agriculture. Given the size of the human population, it’s … Continue reading
The search for sustainable fish oil
Rebecca Nesbit, press officer at the Society of Biology, attended an open event at Rothamsted Research to learn about producing fish oils from genetically modified camelina. Strategies to protect the marine environment range from fishing quotas to using concrete blocks as artificial reefs. Now, a field in Hertfordshire is the surprising home of an experiment … Continue reading