Vital Farms sells the most humane eggs in the business, with hens raised on pasture—not inside cages. But can conventional farms afford to make the switch?
EcocentricFood
agriculture
EcocentricFood
EcocentricFood
Can GM Crops Bust the Drought?
The drought is eating away at U.S. crops—and climate change could make it worse in the future. Are GM crops an answer?
EcocentricEcocentric
How the Drought of 2012 Will Make Your Food More Expensive
They call drought the slow-motion disaster, and for good reason. While earthquakes and volcanoes strike in a moment, and hurricanes unfold over a few days, a drought is simply a day without rain that becomes two days without …
EcocentricFood
Rising Temperatures and Drought Create Fears of a New Dust Bowl
Triple-digit days. Weeks with little to no rain. Soil crumbling away. Stunted corn stalks. Right now the fertile fields of the U.S. Midwest are experiencing corn-killing weather, with parts of five corn-growing states in the …
EcocentricFood
Whole Food Blues: Why Organic Agriculture May Not Be So Sustainable
When it comes to energy, everyone loves efficiency. Cutting energy waste is one of those goals that both sides of the political divide can agree on, even if they sometimes diverge on how best to get there. Energy efficiency …
EcocentricWildlife
What’s the Buzz: Study Links Pesticide With Honeybee Collapse
Colony collapse disorder (CCD)—the sudden and massive die-off of honeybees—has emerged as one of the most mysterious ecological disasters of the past several years, and one of the most expensive. Around the middle of the last …
EcocentricWeather
How to Make Crops Flood-Proof
Water is a fact of life in Thailand and its capital of Bangkok, where one of the easiest ways to get around the traffic-clogged megacity is on water taxis. This is a country, after all, that celebrates a water festival—involving some serious Super Soakers—every year. But weeks of rains have caused the worst floods Thailand has …
EcocentricHurricanes
Sticker Shock: What Extreme Weather Costs the U.S.
It’s not hard to imagine the damage weird weather inflicts on our planet. Hurricane Katrina, for example, obliterated coastal communities, wiped out businesses and left hundreds of dead bodies in its wake. Quantifying the cost of such a one-off (we hope) event is pretty easy too: Katrina left us with a bill of $81 billion, …
EcocentricFood
Tropical Hotspots Face Food Woes in a Warmer World
Thanks to the spring from hell—in the U.S., at least—much of the concern about climate change has shifted to the fear of the violent weather that could become the norm in a warmer world. (See Sharon Begley’s sobering take in Newsweek.) But while tornadoes and hurricanes and floods may get our attention, the greater threat from …
EcocentricHurricanes
After Levee Blast, More Rough Water Ahead
In the middle of the night on Tuesday, in a hotly contested move, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blasted open a two-mile long hole in a levee along the Mississippi River, sending the rain-swollen waterway gushing over 100,000 acres of Missouri farmland. The flooded area – sparsely populated but fertile farmland – has long been …