Agriculture50
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New Program Tackles Climate Threats to Food Security
A new multimillion dollar research program by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research aims to alleviate climate-related threats to the food security, livelihoods and environment of people living in the developing world. One of the key intellectual forces behind this initiative has been the IRI‘s Jim Hansen. He’ll be leading efforts within the program…
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Initiatives to Help Haiti Recover
A new set of web pages describes the Earth Institute’s wide-ranging involvement in helping bring relief to quake-battered Haiti, as well as plans for long-term recovery, and associated environmental and economic issues. One major program, the Haiti Regeneration Initiative involves the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Tropical Agriculture…
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India: Seminar on Increasing Water Efficiency in Agriculture Sector
Government and Industry leaders in India met last week at a national forum on water use in agriculture, organized by the Confederacy of Indian Industry. According to the press release, they were in agreement on the need to link water efficiency with agricultural production.
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Punjab Farmers Adapt to Shrinking Water Supply
Often referred to as the granary of India, Punjab is now slowly drying out. And though many farmers are deeply worried over the prospects of producing enough food, some of the more entrepreneurial ones are adopting new ways to conserve water while bracing for what will be a drier future. Back in the 1970s India…
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Getting Back on Track: Ending Global Hunger and Undernutrition
One of the targets of the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is to reduce the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by half between 1990 and 2015, with hunger measured as the proportion of the population who are undernourished and the prevalence of children under five who are underweight.
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Urbanization, Deforestation, Reforestation
2009 was noted as the first year that more people lived in urban spaces than in rural areas. The hope that a majority urban population would slow the clearing of tropical forests — our most effective carbon sinks — seems, however, to have been misplaced. The idea was simple: if more people moved into forested…
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Bill Gates Visits the Earth Institute
We were thrilled to welcome Bill Gates recently to the Earth Institute for a wide-ranging informational meeting led by director Jeff Sachs. The half-day visit was a lively, frank and open exchange of ideas between Mr. Gates and Earth Institute faculty members debating the challenges and immense opportunities for human development in the areas of…
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Food Miles, Fair Miles
It’s not often that when we purchase food from a bodega or grocery store that we consider where it came from. Is my apple from New York, Washington, or China? Were my tomatoes grown in Florida, California, or Mexico? Whose hands planted and picked them? Why did this planter choose this variety? Wherever our food…
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30 Rock and Responsible Energy Use
NBC’s Green Week 2009 featured an entertaining energy challenge for the characters of 30 Rock, when Jack tasks Kenneth and the office with reducing the show’s energy consumption by five per cent. Here are some highlights of how characters committed to help the cause. Liz Lemon: Agrees to remove the mini fridge from her office…