Via Wall Street Journal, an article on how China’s expanding renewable energy sector is encroaching on cropland: China installed more solar-power capacity last year than the U.S. has built in its history. Now Beijing is worried that the push may have gone too far in some places as solar farms encroach on cropland, undermining leader Xi Jinping’s goal […]
Read more »Via Observer Research Foundation, a look at the UAE’s and Saudi Arabia’s agricultural diplomacy in Africa: With scarce arable land and water resources, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia depend heavily on food imports, as do other Gulf countries. The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine war, and negative impacts of climate change […]
Read more »Via Australian Strategic Policy Institute, commentary on the link between food security and national security: Australia’s food security should not be taken for granted. The Covid-19 pandemic shows what can go wrong with it during seismic strategic challenges. January’s empty supermarket shelves across Darwin, caused by flooding, illustrate the precarious nature of food security even […]
Read more »Via African Arguments, a look at how land grabbing is not just back with a vengeance. It is taking on new guises such as carbon offsets, green hydrogen schemes, and other “green grabs”: In recent years, Africa has been at the epicentre of an alarming global trend: the land squeeze. The 2007-8 global financial crisis unleashed […]
Read more »Courtesy of The Financial Times, a report on the over-reliance and pending constraint of Russia fertilizer on European agriculture: Europe is “sleep walking” into becoming dependent on Russian fertiliser, just as it did with gas, says one of the largest producers of crop nutrients. Nitrogen fertilisers, which are important to plant growth, are made using […]
Read more »Via Fast Company, a look at the dark side of solar power: Some of America’s most productive farmland is at risk: Dave Duttlinger’s first thought when he saw a dense band of yellowish-brown dust smearing the sky above his Indiana farm was: I warned them this would happen. About 445 acres of his fields near […]
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