- Author: Diane Nelson
Pop quiz: About 7 billion people live on earth today, and that number is expected to hit 9 billion by 2050. That’s a lot of mouths to feed. What’s the best way to reform our global food production to meet the rising demand?
- Invest in technology, plant breeding, soil science and seed genetics to make our finite farm land more productive.
- Increase sustainability, so farm land can remain productive in the future.
- Encourage more people to get into farming.
- Help farmers manage climate change, water supply and pest control.
- All of the above and a whole lot more.
Yep, the answer is e. All of the above and a whole lot more. Many of the challenges...
- Author: Ann King Filmer
Food prepared at home is slowly getting healthier, but food prepared away from home is not, according to a new study by the USDA Economic Research Service.
- Food prepared away from home accounts for 32 percent of Americans’ caloric intake and 41 percent of food expenditures. (Food prepared away from home includes restaurants, fast-food establishments, and take-out or delivery meals.)
- Americans increased their away-from-home share of calories from 18 percent to 32 percent in the last three decades, mainly from table-service and fast-food restaurants.
- Caloric intake rose over the last three...
- Author: Brenda Dawson
What if you could significantly improve the nutritional quality of your diet, just by switching one of the vegetables you eat every day?
In parts of Africa, some people are doing just that by switching from yellow or white sweet potatoes to orange-fleshed varieties.
In many African countries, sweet potatoes are a common staple—though not the orange-fleshed varieties I’m used to finding on the Thanksgiving table.
That orange color signifies the potato’s beta-carotene content, which our bodies convert to vitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children and is crucial to the survival of...
- Author: Ann King Filmer
While many of us cherish the mystique of popping a wine cork, screw caps are becoming more commonplace in the wine industry. Half a century ago, screw caps were associated with cheap rotgut wine, but now they have replaced corks in many premium wines and at many of the world’s best wineries.
Wine bottles are sealed primarily in three ways — natural corks, synthetic corks or screw caps. All have their advantages and disadvantages, and most certainly their proponents and opponents. While synthetic corks never gained much of a foothold in the wine industry, screw caps are being studied more frequently for their efficacy and quality.
While screw caps were originally thought to be airtight, resulting in the...
- Author: Ann King Filmer
Nutrition, food security and sufficient family incomes are challenges in many parts of the world. Half the world’s people live in rural areas in developing countries. Because hunger and malnutrition are often linked to poverty, providing economic opportunities through horticultural production not only helps family incomes, but also addresses food security and nutrition. Training women to produce and market horticultural crops in the developing world also helps provide a much-needed income stream for families with children.
UC Davis is addressing food security and economic development in Africa, Southeast Asia, Central America, and elsewhere, by coordinating an...
