• FOOD SECURITYBiosecurity for Food Security

    By Saba Sinai and Andrew Henderson

    Biosecurity is a fundamental enabler for a country’s’ food security, a critical but often overlooked element of national security, and it is time for it to be treated accordingly.

  • FOOD SECURITYU.S. Capable of Achieving Seafood Independence, New Study Shows

    From lobster to haddock and seaweed, seafood plays an important role in the U.S. economy, diet and culture. The nation is one of the top producers of marine and aquatic foods worldwide, but also the second largest seafood importer.

  • FOOD SECURITYCan Florida’s Orange Growers Survive Another Hurricane Season?

    By Ayurella Horn-Muller

    Oranges are synonymous with Florida, but a perfect storm of hurricanes, diseases, and water scarcity threatens to wipe out the state’s famed citrus industry.

  • FOOD SUPPLY SECURITYSafeguarding U.S. Agriculture and Food Supply

    By Dimitri Kusnezov

    DHS S&T conducts research aiming to ensure that U.S. domestic agriculture systems are resilient against disturbances that could cause food shortages, sickness or injuries, and economic crises.

  • FOOD SECURITYTaking Illinois’ Center for Digital Agriculture into the Future

    By Lauren Quinn

    The Center for Digital Agriculture (CDA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a new executive director, John Reid, who plans to support CDA’s growth across all dimensions of use-inspired research, translation of research into practice, and education and workforce development.

  • FOOD SECURITYNorway's Seed Vault Protecting Africa's Food Supply

    By Ludger Schadomsky

    African scientists have preserved precious seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, deep in Norway’s Arctic permafrost. The vault preserves food for disaster scenarios.

  • FOOD SECURITYExperts Warn of Risk of Civil Unrest in U.K. Due to Food Shortages

    Food shortages—especially a shortage of popular carbohydrates such as wheat, bread, pasta, and cereal — caused by extreme weather could lead to civil unrest in the U.K., according to a new study, which has surveyed some of the country’s leading food experts.

  • FOOD SECURITYSecuring the Food Pipeline from Cyberattacks

    By Jesenia Hernandez

    Sensors detecting the amount of food that herds of cattle are eating. Machines taking thousands of photos of fruit per second to detect their defects and sort them by quality. Robots packing fruit and vegetables into bags and boxes for purchase at grocery stores: Researchers are protecting the food and agriculture sector.

  • FOOD SECURITYClimate Intervention Technologies May Create Winners and Losers in World Food Supply

    By Kitta MacPherson

    A technology being studied to curb climate change – one that could be put in place in one or two decades if work on the technology began now – would affect food productivity in parts of planet Earth in dramatically different ways, benefiting some areas, and adversely affecting others.

  • FOOD SECURITYMore U.S. Crops to Require Irrigation

    With climate change, irrigating more crops in the United States will be critical to sustaining future yields, as drought conditions are likely to increase due to warmer temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns. Yet less than 20% of the nation’s croplands are equipped for irrigation.

  • NUCLEAR WINTERNuclear War Would Be More Devastating for Earth’s Climate Than Cold War Predictions – Even with Fewer Weapons

    By Mark Maslin

    A limited nuclear war between India and Pakistan could kill 130 million people and deprive a further 2.5 billion of food for at least two years. A global nuclear war including the US, Europe, and China could result in 360 million people dead and condemn nearly 5.3 billion people to starvation in the two years following the exchange.

  • WATER SECURITYNew Tool Optimizes Irrigation

    By Adam Hadhazy

    A new tool for designing and managing irrigation for farms advances the implementation of smart agriculture, an approach that leverages data and modern technologies to boost crop yields while conserving natural resources.

  • DROUGHTS“Flash Droughts” More Frequent as Climate Warms

    ‘Flash droughts’ have become more frequent due to human-caused climate change, and this trend is predicted to accelerate in a warmer future. Flash droughts, which start and develop rapidly, are becoming ‘the new normal’ for droughts, making forecasting and preparing for their impact more difficult.

  • AGRICULTURE SECURITYIt’s Time to Talk about Food and Agriculture Security

    By Krista Versteeg

    When large scale threats affect food and agriculture supplies, they become matters of national security. Many different threats to our food and agriculture sector exist, and any disruption to the supply chain can cause shortages at your local grocery store and limit the availability of food.

  • FOOD SECURITYPredicting Threats to Food Security

    Pests and diseases remain one of the biggest threats to food production, increasingly destabilizing food security and livelihoods across climate-vulnerable regions around the world,” says one expert. Mathematical modelling can prevent crop devastation and preserve livelihoods.