Topic description and stories

Fish bellies, fava beans & food security

05 Apr 2024

Cambridge Zero and Cambridge Global Food Security gather academics and experts to share solutions for the planet’s looming food production problem.

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Naked Clams in wooden growth panel

Innovative aquaculture system turns waste wood into nutritious seafood

20 Nov 2023

Researchers hoping to rebrand a marine pest as a nutritious food have developed the world’s first system of farming shipworms, which they have...

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Cattle herd in the Amazon

Companies’ zero-deforestation commitments have potential to halve cattle-driven deforestation in Brazilian Amazon

20 Apr 2023

Study shows better adoption and implementation of company supply chain policies for Brazilian beef and leather could significantly reduce carbon...

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Wheat crops being sprayed with fertiliser

Carbon emissions from fertilisers could be reduced by as much as 80% by 2050

09 Feb 2023

Researchers have calculated the carbon footprint for the full life cycle of fertilisers, which are responsible for approximately five percent of...

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Person checking barley in field

Cambridge-led consortium receives $35m to boost crop production sustainably in sub-Saharan Africa

31 Jan 2023

A Cambridge-led consortium has received US$35m (£28m) over five years to develop sustainable solutions to increasing the yields of small-scale...

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deep fried locusts

The future of farming: from eating insects to urban agriculture 

07 Dec 2022

The Entrepreneurship Centre at Cambridge Judge Business School is supporting new ventures to improve sustainability in agriculture to meet the...

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Barley trial crop in field

Crop Science Centre to conduct field trials of genetically modified barley that could reduce need for synthetic fertilisers

23 Mar 2022

Trials will evaluate whether enhancing the natural capacity of crops to interact with common soil fungi can contribute to more sustainable, equitable...

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Wheat fields

Relocating farmland could turn back clock twenty years on carbon emissions

10 Mar 2022

Scientists have produced a map showing where the world’s major food crops should be grown to maximise yield and minimise environmental impact. This...

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Cells of roots colonised by fungi turn red

Blushing plants reveal when fungi are growing in their roots

23 Jul 2021

Scientists have created plants whose cells and tissues ‘blush’ with beetroot pigments when they are colonised by fungi that help them take up...

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Peters' wrinkle-lipped bat. Courtesy of Adrià López-Baucells

Bats to the rescue

13 Dec 2018

A new study shows that bats are giving Madagascar’s rice farmers a vital pest control service by feasting on plagues of insects. And this, a...

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Harvest

‘High-yield’ farming costs the environment less than previously thought – and could help spare habitats

14 Sep 2018

New findings suggest that more intensive agriculture might be the “least bad” option for feeding the world while saving its species – provided use of...

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Pigs eating swill at Stepney City Farm

Feeding food waste to pigs could save vast swathes of threatened forest and savannah

10 Dec 2015

New research suggests that feeding our food waste, or swill, to pigs (currently banned under EU law) could save 1.8 million hectares of global...

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