Agriculture and Food Security

Thai soldiers wearing biohazard suits take part as cleaning operations continue at Ao Prao Beach on Koh Samet, Rayong July 31, 2013. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

reuters.com - by Amy Sawitta Lefevre - July 30, 2013

(Reuters) - An oil spill that has blackened beaches at a Thai holiday island was having an extreme impact on tourism and could spread to the coast of the mainland and affect the fishing industry, officials and an environmental group said on Tuesday.

Tourists were pouring off the island of Koh Samet, 230 km (142 miles) southeast of Bangkok, while soldiers and volunteers in white bio-hazard suits struggled to clear black oily sludge off the white sand.

"We're working to move visitors to other locations if they want to move," Tourism Minister Somsak Phurisisak told reporters.

"I'm very concerned, I didn't think this spill would impact tourism in such an extreme way."

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earth-policy.org

Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity

Chapter 4. Food or Fuel?

by Lester R. Brown

At the time of the Arab oil export embargo in the 1970s, the importing countries were beginning to ask themselves if there were alternatives to oil. In a number of countries, particularly the United States, several in Europe, and Brazil, the idea of growing crops to produce fuel for cars was appealing. The modern biofuels industry was launched. 1

This was the beginning of what would become one of the great tragedies of history.

Chapter 4. Food or Fuel?
http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep/fpepch4

Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity
http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep

( ALSO SEE - http://resiliencesystem.org/chapter-5-eroding-soils-darkening-our-future-full-planet-empty-plates-new-geopolitics-food-scarcity )

A woman sells cassava at a roadside market north of Uganda's capital, Kampala. Also known as manioc of yuca, cassave withstands heat, drought and flooding. Ugandans tend to grow it in small plots for family consumption during lean times. (Photo: Jon Miller/Homelands Productions)

submitted by Albert Gomez

theworld.org - by Jon Miller - June 13, 2013

Cassava is a vital staple in Africa and one of the most climate-resilient crops anywhere. It’s also highly susceptible to viral diseases. In Uganda, scientists are testing a virus-resistant transgenic variety, which they hope to introduce for free. But it’s run into a buzzsaw of hostility to genetically modified foods. Can this—or any—GMO succeed in the face of such determined opposition? Should it?

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Image: Chart showing that farmed fish production is overtaking beed production

earth-policy.org - June 12th, 2013 - Janet Larsen and J. Matthew Roney

The world quietly reached a milestone in the evolution of the human diet in 2011. For the first time in modern history, world farmed fish production topped beef production. The gap widened in 2012, with output from fish farming—also called aquaculture—reaching a record 66 million tons, compared with production of beef at 63 million tons.

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