A monthly update on the Worldwatch Institute's Food and Agriculture program's latest publications, events, and research on environmental, food, and sustainable development topics.
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Featured Report: Worldwatch Report 170
By taking
advantage of the work that healthy watersheds and freshwater ecosystems
perform naturally, cities and rural areas can purify drinking water,
alleviate hunger, mitigate flood damages, and meet other societal goals
at a fraction of the cost of conventional technological alternatives.
But because commercial markets rarely put a price on these "ecosystem
services," and because governments around the world are failing to
protect them, they are being lost at a rapid rate.
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Tweet of the Month
In one Syrian village, a simple drip irrigation project has decreased H2O demand by 30% while boosting yields by 60% http://bit.ly/XrPwb9
March 4, 2013.
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Food and Agriculture Internship
Click here to see how you can participate in an internship with Worldwatch's Food and Agriculture program.
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Dear Naresh,
We
love the official slogan of World Water Day, taking place next Friday:
"water, water everywhere, only if we share." As Worldwatch's Sophie
Wenzlau wrote recently,
water scarcity will surely play a defining role in the 21st century,
but the assumption that "water wars" are inevitable assumes the worst of
people.
In
the last 50 years, there have been only 37 incidents of acute conflict
over water, while during the same period, approximately 295
international water agreements were negotiated and signed. Most national
governments now agree that violence over water is not an economically
or politically viable option.
To
help overcome water scarcity and minimize tension over water use,
farmers and their civil leaders can increase water-use efficiency in
agriculture. Irrigation is currently responsible for 70 percent of the
world's water withdrawals, yet an astonishing 60 percent of irrigated
water is currently wasted.
Farmers
can achieve water-use efficiency gains in a number of ways: by growing a
diverse array of crops suited to local conditions, especially in
drought-prone regions; by practicing agroforestry or growing perennial
crops, to build strong root systems and reduce soil erosion; and by
maintaining healthy soils, either by applying organic fertilizer or
growing cover crops to retain soil moisture.
Read more about the need for increased water-use efficiency here, and our interview with Tilahun Amede, who is working to improve rainwater management in the Nile River Basin, here. Also, keep an eye out for Worldwatch's Vital Signs Online trend on water scarcity, to be released next Tuesday, March 19.
All the best,
Laura Reynolds
Food and Agriculture Program
Worldwatch Institute
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Consumed
by Morocco's Berber people for centuries, argan oil has been shown to
reduce cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood, and recent research
suggests that it might contribute to the prevention of various cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. Beyond the health benefits, there are also important environmental benefits associated with argan oil production. Yet
the argan oil boom has been a double-edged sword, as argan trees and
the areas in which they grow are threatened by overuse and
deforestation.
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The Rights and Resources Initiative,
a coalition of groups working for the rights of rural people to access
and use their local natural resources, recently released two reports on
the state of large-scale land acquisitions and investments, also known
as land grabs. The reports looked at the financial risk associated with
international land investments and gave an overview of the setbacks and
progress made in land tenure during 2012. Land grabs around the world
continue to threaten rural dwellers with hunger, poverty, and
displacement, but global market forces may curb these threats as
investors realize the risks of becoming involved in land acquisition.
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We have lowered the prices of our individual subscriptions to Vital Signs Online, allowing you to purchase an individual subscription for almost half the price.
Regular subscriptions are now only $100 (previously $195), and
nonprofit and academic subscriptions are now only $65 (previously
$125). Vital Signs Online is
an interactive, subscription-based tool that provides hard data and
research-based insights on the sustainability trends that are shaping
our future. Created for business leaders, policymakers, academics, and
engaged citizens, these trends can be used for strategic planning,
understanding world events, or as a reference source for presentations
and reports. Click here to purchase a subscription today or email Andrew Alesbury at aalesbury@worldwatch.org if you have any questions.
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Water scarcity already affects one in three people on Earth, and it
is set to increase as the global population grows, water demand rises,
and the climate changes. According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification,
"half the world's population will be living in areas of high water
stress by 2030, including 75 to 250 million people in Africa." To
peacefully overcome water scarcity, leaders at all levels must
prioritize efforts to cooperatively increase water-use efficiency,
reduce water waste, and manage demand.
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Although
the word "bacteria" is usually associated with sickness and disease, it
is the driving force behind fermentation, a food process on which
humans have relied for millennia. According to the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization, fermentation increases food security for rural
populations by increasing the amount of raw plant material available
for use in food production. The process also preserves and can even
increase the nutrient content of food. Food science researchers are
finding ways to update traditional fermentation knowledge with modern
technologies to reduce production costs and increase the safety of
fermented foods.
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Nourishing the Planet recently spoke with Tilahun Amede of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT),
an organization that aims to empower people living in drylands around
the world to overcome poverty, hunger, and a degraded environment
through better agriculture.For
the past several years, Dr. Amede has been involved in
research-for-development projects on rainwater management strategies in
the Nile River Basin. In this interview, he discusses the Nile Basin and
how integrated rainwater management strategies improve the resilience
of rural livelihoods.
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