Issues in Contemporary Agriculture:
Environment

Review Article

Laws of sustainable soil management, Dr. Rattan Lal, Agron. Sustain. Dev. 29 (2009) 7-9. DOI: 10.1051/agro:2008060. Reproduced with permission of the Editor in Chief.

Report

Better Farming Better Air, A scientific analysis of farming practice and greenhouse gases in Canada, H.H. Janzen, R.L. Desjardins, P. Rochette, M. Boehm and D. Worth, Scientific Editors, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, March 2008

In the News

Feds to Back Quebec Thyme Processing

(Country Guide, November 4, 2009)  A Quebec company developing a natural disinfectant made from thyme oil will get over $830,000 in federal loans and funding to commercialize their product, with the goal of making thyme a new cash crop for farmers.  Read more

Crop Standards Benefit Farmers, Agribusiness

(Philip Brasher, The Tennessean, in BITES-L, June 15, 2009)  Define "Sustainable Farming."

Lawyers, farmers, environmentalists and government officials have been arguing about that for decades.

Now, efforts are under way internationally and in the United States to establish standards for sustainable agriculture that could have a real impact on the bottom lines of both farmers and agribusinesses.  Read more

Researcher Uses Pulp Residue to Replace Fertilizer

(Telegraph-Journal, June 1, 2009)  In a lab in Fredericton, soil researcher Sherif Fahmy is turning garbage into profit. Fahmy, who works for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, uses pulp residue from pulp and paper mills to replace increasingly expensive fertilizers in growing crops.

Sherif Fahmy, a soil and land resource scientist, is using pulp residue from pulp and paper mills to replace fertilizers to benefit both crops and the environment.  Read more

Ontario Invests $3.2 Million in University of Guelph Genomics Research

(University of Guelph Press Release, May 16, 2009)   Creating environmentally friendly plants that will boost corn production and identifying and discovering new species are the goals of two cutting-edge genomics projects at the University of Guelph that have received $3.2 million in provincial funding.  Read more

A New Digital Soil Map of the World

GlobalSoilMap.net, a consortium led by ISRIC - World Soil Information, based in Wageningen, the Netherlands - is a new global project that aims to make a new digital soil map of the world using state-of-the-art and emerging technologies for soil mapping and predicting soil properties at fine resolution. This new global soil map will be supplemented by interpretation and functionality options that aim to assist better decisions in a range of global issues like food production and hunger eradication, climate change, and environmental degradation. This is an initiative of the Digital Soil Mapping Working Group of the International Union of Soil Sciences IUSS.  Read more.

New 'Green' Pesticides are First to Exploit Plant Defenses in Battle of the Fungi

(Adapted by ScienceDaily from materials provided by American Chemical Society, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS, ScienceDaily, March 24, 2009)  - Exploiting a little-known punch/counterpunch strategy in the ongoing battle between disease-causing fungi and crop plants, scientists in Canada are reporting development of a new class of "green" fungicides that could provide a safer, more environmentally-friendly alternative to conventional fungicides.  Read more

Soil Conservation Council of Canada Evaluates New GHG Calculator for Producers

(SCCC Press Release, February 10, 2009) - The Soil Conservation Council of Canada (SCCC), the face and voice of soil conservation in Canada, will be evaluating a new computer-based tool designed to help agricultural producers identify opportunities to calculate and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on their operations.  Read more

Half of World's Population Could Face Climate-induced Food Crisis by 2100

(ScienceDaily, January 9, 2009) - Rapidly warming climate is likely to seriously alter crop yields in the tropics and subtropics by the end of this century and, without adaptation, will leave half the world's population facing serious food shortages, new research shows.  Read more