Europe's farmers stir up biogas to offset Russian energy
In lush fields southwest of Paris, farmers are joining Europe's fight to free itself from Russian gas.
May 6, 2022
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In lush fields southwest of Paris, farmers are joining Europe's fight to free itself from Russian gas.
May 6, 2022
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Several electronics companies, including iPhone and Macbook makers, have halted production in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Kunshan, adding to supply chain woes under Beijing's strict zero-COVID measures.
Apr 13, 2022
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Australia's electricity system is on the road to becoming 100% renewable as coal-fired power stations close and wind and solar takes their place.
Mar 18, 2022
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One way farmers learn best practices is through their peers, but the pandemic has limited in-person meetings.
Feb 28, 2022
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Imagine a field of wheat that extends to the horizon, being grown for flour that will be made into bread to feed cities' worth of people. Imagine that all authority for tilling, planting, fertilizing, monitoring and harvesting ...
Feb 23, 2022
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Brazil opened an international tender Thursday to build one of the world's biggest 5G data networks, seeking $9 billion in investment for Latin America's largest economy.
Nov 4, 2021
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What do apple cores, spent grain, and walnut shells have in common? They could one day be used to power a data center.
Oct 29, 2021
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Biomass is attracting growing interest from researchers as a source of renewable, sustainable, and clean energy. It can be converted into bio-oil by thermochemical methods, such as gasification, liquefaction, and pyrolysis, ...
Aug 24, 2021
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Researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences have developed a robotic mechanism for mushroom picking and trimming and demonstrated its effectiveness for the automated harvesting of button mushrooms.
Jun 2, 2021
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Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants (i.e. crops) creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and stratified societies. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science (the related practice of gardening is studied in horticulture).
Agriculture encompasses a wide variety of specialties and techniques, including ways to expand the lands suitable for plant raising, by digging water-channels and other forms of irrigation. Cultivation of crops on arable land and the pastoral herding of livestock on rangeland remain at the foundation of agriculture. In the past century there has been increasing concern to identify and quantify various forms of agriculture. In the developed world the range usually extends between sustainable agriculture (e.g. permaculture or organic agriculture) and intensive farming (e.g. industrial agriculture).
Modern agronomy, plant breeding, pesticides and fertilizers, and technological improvements have sharply increased yields from cultivation, and at the same time have caused widespread ecological damage and negative human health effects.[citation needed] Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry such as intensive pig farming (and similar practices applied to the chicken) have similarly increased the output of meat, but have raised concerns about animal cruelty and the health effects of the antibiotics, growth hormones, and other chemicals commonly used in industrial meat production.[citation needed]
The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, raw materials, pharmaceuticals and stimulants, and an assortment of ornamental or exotic panget products. In the 2000s, plants have been used to grow biofuels, biopharmaceuticals, bioplastics, and pharmaceuticals. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, and meat. Fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo. Stimulants include tobacco, alcohol, opium, cocaine,and digitalis. Other useful materials are produced by plants, such as resins. Biofuels include methane from biomass, ethanol, and biodiesel. Cut flowers, nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade are some of the ornamental products.
In 2007, about one third of the world's workers were employed in agriculture. However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2003 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide. Despite the fact that agriculture employs over one-third of the world's population, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products).[dead link]
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA