Angkur Pailiwal and Jyotika Sood tell an interesting story about the rapidly increasing demand for guar gum for use in the exploitation of shale gas (‘frackgas’) in Down to Earth . It shows the interconnectedness in the world: oil depletion and geopolitical tensions cause investments in exploiting marginal gas deposits in the USA, which increases the [...]
Estimating food demand Past food demand equals use by definition and is determined from historical measures and correlations. To estimate long-term future food demand, populations at country level are segmented by income group and by urban versus rural (Bijl et al. 2018). Food quality is implemented by assessing food categories on the basis of end-use [...]
The consumption of meat is increasingly becoming controversial as a spectrum of activists point at the negative side-effects for animal welfare, human health, local pollution and climate change inducing greenhousegas emissions. The meat industry and its suppliers see their profits and expansion opportunities under threat, arguing that there are already many regulations in place and [...]
A simplified scheme of the hydrological stocks and flows is given below. The climate variables precipitation and temperature over time are the most important input variables. Rainwater will fall upon the vegetation and partly flow out as runoff and partly evaporate, and the remainder penetrates the soil where it adds to the stock of soil [...]
Some 1500 km east of Papua New Guinea, in the Pacific, is the small island of Nauru. It is the smallest independent republic, with nowadays some 12.000 inhabitants on an area of less than 25 km2. The story of Nauru's ‘discovery’ in 1798 by a British captain who gave it the name Pleasant Island and [...]
‘When you understand that the take-it-or-leave-it prices now being offered [by wholesalers] mean that you’ll pay more to produce crops than you’ll get back in proceeds, you’re left with the choice of either becoming a slave to this impossible system or find a niche to begin other activities.’ This statement is from a French farmer, [...]
Nomadic people of the Eurasian steppes have played a significant role in human history. Notable are the records of nomadic invasions in the 4th and 5th century and, later, of the Mongols in the 13th and 14th century. The important role of the horse in warfare and farming is among their contributions, around the interfaces [...]