Archive for March 1st, 2014

Even while adapting most Wisconsin farmers are climate change skeptics

Capital Times: Most Wisconsin farmers remain skeptical about climate change, although data show they have already begun adapting to shifts in weather patterns, scientists said at a University of Wisconsin-Madison conference this week. Farmers, the scientists said, are key actors in adapting to climate change or mitigating its effects. They manage 61 percent of the nation’s land. They are vulnerable to droughts, cold, heat and hail. Crop insurance paid out $17.4 billion dollars in indemnities nationwide after...

World wastes up to third of produced food, says World Bank

Blue and Green: As much as a third of all the food the world produces is never eaten, causing huge inefficiencies in economic, energy and natural resource use, according to a damning new report by the World Bank. The report, published earlier this week, found that between one-fourth and one-third of the nearly 4 billion tonnes of food produced for human consumption every year is lost or wasted. In the developed world, these losses translate to 750 to 1,500 calories per person, per day. Even in regions badly...