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Pick Up973. Unjust Impact of Climate Change
March 8 is International Women's Day, a day of international solidarity and unified action aimed at improving the status of women, eliminating discrimination against women, etc. According to the report (The Unjust Climate) published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), women-headed households are relatively more vulnerable to climate change and other shocks. The Unjust Climate calls for investment in policies and programs focused on addressing multiple vulnerabilities to climate change.
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Pick Up972. Global Resource Use Trends and Outlook
The world is facing a triple planetary crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. The pace of global natural resource consumption is accelerating, making it increasingly difficult to achieve the SDGs.On March 1, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released its "Global Resource Outlook 2024", calling for a change in direction toward a sustainable environment and society.
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Pick Up971. Rice-based Meat
Today's post features an article published in Matter (Park et al. 2024) that presents a groundbreaking study on rice-based meat.
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Pick Up970. Food Production and Conservation in the Cerrado
The Cerrado is a savannah on the Brazilian plateau and one of the world's breadbasket regions, but deforestation has continued as agricultural land has expanded. The report highlights the need for an approach that balances sustainable food production with conservation of the region's natural riches.
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Pick Up969. Climate Change Risks to Social and Natural Systems
A study led by researchers at the University of East Anglia that summarized climate change risks in six countries-China, Brazil, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, and India-estimated that if global warming is limited to 1.5°C, compared to an increase to 3°C, the probability of agricultural land being exposed to extreme drought could be reduced by 20-60% If global warming is limited to 1.5°C, compared to a 3°C increase, the paper estimated that the probability of agricultural land being exposed to extreme drought could be reduced by 20-60%.
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Pick Up968. Assessment of Food System Resilience
Despite the globalization of food, the world's food system remains vulnerable to disruptions caused by natural disasters, political crises, infectious diseases, and other emergencies. Today's post focuses on a systematic review on food system resilience (FSR) published in Global Food Security.
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Pick Up967. People's Awareness and Willingness to Act on Climate Change
A stable climate is a global asset and requires the commitment of people around the world to mitigate climate change. A study conducted by the National Climate Change Research Council (NCCRC) found that while many individuals are willing to contribute to climate action, they underestimate the willingness of those around them to do so, indicating the need to raise awareness of support on a global scale if people around the world are to work together to combat climate change.
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Pick Up966. Rising Incomes Improve Nutrition, So What if Food Prices Fall?
Today's post highlights an article from Nature Food (McCullough et al. 2024) that sheds light on the complex relationship between rising incomes, falling food prices, and nutrition, particularly in the context of Africa.
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Pick Up965. Red Sea, Black Sea and Panama Canal - Uncertainties Surrounding the Achilles Heel of the Global Trade Supply Chain
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has expressed concern that the combined crises of attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since last year, geopolitical tensions affecting shipping in the Black Sea, and the impact of climate change on the Panama Canal could escalate disruptions to the global trade supply chain. -
Pick Up964. Convergence of El Niño and Expected Transition to La Niña
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced that the El Niño event, which has been pushing global temperatures to record levels since mid-2023, has a 79% chance of weakening and returning to normal around April, and a 55% chance of transitioning to La Niña in the Pacific Ocean between June and August.
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Pick Up963. Food System Risks Since Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Two years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, record-high global food prices in 2022 have reminded the international community that food production depends on global supplies of fuel and fertilizer, and that supply chain disruptions due to geopolitical conflicts can directly lead to food security risks. This has triggered a renewed awareness in the international community that food production depends on global supplies of fuel and fertilizers, and that supply chain disruptions due to geopolitical conflicts can directly lead to food security risks.
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Pick Up962．JIRCAS Links Earth and Space〜New Frontier of Resilient Crops〜
The JIRCAS research on the “Development of resilient crops and production technologies” is also linked to the “Research on production of crops adapted to the space environment”.
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Pick Up961. Recent Research on Tipping Points
In the Earth system, large subsystems (tipping elements) that may cross tipping points with large-scale irreversible changes due to anthropogenic activities may appear disparate but are remotely correlated, and a single change may have a domino effect. The mechanism of this phenomenon is still unknown. Although there is still much we do not know about how this works, a recent study suggests that a tipping point is approaching for the Atlantic Ocean circulation and the Amazon tropical forest.
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Pick Up960. Can ChatGPT Adequately Answer Questions from African Rice Farmers?
ChatGPT, a conversational computer program powered by artificial intelligence (AI), has attracted considerable attention in recent years for its ability to learn from large amounts of text data and generate natural sentences. In sub-Saharan Africa, where there is an absolute shortage of agricultural extension workers, can AI provide adequate answers to farmers' questions? Dr. SAITO Kazuki and a team of researchers at IRRI have published in Scientific Reports the results of a study evaluating ChatGPT in an irrigated rice farming region in Nigeria.
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Pick Up959. Systematic Review on Double Burden of Malnutrition in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Nutrition transition is occurring rapidly in low- and middle-income countries, and many countries face problems not only with undernutrition, but also with overnutrition. Today we present a systematic review article published in The Lancet Global Health (Escher et al., 2024). -
Pick Up958. The Future of Climate Change and Environmental Policies in Europe
Europe had aimed to reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides across the EU by 50% by 2030, but amid growing opposition from farmers, European Commission President von der Leyen announced on February 6 that she was withdrawing the measure (shelving it) because it would be difficult to implement at this time. On the same day, however, the Commission proposed ambitious measures to combat climate change. Here is an editorial from a scientific journal on the background of European environmental regulatory developments that also affect the international environmental policy debate. -
Pick Up957. Natural Climate Solutions ～ The NCS Philosophy
The concept of Natural Climate Solutions (NCS), which emerged around 2017, has attracted attention for its potential to mitigate climate change, which is accelerating at an unprecedented rate, and to help prevent catastrophic events. On the other hand, NCS is often understood in an abstract way, which often leads to confusion and misunderstanding with other climate solutions concepts, so a clear definition of the concept is needed. Today, we present a review paper that examines previous NCS-related discussions in order to define NCS more clearly.
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Pick Up956. Record 1.5°C Above Pre-industrial Level
On February 8, 2024, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that January 2024 was the warmest January on record globally, setting a new record for the hottest month on record for the eighth consecutive month, and 1.52°C above the pre-industrial average for the 12 months from February 2023 to January 2024, briefly exceeding the Paris Agreement target of 1.5°C.
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Pick Up955. February 10 is World Pulses Day
Tomorrow, February 10, is World Pulses Day. In this issue of Pick Up, we would like to introduce some reports on pulses by FAO. -
Pick Up954. The Economics of Food System Transformation
At the end of January, a distinguished group of researchers specializing in the economics of climate change, health and nutrition, agriculture, and natural resources collaborated on a global policy report entitled "The Economics of the Food System Transformation". The report calls for urgent change, stating that the negative impact of the food system on human and global health is estimated at over $10 trillion annually, more than the food system's contribution to global GDP.