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316. Merits of Controlling the Size and Shape of Soybeans
Soybean is one of the most economically important crops in the world, used as a source of edible oil as well as livestock feed due to its high protein content. Soybeans come in a variety of colors and sizes, and each has a different use. The seed size of soybean is an important factor in determining yield, and its shape is very important for processing in terms of the food industry.
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315. Biofortification for Healthier, Inclusive and Resilient Food Systems
Biofortification is one of the solutions to micronutrient deficiencies, such as vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and is an effort to promote micronutrient intake by increasing the nutritional value of the crop itself, rather than adding it to the food. The latest policy brief from HarvestPlus, which has been promoting biofortification, summarizes the benefits and impacts of biofortified crops and foods, and urges action by governments, companies, and international organizations to scale up.
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314. Balancing Soil Conservation and Livelihoods in the Ethiopian Highlands
The SDGs, which tackle global food and environmental problems, eradication of hunger and poverty, and these activities are supported by the land at our feet. In the world, 2 billion hectares of land, including agricultural land, are devastated, and 12 million hectares are becoming a desert each year due to desertification, land deterioration and drought.
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313. Improving Rice Productivity in Burkina Faso through “Local Production for Consumption of Local Fertilizer” Using Phosphate Rock
In West Africa, crop productivity is low due to low inputs of chemical fertilizers in harsh weather conditions and low fertility soils, resulting in the expansion of cultivated land to feed the growing population, leading to deforestation and land degradation. JIRCAS has been working on the development of domestic fertilizers in Burkina Faso under the SATREPS project, and two papers published in international journals recently showed the effectiveness of domestic phosphorus fertilizers in actual rice farmers' fields. These results will contribute to the stable self-sufficiency of food throughout Africa by showing the way to promote the shift to local production for local consumption in African countries that have relied on imported fertilizers.
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312. Lessons for Building a Sustainable Food System
In May 2021, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, wrote an article in Nature Food on the importance of maximizing the use of science, technology and knowledge to build a sustainable food system.
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311. Unlocking the Key to Predicting the Behavior of the World's Most Destructive Locust Pest
At the end of 2019 and the first half of 2020, the media around the world, including Japan, reported that the desert locust, which had caused an outbreak in the Arabian Peninsula, had invaded South Asia and East Africa, shocking people. To establish a drastic and effective control method in the event of an outbreak, it is important to elucidate the ecology of the desert locust. The results of the JIRCAS research have been published in Ecological Applications, and a photo of a desert locust exhibiting a "stilting behavior" has been featured on the cover.
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310. June is “Environment Month”
June 5 is "World Environment Day", commemorating the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm as proposed by Japan and designated by the United Nations. Today, June 8, is also "World Oceans Day", which was proposed by Canada in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and approved in 2009. In Japan, June is designated as "Environment Month" and events are held to raise awareness and recognize the importance of environmental conservation.
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309. World Food Safety Day and Traditional Asian Foods
In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly adopted June 7 as World Food Safety Day, a day to celebrate the benefits of safe food. This year's theme, “Safe food now for a healthy tomorrow”, aims to remind us that recognizing the systemic connections between the health of people, animals, plants, the environment and the economy will help meet the needs of future generations.
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308. Use of Heat Insulation Film Covering for Tomato Cultivation in Tropical and Subtropical Regions
Tomatoes are said to have originated in the Andes region of South America, but are now an important vegetable eaten all over the world, and in recent years, demand for tomatoes has been increasing in tropical and subtropical regions such as Southeast Asia. The use of a heat insulation film covering for tomato cultivation in tropical and subtropical regions can mitigate the damage caused by high air temperatures and strong sunlight.
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307. Approval of First Insect as Novel Food in the EU
An insect has been approved as a novel food in the EU for the first time on May 3 this year. Insect diets, plant-based meat alternatives, and cultured meats are replacing meat diets as the trend in the global food industry, and the process of official approval seems to be underway in many places.
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306. Biological Nitrification Inhibition (BNI): Breakthrough in the Use of Nitrogen Fertilizer to Ensure Stable Food Supply and Reduce Environmental Impact
Modern agriculture is faced with the major dilemma of minimizing the environmental damage caused by agriculture while ensuring an adequate food supply. Nitrogen fertilizer is essential for crop growth, and farmers have traditionally increased nitrogen fertilizer inputs to increase food production per unit of land and reduce deforestation caused by the expansion of farmland. At the same time, however, nitrogen fertilizer has become the major cause of greenhouse gas emissions lately and groundwater pollution. Retaining nitrogen in the soil in ammonium form could be the decisive factor in solving the dilemma of increased food production without environmental pollution. The “Opinion” of JIRCAS and Princeton University scientists on these debates was published on June 1 issue (vol. 118 no. 22) of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), one of the prestigious journals. JIRCAS and Princeton University had held a press release about this article.
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305. World Milk Day
June 1st is “World Milk Day”. It was established in 2001 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to raise awareness on the importance of milk and to celebrate the dairy industry. Milk is an important daily food in people's diet as it is a source of high quality protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.
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304. Need for Investment in Nature-Based Solutions to Avert Planetary Crisis
On May 27, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released the report “State of Finance for Nature”. In order to combat the interconnected crises of climate, biodiversity and land degradation, the report estimates that there is a need to invest a total of USD 8.1 trillion in nature-based solutions between now and 2050. The current investment is USD 13.3 trillion per year, equivalent to 0.1% of global GDP, leaving a gap of USD 4.1 trillion in the amount needed by 2050. The report is calling for a three-fold increase in annual investment by 2030 and a four-fold increase by 2050.
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303. Likelihood of Temporarily Reaching 1.5°C Rise in Temperature Within 5 Years
On May 27, 2021, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released the Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update, a global forecast conducted with the UK Met Office and other collaborating organizations, showing a high probability of temporarily reaching the lower limit of the Paris Agreement's temperature rise control target of 1.5°C since industrialization.
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302. United Nations: World Economic Situation and Prospects as of Mid-2021
In May 2021, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs released a report on the global economic situation and prospects as of mid-2021. According to the report, the global economic outlook has improved in recent years, driven by a robust economic recovery supported by accelerated vaccination and fiscal and financial support measures in the two largest economies, China and the United States, but widening economic and vaccination gaps with developing countries are overshadowing the achievement of global economic growth rates in 2021. However, widening economic and vaccination disparities with developing countries and other areas are casting a shadow on achieving global growth rates in 2021.
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301. Global Report on Food Crisis: 155 million people are acutely food insecure
The Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) released its annual report Global Report on Food Crises 2021 this month. According to the report, at least 155 million people were acutely food insecure last year due to conflicts, economic shocks including COVID-19, and extreme weather events.
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300. The Anthropocene Perspective
This is the 300th article in this Pick Up series. In this article, we would like to introduce a paper that summarizes the concept of the Anthropocene, which has become a common topic of discussion in the food system. The concept was first introduced in 2000 by Paul Crutzen, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, who argued that human impact on the earth was sufficient to create a new geological era. Today, in the earth sciences, the Anthropocene is commonly associated with the "Great Acceleration" of the mid-20th century and 1950s, but in the arts and humanities, it seems to be interpreted in a broader sense.
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299. Recent Topics on Global Temperature Rise and Icebergs
A video released this month by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shows that temperatures on the Earth's surface have risen since 1950, showing a trend of unusually hot days and less frequent cold days. Meanwhile, in Antarctica, it was confirmed that one of the largest icebergs, A-76, which is 40 times the size of Paris, has begun to drift.
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298. International Biodiversity Day 2021 - We’re Part of the Solution -
The slogan for the celebration of International Biodiversity Day 2021 is "We're part of the solution #ForNature", and we would like to share our thoughts on biodiversity by summarizing the Pick Up articles on biodiversity that we have covered so far.
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297. Joint Report on Child Malnutrition
The UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO) and World Bank released this month the 2021 edition of the joint global and regional estimates of malnutrition among children under 5 years of age. The report shows that the number of children with stunting has been declining rapidly in recent years, but the rate of decline needs to accelerate to reach the 2030 target. The estimates do not take into account the impact of COVID-19 which is expected to exacerbate all forms of malnutrition in the future.