Tag - agriculture

 
 

AGRICULTURE

Police in riot gear stand guard next to a barricade near a fire outside the European Parliament in Brussels on Feb. 1 during a protest by farmers from Belgium and other EU countries over price pressures, taxes and green regulation.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2024
Green backlash looms over EU elections
Polls show that while a large majority of Europeans support action to fight climate change, a many are also worried about the cost of doing this.
Masanao Saito harvests his mikan tangerines with his grandson, Akihito Oyama, at his farm in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, on Dec. 8. Behind them are apple trees full of fruit.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Feb 5, 2024
How fruit farmers in Tohoku are coping with climate change
Last year, extreme heat dubbed the "boiling Earth" phenomenon hit the region’s agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries hard.
Tractors block the A6 highway during a protest by French farmers in the Chilly-Mazarin district of Paris on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 1, 2024
Farmers angry with green policy rebel against EU ahead of vote
Blockades and pickets by farmers are exposing a clash between the EU's drive to cut carbon dioxide emissions and its aim of becoming more self-sufficient.
Marine product shipments to China saw a steep drop of 29.9%, with scallops, which had shown strong growth in recent years, dropping 43.6%.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2024
Japan farm and fisheries exports hit record ¥1.45 trillion in 2023
Increased shipment to the United States and Hong Kong is making up for a decline in sales to mainland China, government data showed.
Environmental costs are estimated at $3 trillion from current agricultural land use and food production methods, which scientists say account for a third of planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jan 30, 2024
Fixing food could produce trillions in annual benefits
On the current trajectory, food systems alone will push global warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius, potentially soaring to 2.7 degrees by 2100.
Farmers dry coffee beans at the Thiririka farming cooperative in Kiambu County, Kenya, in November 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2024
Is it time for a coffee cartel?
If farmers in the developing world are prevented from getting their fair share from coffee production they should take matters into their own hands.
Livestock farmer Keita Higuchi experiments with a smartphone app that alerts user when a pregnant cow exhibits the typical signs seen before going into labor.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 14, 2024
Nikon develops AI system that can detect cows are about to give birth
The technology aims to ease the burden on farmers who need to conduct regular checks on pregnant cows in the weeks leading up to giving birth.
A hamburger using boar meat
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2024
Japanese ministry promotes game meat consumption
The amount of game meat used at restaurants in Japan rose by 1.6-fold to 2,085 tons in fiscal 2022 from six years earlier.
Harvesting wheat in Punjab, Pakistan
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jan 7, 2024
Military men want to kickstart Pakistan’s green revolution
Islamabad argues that corporate farming is essential to ensuring food security for its 240 million people.
Shiv Kumar (left) and Nirmal Singh say they are learning a lot about living and thriving in Japan while taking part in the Technical Intern Trainee Program. Their case, however, seems to be an exception to the norm.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Dec 18, 2023
Beating the odds on Japan's controversial foreign trainee program
Nirmal Singh and Shiv Kumar beat the odds on the Technical Intern Training Program, but luck shouldn't play such a key role in a government initiative.
A wheat farm outside Scott City, Kansas
BUSINESS
Dec 10, 2023
U.S. raises wheat-export forecast with China buying most in decade
American shipments of the soft red winter wheat variety will rise to the biggest in a decade, reflecting "several large recent export sales” to China.
Rural China is now one place that is providing respite for young people. Zhang Boai, 20, joined a program that positions rural jobs not as stop-gaps but as lucrative commercial opportunities in their own right.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 4, 2023
China's graduates swap city dreams for farm life amid jobs crisis
As the world’s second-largest economy slows, young people are bearing the brunt of an unemployment crisis that’s leaving one of five of them jobless.
The best season for Australian mangoes is from November to February, different from that of rival producers in the opposite hemisphere.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2023
Australia keen to boost mango exports to Japan after curbs eased
The Australian mango season is different to that of rival producers in the opposite hemisphere.
A boar captured in a project to connect farmers and young hunters
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2023
Efforts underway to help license holders get hunting experience
Crop damage and and dangerous animal encounters are on the rise in Japan, but active hunters are dwindling.
A robot that uses artificial intelligence to automatically harvest cherry tomatoes in the Netherlands
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 26, 2023
Use of AI-based robots on the rise in Japanese agriculture
Large-scale greenhouse farmers are leading the way, having already begun to use AI-equipped robots.
Turkey and other meat at a grocery store in Chicago
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Nov 26, 2023
Eat less meat is message for rich world in food’s net-zero plan
The global food systems’ road map to 1.5 Celsius is expected to be published by the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization next month.
Workers prepare to cull chickens at a farm in Kashima, Saga Prefecture, on Saturday after a case of bird flu was detected there.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 25, 2023
Japan confirms season's first bird flu case in Saga
The Saga Prefectural Government has started to cull around 40,000 chickens raised at a farm in the city of Kashima.
Farm workers carry rice saplings on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, in July.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Nov 21, 2023
In India, 'natural farming' draws young people back to the land
The farming method shuns synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, involves the use of organic manure and no tilling of the land.
Toru Yamano, chairman of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, tastes Koshihikari brand rice from Niigata Prefecture that contains immature grains, during a news conference in Tokyo on Nov. 9.
BUSINESS
Nov 15, 2023
Torrid summer heat hits crop production in Japan
The extreme weather over the summer is now leading to lower shipments and sharp price increases.
India's exports represent about 40% of rice's global trade. New Delhi has banned or taxed rice and wheat exports to counter domestic food inflation.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2023
India pushes the world toward another rice crisis
Spooked by volatile foodgrain prices ahead of a general election next year, India’s government has banned or taxed rice and wheat exports.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals