crops

Bob Dinneen, President and CEO, Renewable Fuels Assocation, is interviewed about criticisms that biofuels, such as ethanol, are driving up world food prices. He also addresses industry efforts to shift to cellulosic ethanol and to create a wider US ethanol fueling infrastructure.

Damage from invasive species already costs the world more than $1.4 trillion annually. But now a new report says that biofuel crops could also become invasive species -- and that the risk needs to be evaluated before these crops are planted.

Learn more at http://www.nature.org/initiatives/invasivespecies/strategies/art24885.html

A post on EcoSpace.cc a few days back on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (also known as the Doomsday Seed Vault) generated some feedback about allowing seeds of Genetically Modified Organisms to be collected for storage in case of disaster. The topic of GMO crops is certainly a hotly debated one - what are your thoughts?

Duane Sellmer, Employee, Farm Operation Manager, Anheuser-Busch, talks about the company's efforts to reduce the amount of water used in their facilities. Sincehigh-quality water is a main ingredient in beer, Anheuser-Busch makes water conservation a high priority. In the past 5 yearsU.S. brewery water usage has declined nearly 5%, saving over 3.5 billion liters of water.

Glenn Prickett, Senior Vice President, Conservation International, discusses how production of biofuel crops has the potential to do more environmental harm than good due to agricultural practices and how Conservation International works to minimize that damage. He also talks about how forest biodiversity and landuse are only starting to become a topic in the UN climate change talks.