96
No.
This is not really an infographic that is truthful. It is 'anecdotal evidence' evidence for one farm, very probably not true for that very farm, and in any case a misleading oversimplification.
Pasture land can sequester some carbon, yes, but how meaningful is that? Carbon is just the element, and the element is not a greenhouse gas (GHG). Carbon ...
30
The question is invalid, as we already produce way more than enough food. There is no more "world hunger" problem due insufficient food production. Currently much greater problem is an epidemic of obesity.
The lowest calorie intake is in sub-Saharan Africa, where on average people eat 2,176 calories per person per day.
Highest in US with a average of 3,...
26
Schmeiser, the farmer in the original case, noticed one year that a section of his crop was not killed by Roundup. He saved the seed from that section and planted his crop following year with that seed. That resulted in over 95% of his crop being Roundup ready.
The trial judge rejected the suggestion that it was the product of seed blown or inadvertently ...
22
The first important point that is completely misrepresented in most articles I've seen about this is that Tifton 85 is not a genetically modified grass, but was created conventionally by crossing Tifton 292 and Tifton 68. See this article about the history and creaton of Tifton 85 bermudagrass for more information.
Using this event to highlight the dangers ...
22
The UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has a 2003 report titled Review of international research literature regarding the effectiveness of auditory bird scaring techniques and potential alternatives by J. Bishop, H. McKay, D. Parrott and J. Allan.
It reviews the evidence from a number of reports about bird-scaring and concludes:
...
20
Yes. In fact, some sources calculate that the FAO figure is actually an underestimate.
A frequently cited study on the topic is Steinfeld et al. (2006). This is the FAO study already mention in the question. It has 1503 citations on Google Scholar, although only 40 in the more conservative Scopus. I am not sure if it is peer-reviewed.
To judge its ...
20
I think the answer depends on what you mean by your question, which you stated as:
Is it "a known risk that people are dying of starvation because we cannot produce enough food"?
As is often the case, we'll need to go into what some of those terms mean. To start with, the risk part you quote is certainly an unlucky choice; if people are dying of starvation,...
20
This question is a very contentious one as it relies upon a lot of variables that are largely poorly understood.
The first part is arable land mass.
Currently animal production is focussed on either high value grazing areas or low value extensive areas. Extensive grazing areas cannot be cropped. That area of production would have to be made up by increased ...
16
There are several prominent instances of humans creating crop circles.
Claim 1: Doug Bower and Dave Chorley
The most famous claims of human-made crop circle come from Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, who claimed in 19911 to have started making the formations in 1978, in England. The duo stated that they enhanced their creations in response to theories by ...
15
Here's something nobody ever seems to ask: What's the alternative? Surely we aren't picturing a pastureland that would have been paved over with asphalt, if not for this heroic rancher? Certainly in a "natural" state, something would be growing there, and of course that would mean something else would be there eating it.
Without human intervention, most ...
13
No.
Your first question was to define what organic farming means. The definition given by the United States Environmental Protection Agency is
"Organically grown" food is food grown and processed using no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Pesticides derived from natural sources (such as biological pesticides) may be used in producing organically ...
13
Jean Ziegler says, that 12 billion people could be fed by the world production. This is also written in the fact sheet for the right of food of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights:
"One might think that people are denied their right to food because there is not enough food to go round. However, according to FAO, the world produces enough ...
13
Were modern wheat varieties specifically selected because it was less nutritious?
tl;dr: Surely not.
How were wheat cultivars bred?
For what did breeders select?
Was the nutritional value monitored, cared for, or ignored, or even systematically reduced?
If one answers these questions the picture is very clear.
This claim constructs a capitalist ...
13
Some of it is close to factual data for one particular farm in Nova Scotia.
Infographic have been based on calculation from this site https://wild-mountain-farm.myshopify.com/blogs/pasture-connections/11745121-calculating-the-carbon-footprint-of-our-grass-fed-beef The calculation is made with a calculator that is no longer available (or I couldn't find ...
12
This is actually true, dessication with glyphosate seems to be an established practice. From the Glyphosate Task Force:
In the joint dossier submitted by the Glyphosate Task Force (GTF) for the renewal of approval of glyphosate in the EU, pre-harvest application of glyphosate (both for weed control and harvest aid) was included amongst the representative ...
11
If she said it in 2014, she wasn't the first.
For example, in a 2012 interview, Professor John Crawford of the University of Sydney said ,
A rough calculation of current rates of soil degradation suggests we have about 60 years of topsoil left. Some 40% of soil used for agriculture around the world is classed as either degraded or seriously degraded – ...
11
Given that millions of hogs are slaughtered in the United States every month, it is entirely possible that workers do observe pigs being scalded alive. However, to the extent that USDA regulations are effectively enforced, pigs that are killed in this way should not be entering the food supply. This presumably motivates slaughterhouses to prevent it from ...
10
A quick look around seems to show that although uncommon, it is not unique to have range animals poisoned by cyanide. It does not seem to be a "GM" issue(?). Many plants produce cyanide as a defence mechanism against browsers (mainly snail sized).
If the plant is under stress (like when a drought occurs) the levels and concentration of this toxin increases ...
9
Wikipedia's Solanine in potatoes explains why some potatoes become green, and what the poison is:
When potato tubers are exposed to light, they turn green and increase glycoalkaloid production. This is a natural defense to help prevent the uncovered tuber from being eaten. The green colour is from chlorophyll, and is itself harmless. However, it is an ...
8
Wheat from the United States that was given as a gift to India was dumped into the ocean:
According to Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, Volume 133, Issue 12
a) Out of 1444 tonnes. of gift wheat unloaded by an American Vessel at Beypore, a minor port in Kerala, in April, 1984; 1353 tonnes of wheat has been dumped into the sea upto 25 March, 1985 ...
8
I did not find information about wheat, but I found this link which talks about cherries:
US Government Orders Farmers To Destroy 30 Million Pounds Of Their Own Crop
...
“The food pantry shelves are bare, people going hungry, and here we
are dumping millions of pounds of cherries on the ground,” Michigan
cherry grower Rob Manigold said of ...
8
Probably someone can give a more detailed answer, but skeletal data seems to support this increase; form Bocquet-Appel, Science, 2011:
During the economic transition from foraging to farming, the signal of a major demographic shift can be observed in cemetery data of world archaeological sequences. This signal is characterized by an abrupt increase in the ...
8
It's impossible to disprove every false statement by finding a source that explicitly refutes it.
But here's how USDA food "destruction" proceeds, from a recent example:
Iconic product of North America, present on all the tables for Thanksgiving, the production of cranberries has had an important growth after a serious health crisis at the end of the ...
7
According to Milady Standard Cosmetology, page 534:
Yak. This strong fiber comes from the domestic ox found in the mountains of Tibet and Central Asia. Yak hair is shaved and processed and used alone or blended with human hair.
The word "shearing" is more applicable than "shaving".
According to Handbook of Natural Fibres: volume 1, Types, Properties ...
7
The claim that organic cotton farming uses less water than conventional modes of farming appears to be the scientific consensus. For instance, Grose (2009) states that
[farmers] in Israel have reported that cotton grown under organic conditions requires 30% less water than water in conventional systems […]. Organic cotton farmers in Texas have reported ...
6
Chris, I too would go mushroom picking with my father in Sweden, and heard the same claim from him.
That said, this is more than likely a case of confirmation bias. Numerous questions have been asked here about the moon and its effect on things (I'll get to those afterwards). The biggest argument against this is would be to look at the biology of ...
5
Yes.
Temperate Fruit Crops in Warm Climates at page 178:
A general objective in most breeding programs is higher sugar content
See Survey of Food and Nutrition Research in the United States, which lists a publication titled:
Fruit breeding. Improvement in color, flavor, sugar content, and yield of apricots, plums, peaches, nectarines, sweet cherries, ...
5
TL;DR; There are studies that do show at least some correlation between lunar cycles and germination and plant life cycles. However, the correlation is rather complex, and apparently species-dependent.
A quick google search for this finds many references to university studies on the topic, allegedly done by Wichita State University and Tulane University. ...
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