The US state has recorded half of its expected rainfall so far, making 2021 the third driest year on record according to the California Department of Water Resources. Exceptionally high temperatures have quickly evaporated reservoirs in inland areas of the state.
The country could be the first European nation to ban synthetic pesticides. Switzerland has in fact announced that a referendum will be held to ban substances used in agriculture. To date, only Bhutan has a complete ban on synthetic pesticides.
More than 5,000 farmers are involved in the cultivation of palm oil on about 11,000 hectares of land in Kalangala, Uganda. Since the early 1990s, this crop has been preferred to coffee, thanks to an initiative of the local government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) which identified palm as a potential commercial crop.
The African Development Bank group has provided the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) with a grant of $686,000, which will provide food aid to thousands of people in southern Madagascar. The support comes at a critical time for the country, which is suffering the worst drought in 40 years. Over 1.35 million people are highly food insecure and have nothing to eat, double the number recorded in the same period of last year.
Worsening soil pollution and waste proliferation threaten the future of global food production, human health and the environment, and require an urgent global response, according to a joint report published by FAO and UNEP. Industrial and mining activities, poorly managed urban and industrial waste, fossil fuel extraction and processing, as well as unsustainable agricultural practices and transport, were identified as the main sources of soil pollution.
The Biden administration has announced plans to reverse policies implemented under the Trump government that weakened the Endangered Species Act, a half-century-old law credited with the recovery of the bald eagle, humpback whale, grizzly bear and dozens of other species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service are both moving to undo much of the anti-environmental regulations imposed by the Trump administration.