Tag - agriculture

 
 

AGRICULTURE

Ukraine has become a leader in drone warfare, particularly with its innovative use of first-person view drones. These drones have proven highly effective in targeting Russian military equipment and ammunition depots.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2025
Breaking down Ukraine’s true value
With the U.S. now increasingly acting in Russia’s interests, supporting Ukraine is not just a moral imperative for Europe, it is an existential one.
A herd of sheep move across a solar farm in Haskell, Texas, on Dec. 2, 2024.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 4, 2025
Sheep grazing under solar panels help U.S. farmers to survive crop-price slump
Instead of plowing fields, Raines spent the year ferrying his flock of sheep to solar farms, to munch on the grass that grows around the gleaming panels.
Government stockpiled rice stored in a warehouse on Feb. 18 in Saitama Prefecture
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2025
Japanese government to auction stockpiled rice on March 10
It is the first time stockpiled rice will be released to ensure smooth distribution. This was previously limited to cases of seriously poor harvests and large-scale disasters.
Coffee beans are harvested in Corquin, Honduras, on Feb. 6. Climate change has diminished the supply of coffee around the globe via rising temperatures, droughts and excessive rains.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 23, 2025
Coffee prices are at a 50-year high. Producers aren’t celebrating.
Around the world, coffee traders, farmers and roasters fear how climate change and economic factors will affect their livelihoods.
Once a boon to tea farmers' bottom lines, the global matcha craze is now pushing producers and distributors to their limits with few options to adequately meet demand.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 23, 2025
Japan struggles to fend off a world without enough matcha
Production methods and economic risks keep the domestic tea industry from ramping up supply.
Behind a record-breaking rise in Japan's rice prices are intensifying competition among buyers since the serious shortage of the country's staple food in stores in summer 2024 and hoarding by those bullish about rice prices.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2025
Price of rice sold to wholesalers surges to another high in Japan
The January average rose 69% from a year earlier to ¥25,927 per 60 kilograms of brown rice amid intensifying demand.
A worker rides a tractor while spraying organic pesticide on crops at a farm in Hudson, New York, in 2020.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2025
EU plans stricter food import restrictions over pesticide use
EU farmers have been protesting across Europe over the past year about the increasing burdens of the bloc’s climate and environmental rules.
Excess sugar intake — especially of sucrose, or table sugar — can lead to ailments such as obesity and diabetes.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 17, 2025
Researchers discover bacteria that can limit body’s sugar absorption
Researchers hope the findings will contribute to developing a new treatment method for obesity and diabetes.
Shadrack Maseko, whose family has been residing on Meyerskop farm for three generations, looks over a piece of land, in Free State province, South Africa, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 11, 2025
The stark inequalities South Africa's new land act seeks to bridge
Nearly three quarters of privately-owned land is in the hands of white people who make up 8% of the population, while only 4% is owned by Black people who constitute nearly 80%.
U.S. President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Trump has frozen U.S. aid to South Africa, citing a law in the country that he alleges allows land to be seized from white farmers, despite Johannesburg's denials.
WORLD
Feb 9, 2025
Trump freezes all South African assistance as standoff escalates
South Africa’s Foreign Ministry expressed "great concern that the foundational premise of this order lacks factual accuracy,” in a statement Saturday.
Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's president, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21
WORLD / Politics
Feb 4, 2025
Trump attack on South Africa exposes divisions over race and land
White landowners possess three-quarters of South Africa's freehold farmland, compared with 4% for Black landowners.
Cows graze in a deforested pasture in Brazil's Amazon located in the municipality of Itapua do Oeste, Rondonia state, Brazil, in 2020.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Feb 3, 2025
Brazil's carbon trade takes off, but agribusiness escapes scrutiny
The regulation is still expected to bring legal security and foster carbon projects that protect the Amazon against pressure from the agribusiness sector.
A government panel said Norinchukin Bank's huge losses stemmed from excessive investments in foreign bonds.
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2025
Norinchukin urged to tap outside expertise and diversify portfolio after losses
A government panel has advised the bank to increase members of its board with experience in financial markets, including from outside the organization.
An Asian black bear preys on a live deer caught in a trap in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, in May, in this image from video footage shot by researchers.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2025
Black bear caught on camera attacking trapped deer in rare footage
The discovery suggests that if bears learn to associate traps with easy prey, the risk of encounters with humans could rise.
The production line at Tanmiah Food’s chicken processing plant in Shaqra, Saudi Arabia
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2025
Chickens hatch across the Saudi desert in kingdom’s pivot from oil
The kingdom imports about 80% of what it eats, triggering worries about shortages in a time of rising geopolitical tensions.
A farmer stands next to his flood-damaged rice field after Typhoon Shanshan passed through Yufu, Oita Prefecture, in August 2024.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2025
Japan plans to sell rice from emergency stockpiles to cut prices
The government will discuss selling part of its strategic rice reserve next week, the agriculture minister said Friday.
Items produced under agriculture-welfare partnerships are displayed at an event in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward on Dec. 2.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2025
Farm-welfare links for disabled employment expand in Japan
Such partnership initiatives, launched by agricultural corporations and employment facilities, reached about 7,100 by fiscal 2023.
Poor weather conditions have led to a surge in cabbage prices.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 22, 2025
Cabbage prices triple in Japan after unfavorable weather
"Cabbage prices are expected to remain high for a while," an agriculture ministry official said.
A dairy farming facility in Bengaluru, which Akiba Bokujo Holdings is expected to operate
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 20, 2025
Japanese dairy farm operator targeting India
Akiba Bokujo Holdings has partnered with an Indian IT startup to procure feed, raise dairy cows and produce products.
Officials with the agriculture ministry hold a news conference in Nagoya on Friday following an outbreak of avian influenza in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, earlier this month.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 20, 2025
More bird flu cases found in Japan; 1.44 million birds to be culled
A total of about 1.44 million birds at the seven farms and related facilities will be destroyed.

Longform

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly