The new People Need Nature report - published to coincide with this week's annual Oxford Real Farming Conference - warns that modern farming practices are not good for wildlife. But they're not good for humans either. And with predictions that we will need to produce 70 per cent more food to feed a third more mouths by 2050 the question of seed ownership and diversity cannot be ignored. KATHRYN HINDESS reports
Faced with the potential use of a dangerous pesticide methyl iodide to spray crops in their backyards, a group of Californian teenagers decided to stand up to the might of industrial agribusiness. Rosie Spinks reports
Neal's Yard Remedies is a cut above other skincare companies in its commitment to natural ingredients. Laura Sevier speaks to owner Peter Kindersley about the brand's deep ecology
Andres Carrasco's research linking a controversial herbicide with birth defects highlighted the potential health dangers posed by GM crop-spraying in Argentina – and led to violence and intimidation for those behind the study
In the last few years the Ecologist has written extensively on the flu – both the garden variety that strikes us on an annual basis and the wider threat of avian influenza, H5N1.
If you read the international press, it is easy to be convinced that the international ‘debate’ about global warming is about whether international organisations and country governments are able to ‘wake up’ to alarming news about the future of the planet.
The history of humankind might also be said to be the history of warfare. From Roman times to the present day, human conflict has been the hallmark of our historical progression. But the fight against ourselves isn’t the only war we’ve embarked upon.
Our excessive appetite for meat is taking a heavy toll on the planet, but as Simon Fairlie explains, the arguments used to depict omnivores as environmental super-villains are far too simplistic.
Is the light brown apple moth such a danger to crops both agricultural and financial that the US government will risk the health of its citizens to eradicate it? They spray, you pay, warns Claire Robinson
The community supports the farmer and the farmer supports the community. Why isn't everyone taking part in the latest agricultural revolution, wonders Ed Hamer
With vast areas decimated by industrial farming, the salad days are over for mass-produced olive oil. Laura Sevier looks at the effect its rise in popularity has had on the European landscape, and at some more sustainable brands.
Ed Hamer questions the sanity of agricultural policies that increasingly threaten the sovereignty of the British farmer, as well as the food security of the nation
Allotments are good for the soul and enjoying a resurgence in interest, says Tony Baldry, which is why local councils and developers should be required to grow their own
What could be more cheerful than this ubiquitous breakfast fruit? But if you’re not buying them Fairtrade and organic, argues Ed Hamer, then you’re buying into a modern agricultural scandal
