Sustainable Food for the Globe

12/20/2025

Crop Diversity Day demonstrated that the global genebank system needs to become more accessible, resilient and inclusive.

Key priorities include:
🌱 Ensuring every crop collection meets shared quality standards.
❄️ Backing up all unique accessions in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault or facilities like the CIP Cryo Vault.
🥕 Investing more in opportunity crops, including vegetables.
🤝 Strengthening collaboration among genebanks and with researchers, policymakers, industry and farmers.

Building a stronger global conservation system today means more secure, diverse and resilient food systems tomorrow. Read more: https://tinyurl.com/msa3dw6u

12/12/2025

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZdDnobiTt4g?si=W6MHzubHXiEy-qZT

Goosebumps…

New official 104-way world record canopy formation, Lake Wales, Florida, USA, November 22, 2025. 🪂🔥 Enjoying the video? Don’t forget to ...

12/10/2025

It gets more baffling kid…

kid has the absolute best reaction to being born. I wish I knew what was going through his head or what he was thinking in this momen...

12/09/2025

https://youtube.com/shorts/-SsjgKVBCo0?si=3KtrHzdhyb6Dk_0u
If you look for human kindness, you will find it…
Kindness via actions, Food Pantry Donation, ❤️🔥🔥🔥

Our local food pantry told us “anything you would use we can use” as a guide for what to donate. Each food pantry needs different items, so it is best to rea...

12/04/2025

A new course in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) e-learning Academy explores global crop conservation strategies, their development and how they help safeguard plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. It also covers crop coverage assessments, gap analysis methods and how to use results to strengthen conservation.

Click here to start learning: https://shorturl.at/bz2zP

The course was funded by the BMLEH, German Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Food, and Regional Identity, as part of the project Mainstreaming Global Crop Conservation Strategies in Plant Treaty Processes.

12/04/2025

11/30/2025

11/30/2025

🍎 If you’ve ever wondered how much you actually need to grow to feed your family fresh fruit all year, this guide breaks it down in the simplest way.

From apples to strawberries to blueberries, knowing the right number of plants helps you plan your garden like a pro and avoid overcrowding or under-planting.

Growing your own fruit is unbelievably rewarding and with the right numbers it becomes so much easier to manage. 🍓🌱

11/30/2025

11/30/2025

In the Netherlands, a new kind of lifeline drifts gently alongside its famed canals — floating greenhouse kitchens that grow, cook, and serve fresh meals directly to those in need. These solar-and-water-powered barges combine hydroponic farming with compact cooking stations, creating self-sustaining ecosystems where food is harvested and prepared just steps apart. Each floating unit moves between neighborhoods, docking at canal edges to provide hot meals to the homeless without queues, forms, or conditions.

Inside the translucent greenhouses, vegetables like lettuce, spinach, herbs, and tomatoes thrive in vertical trays nourished by canal-filtered water and nutrients. The crops are tended by onboard volunteers or staff — often formerly unhoused individuals now employed through community programs. Beside the growing beds sits a minimalist kitchen fitted with induction cooktops and modular counters, where soups, wraps, and warm teas are prepared throughout the day.

Everything runs on clean energy. Solar panels cover the greenhouse roof, while canal movement helps power small filtration systems and lighting. At mealtimes, visitors approach quietly, receive a plate, and are welcome to sit on benches built into the platform — surrounded by the very plants that fed them.

These greenhouse kitchens aren’t just solutions — they’re statements. They bring nourishment to the water’s edge, dissolving the boundaries between growing and giving. In the stillness of the canal, food becomes more than sustenance — it becomes connection, dignity, and care that floats.

11/30/2025

11/30/2025

“Feed the soil, not just the plant”
It is a core principle of sustainable soil and crop management. It emphasizes improving soil health so that plants can naturally access nutrients, water, and biological support. This principle focuses on building soil organic matter, enhancing microbial activity, and promoting natural nutrient cycling, so that the soil itself becomes a reservoir and provider of plant nutrition.

Test your knowledge through Soil Science MCQs; https://agropublishers.com/2024/10/05/mcqs-soil-science/

Soil is a Living System, and Healthy soil contains Bacteria, fungi (including mycorrhizae), earthworms and nematodes, as well as organic matter and humus. These organisms mineralize nutrients and improve soil structure.

Healthy soil releases nutrients slowly and steadily, reduces fertilizer requirements, and improves nutrient-use efficiency

(i) Organic Matter Inputs: Farmyard manure (FYM), Compost, Green manures, Crop residuesing capacity.

How to Feed the Soil

(i) Organic Matter Inputs; Farmyard manure (FYM), Compost, Green manures, Crop residues

(ii) Biological Enhancers; Biofertilizers (Rhizobium, Azotobacter, PSB), Mycorrhizal fungi (AM fungi increase nutrient acquisition and tolerance to stress)

(iii) Conservation Agriculture: Minimum or zero tillage, Permanent soil cover, Diverse crop rotations

(iv) Soil Amendments: correct soil pH, biochar to increase carbon storage and cation exchange capacity