Food Industry | Water News
North Korea Food Crisis

Torrential rains, heavy summer floods, and typhoons have compounded North Korea’s dysfunctional food-distribution system, leaving millions — including many children — in danger of malnutrition, according to some media outlets and humanitarian-aid groups. But others contend that additional analysis is necessary to verify the circumstances.

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Somalia Suffers from Severe Drought

Meteorologists are hopeful for future rainfall, though they say the current disaster was preventable. The lack of rain, which is also affecting neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, and political instability have tipped Somalia into a food crisis that could persist, even as drought conditions abate.

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As an energy boom, propelled by natural gas, continues to gather steam, mining and drilling companies square off with landowners around the globe over who has the right to resources that are located deep below ground.

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Wild Rice is an aquatic grass that is harvested annually for its nutritious grain. Throughout its growth cycle, wild rice encounters many external threats, both environmental and human-made, which are being compounded by the effects of climate change.

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Wild rice on the Bad River Reservation in northern Wisconsin is in the floating leaf stage by early June, with a single shoot lying on the water’s surface. This is considered one of the most critical—and and dangerous—stages in the rice’s life cycle. The plants are just beginning to change physiologically from exchanging gases with the water column to exchanging gases with the air. Therefore, they are very susceptible to heavy rains and flooding events that can either rip out the young plants by the roots, or drown them. June 6, 2011.

For generations, the upper Great Lakes region has boasted harvests of wild rice, growing in Lake Superior and other watersheds within the basin. But disease, dams, and climate change are now endangering the uncultivated bounty.

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The Horn of Africa

The drought has gripped large regions of eastern Africa, leaving an estimated 11 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and is likely to continue for much of the year, according to the United Nations.

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France Drought Europe

Two of the world’s most important crops, corn and wheat, are on track to meet global demand, despite water woes.

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School in China Agriculture Water

The farm sector and the coal sector together made up 85 percent of water used in China last year. These photos take a look at the people and places affected by rising energy demand, accelerating modernization, and diminishing freshwater resources.

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The Yellow River Basin is the center of a contest over water, energy, and agriculture.

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Preliminary report describes an infant cellulosic biofuels industry with a mandate to grow up fast.

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