While some people are still arguing, yelling, pointing fingers and creating wacky conspiracy theories about climate change there are some businesses which have recognized something ain’t right – PepsiCo aims to crunch carbon out of apples and potatoes
Makers of Walkers crisps, Copella apple juice and Quaker Oats sets goal to cut carbon emissions and water use in its crops 50 per cent by 2015.
PepsiCo has become the latest conglomerate to unveil strict new agricultural targets designed to crack down on water usage and carbon emissions across its global supply chain.
Under the initiative, farmers growing potatoes, apples and oats for PepsiCo UK and Ireland have started testing internet crop management tools, low carbon fertilisers and greener machinery in a bid to halve carbon emissions and water usage across PepsiCo core crops within just five years.
The target, neatly dubbed ’50 to 5′ was confirmed in PepsiCo’s first Sustainable Farming Report, published yesterday.
PepsiCo is a huge multinational company that owns multiple brand name food and beverage products and has a range of partnership deals with companies such as Starbucks and Ben&Jerrys. One of the major tools Pepsi is rolling out is its new i-crop farming technology. They’re doing so on a global scale. I-crop is a web-based tool developed with Cambridge University (UK)/ It will be used as a crop management system that will enable farmers associated with PepsiCo to monitor carbon emissions, and manage and reduce their water use. It will also help maximize potential yield and quality. It may not seem like it but there are real foods lurking under all that salt and other additives in snack products such as potatoes and corn. This is not to say PepsiCo is now officially a super friend of the environment or your health, only to give them credit for making an effort to make their business operations more environmentally friendly.
These get few clicks but for those handful of folks who like cute and science I keep posting stories like this – Audio slideshow: The Dog and the Whale
Sniffer dog Tucker uses his nose to help researchers find out why a killer whale population off the northwest coast of the United States is in decline. He searches for whale faeces floating on the surface of the water, which are then collected for examination.
He is one of an elite team of detection dogs used by scientists studying a number of species including right whales and killer whales.
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Killer of Aspen Slows, but Worries About a Beloved Tree Remain
So tree lovers and scientists alike felt the impact when the aspen in the West started dying around 2004 — withering away in a broad band from here in southwest Colorado through the mountains of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico and into Wyoming.
…The good news is that the phenomenon known as sudden aspen decline, or SAD, appears to have stabilized, Dr. Worrall and other researchers say. Individual trees are still dying, since the process can take years to unfold, but many stands of trees are holding their ground against any new onset.
There is some less than great news with solving the aspen mystery. The research shows how profoundly vulnerable aspen are to environmental extremes in weather. Sudden shifts in cold to warm and wet to dry are not to their liking. Researchers looking at long-term climate trends see a rough road ahead with more severe fluctuations and variations for aspens to deal with. Such variations do not just play a direct role in the health of the aspens but make them more susceptible to pests and disease. The article mentions the fate of the lodgepole pines, which like the aspen defines much of the western landscape. They have been thinned by beetles that are natural predators. Ecologists have found the cold winters which kept beetle populations under control have not occurred as they have in the past thus bypassing a natural inhibitor of the beetle population and the severity of damage.
tangledwing 