-The United Nations     While insects can be slimy, cringe-inducing creatures, often squashed on sight by humans, a new book released today by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) says beetles, wasps and caterpillars are also an unexplored nutrition source that can help address global food insecurity. The book, Edible Insects: future prospects for food and feed security, stresses not just the nutritional value of insects, but also the benefits that insect farming...

-The Hindu Business Line Mother Nature possesses bountiful natural resources. After all, it is not for nothing that our planet is today supporting a seven billion human population, besides a large number of other living beings with varying survival requirements. Till around the end of the 19th century, agriculture, in the form it was practised, provided more or less enough food to sustain the human population of that time. This is...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has decided to ban the production, stocking, distribution and sale of tobacco products such as gutka and pan masala in the state. The decision came in the backdrop of the Supreme Court's remarks in a case recently, seeking to know the action taken by state governments in curbing the use of tobacco and its products. The order will be passed in a...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI/ KOCHI: A growing number of farmers are turning entrepreneurs and earning big bucks from something they offered free to friends and relatives - a healthy and relaxing weekend to unwind in lush green farms, drive a tractor, ride a bullock cart, milk a cow and pluck fresh fruit from orchards. Farm tourism, once a small niche, is expanding rapidly and getting a big push from the tourism...

-Tehelka The new biotechnology Bill will allow biotech firms to tamper with our food In March, US President Barack Obama signed the HR 933 continuing resolution - popularly known as the Monsanto Protection Act - that effectively divests the federal courts of their constitutional power to stop the planting or sale of genetically modified (GM) seeds and crops regardless of the health and environmental consequences. In other words, whether you like...