A return to tradition
Sustainable agriculture was established in response to environmental problems caused by the “green revolution” and other production methods having high environmental impacts (intense use of water, pesticides and chemical fertilizers). The world movement in support of sustainable agriculture has been defined “the true green revolution” precisely to highlight the contrast between these two production methods. Farming sustainably means promoting biodiversity, preserving the environment, preferring local productions, ensuring the respect of human rights of workers, safeguarding communities and guaranteeing economical sustainability of the agricultural system without leaving small farmers behind. One of the solutions adopted to control environmental impacts of modern agricultural production and thus to make agriculture more sustainable is the return to traditional methods of crop growing used in the past as, for example, biological agriculture or conservation agriculture. At the same time, the merge between traditional knowledge and new philosophies, from a sustainable perspective, has given birth to new techniques as integrated agriculture and biodynamic agriculture.
Special reports
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30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
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1 September 2019
What language does science speak?
Do you remember the game called “Chinese whispers”? All the participants had to stand in line and the game started…
24 November 2020
The glow of duck-billed platypuses
It's easy to answer "which is the strangest animal?". The answer: the platypus. These strange creatures live only in Australia…
12 October 2020
Crispr-Cas9, the gene factory
Nobel 2020. The biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier, French, and Jennifer A. Doudna, from the United States, were awarded the most important…
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10 May 2020
A virus’s life
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29 February 2020
Let’s find out about viruses
Parasites at the edge of life Virus is a Latin word meaning poison. Viruses are pathogens (they make you ill)…
31 October 2019
What language does science speak? 2nd part
There is an old proverb that says “the apple does not fall far from the tree ”. Apparently it seems…
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30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
-
2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
1 September 2019
What language does science speak?
Do you remember the game called “Chinese whispers”? All the participants had to stand in line and the game started…
-
24 November 2020
The glow of duck-billed platypuses
It's easy to answer "which is the strangest animal?". The answer: the platypus. These strange creatures live only in Australia…
12 October 2020
Crispr-Cas9, the gene factory
Nobel 2020. The biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier, French, and Jennifer A. Doudna, from the United States, were awarded the most important…
-
30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
-
2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
From the Multimedia section
Facts
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CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…
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Energy from palm trees
Oils that are obtained from palm trees can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels and their use is about…
The Christmas tree tradition
People tell that in Germany, at Christmas Eve, Saint Boniface cut an oak and in that place...
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The tree and the truffle
Truffles are hypogean (underground) fungi which grow in the presence of particular trees such as oaks, holm oaks and willows,…
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23 February 2012
CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…
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16 May 2011
Energy from palm trees
Oils that are obtained from palm trees can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels and their use is about…
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13 May 2011
The Christmas tree tradition
People tell that in Germany, at Christmas Eve, Saint Boniface cut an oak and in that place...
16 May 2011
The myth of olive trees
The ancients used to say: the Mediterranean begins and ends with...
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23 February 2012
CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…