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...
10 April 2020
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…
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10 October 2022
Spider lullaby
There are spiders that weave a classic web, that one we all know, to catch prey. There are others who…
19 September 2022
Double blow to dinosaurs
The Main Asteroid Belt is between Mars and Jupiter, an enormous ring consisting of millions of large and small rocks…
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24 May 2022
Amphibians in peril
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warns: the extinction rate of amphibians is about 200 times greater than…
8 March 2022
8 March. We remember Rosalind Franklin, the great female DNA scientist.
DNA was first isolated by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist in 1869. It was a brilliant, but not complicated operation:…
27 February 2022
In search of the riders of icebergs
International Polar Bear Day, set up by Polar Bears International, a non-profit organisation, was held on 27 February. The aim…
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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...
-
10 April 2020
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…
-
10 October 2022
Spider lullaby
There are spiders that weave a classic web, that one we all know, to catch prey. There are others who…
19 September 2022
Double blow to dinosaurs
The Main Asteroid Belt is between Mars and Jupiter, an enormous ring consisting of millions of large and small rocks…
-
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...
-
10 April 2020
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…
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…