Topic description and stories

Barley in Qinghai

Dizzying heights: prehistoric farming on the ‘roof of the world’

21 Nov 2014

Animal teeth, bones and plant remains have helped researchers from Cambridge, China and America to pinpoint a date for what could be the earliest...

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Cows

First national model for bovine TB calls for greater focus on cattle

02 Jul 2014

The majority of outbreaks of bovine TB within cattle herds are caused by multiple transmissions routes – including failed cattle infection tests...

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Boats Arch in the Eastern Sahara, site of recently identified Neolithic rock art

Discovering the artists of the Eastern Sahara

19 May 2014

The identification of rock art found in Farafra as Neolithic adds substance to the argument that Egypt drew on cultural influences from Africa as...

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From athletes to couch potatoes: humans through 6,000 years of farming

08 Apr 2014

Research into lower limb bones shows that our early farming ancestors in Central Europe became less active as their tasks diversified and technology...

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Camel farming

Farming the 'long-necked thing’: moving from cows to camels

23 Sep 2013

A move from cattle herding to camel keeping among Kenyan farmers is more than an economic transition, it represents a fundamental shift in age-old...

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Charles Towne, Hilly Landscape, Oil on canvas, 38.7cm x 51.1cm (detail)

Views of the landscape

17 May 2013

In a talk on Monday (20 May 2013) Dr Simon Nightingale will explore how painterly interpretations of the countryside were embedded into the...

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Forest clearing along roads in the southern Brazilian Amazon (in Rondônia)

Roads could help rather than harm the environment

20 Mar 2013

Many roads are causing irreparable damage to nature but properly planned roads could actually help the environment

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March of the superbugs

13 Feb 2013

Scientists who recently discovered a new strain of superbug have now tracked its transmission between animals and humans.

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Yam market in Accra, Ghana

How do smallholder farmers fit into the big picture of world food production?

22 Jan 2013

Worldwide 500 million smallholder farmers support a total of 2 billion people. A debate taking place in London next Monday (28 January) will put...

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Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, on the Kenya-Somalia border. The Horn of Africa frequently experiences severe drought and hundreds of thousands of people have trekked to Dadaab seeking food, water, shelter and safety.

Feeding seven billion

21 Nov 2012

With the world’s population already estimated to be over seven billion and rising fast, the challenge of how to produce enough food has never been...

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Green and pleasant land: A farm near East Meon in Hampshire.

Farming loved but misunderstood, survey shows

23 Aug 2012

A YouGov Cambridge poll has revealed widespread affection for agriculture, even though there is a surprising level of ignorance about the sector and...

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Kharaneh shells

From foraging to farming: the 10,000-year revolution

23 Mar 2012

Excavation of 19,000-year-old hunter-gatherer remains, including a vast camp site, is fuelling a reinterpretation of the greatest fundamental shift...

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