Climate change and a decline in available arable land are reducing crop yields which can significantly impact food security. Sustainable solutions to feed the increasingly growing population are urgent.

A research team as part of the Proteins4Singapore (P4SG) project, co-led by TUMCREATE in Singapore and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), proposes that future controlled environment agriculture - CEA systems can boost productivity for several food sources. In CEA, all growth conditions are carefully controlled to optimise growth and yield. Controllable parameters impacting these growth conditions span temperature, humidity, light, carbon dioxide concentration, and nutrients. All the outputs can be finely tuned, largely minimising environmental impact.

CEA enables a consistent year-round production of safe food and can complement traditional farming, according to Dr Vanesa Calvo-Baltanás, research fellow at TUMCREATE and the lead researcher of this finding. The team investigated the yield potential of six food groups cultivated under CEA conditions, including crops, algae, mushrooms, insects, fish and cultivated meat.

Many animal species become smaller or larger in recent decades, with climate change often mentioned as a cause. Red knots, shorebirds travelling 10 thousand kilometers every year between breeding grounds in Arctic Russia and wintering grounds in West Africa, are becoming smaller. Researchers have now discovered why: in the period that the chicks grow up, their most important food source is less available. They publish their findings this week in Global Change Biology.