agriculture

Bees pollinate roughly one-third of the food we eat. If they vanished, our diets would collapse to staple grains, the prices of fruits, nuts, and vegetables would soar, and entire ecosystems built on flowering plants would unravel within a generation.

Australia wastes 312 kg of food per person per year — the most in the world. The US wastes 80 million tonnes annually. Globally, one-third of all food produced is lost or wasted — enough to feed every hungry person on Earth twice over. Here's the full picture of global food waste and what the most effective interventions are.

A flower that stays open for about a day, a pollination step no machine has replaced, months of curing, and a supply base that cyclones can cut by a third: the biology and economics behind vanilla's price.

Switzerland consumes 10.3 kg of chocolate per person per year — the world's highest. Denmark, Austria, and Germany follow. The global chocolate market exceeds $130 billion. Meanwhile, cocoa-growing countries in West Africa — which produce 70% of the world's cocoa — consume almost none. Here's the strange geography of chocolate.

Italy, France, and Spain produce nearly half of all the world's wine. Global production reached 258 million hectolitres in 2023. China is now the world's fifth-largest wine producer. Here's who makes the most wine, how climate change is reshaping the wine map, and which new regions are rising.

India and the United States each farm roughly 150 million hectares of arable land, with Russia and China next. Yield, water, and soil decide what that land actually feeds. Here is the ranking and what it leaves out.

China leads almost every broad measure of food output, but the ranking changes with the metric. Here is who leads by value added, by staple crop tonnage, and by meat and milk, with sources and caveats.

Wheat feeds more people than any other cereal crop and underpins global food security. This ranking uses USDA and FAO data to show which countries grow the most wheat, which ones export it, and why the two lists look so different.

Australia reports 53 million hectares of organic farmland, more than half the world total, much of it extensive grazing land. Austria, Uruguay, and Estonia lead on share of farmland. Here is who leads, how the numbers are counted, and what the yield gap means.

Earth spins at 1,674 km/h at the equator. If it suddenly stopped, supersonic winds would devastate the surface. If it slowed gradually, the consequences are still severe — a 6-month day, ocean redistribution, and a collapsing magnetic field.

The food on your plate travelled thousands of kilometres through a complex chain involving dozens of countries. This system is extraordinarily efficient — and dangerously brittle. Here's how the global food system actually works.

Coffea arabica survives in a narrow climate band that is shrinking fast. Here is the science behind why your morning cup is under threat — and what the coffee industry is racing to do about it.