Janet Larsen

Janet Larsen is the Director of Research and one of the incorporators of the Earth Policy Institute, an independent environmental research organization based in Washington, DC.

Farmed fish overtake cattle

Jun 172013

Features

World protein consumption veers away from feedlot beef.

by Janet Larsen and J Matthew Roney

The world quietly reached a milestone in the evolution of the human diet in 2011. For the first time in modern history, world farmed fish production topped beef production. The gap widened in 2012, with output from fish farming — also called aquaculture — reaching a record 66 million tons, compared with production of beef at 63 million tons. And 2013 may well be the first year that people eat more fish raised on farms than caught in the wild. More than just a crossing of lines, these trends illustrate the latest stage in a historic shift in food production — a shift that at its core is a story of natural limits.

China’s pork boom

Jun 092013

Features

Growing meat market bids to buy Smithfield, world’s leading pork producer.

by Janet Larsen

Half the world’s pigs — more than 470 million of them — live in China, but even that may not be enough to satisfy the growing Chinese appetite for meat. While meat consumption in the United States has fallen more than 5 percent since peaking in 2007, Chinese meat consumption has leapt 18 percent, from 64 million to 78 million (metric) tons — twice as much as in the United States.

Pork is by far China’s favorite protein, which helps to explain the late-May announced acquisition of US meat giant Smithfield Foods Inc, the world’s leading pork producer, by the Chinese company Shuanghui International, owner of China’s largest meat processor. China already buys more than 60 percent of the world’s soybean exports to feed to its own livestock and has been a net importer of pork for the last five years. Now the move for Chinese companies is to purchase both foreign agricultural land and food-producing companies outright.

Bixi, Citi and other bike-sharing programs

May 192013

Features

Dozens of cities join efficient, affordable bike-sharing movement.

by Janet Larsen

When New York City opened registration for its much anticipated public bike-sharing program on April 15, 2013, more than 5,000 people signed up within 30 hours. Eager for access to a fleet of thousands of bicycles, they became Citi Bike members weeks before bikes were expected to be available.

US weaning itself off gasoline

Apr 012013

Features

Decreasing gas use means US can just say no to new pipelines and food-to-fuel.

by Janet Larsen

Freeing America from its dependence on oil from unstable parts of the world is an admirable goal, but many of the proposed solutions — including the push for more home-grown biofuels and for the construction of the new Keystone XL pipeline to transport Canadian tar sands oil to refineries on the US Gulf Coast — are harmful and simply unnecessary.

Gasoline use in the United States is falling, and the trends already driving it down are likely to continue into the future, making both the mirage of beneficial biofuels and the construction of a new pipeline to import incredibly dirty oil seem ever more out of touch with reality.

Warmest decade on record

Feb 182013

Features

Off-the-charts weather events seen around the world.

by Janet Larsen

In recent years weather events have whiplashed between the extremes of heat and cold, flooding and drought. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases — largely from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas — have loaded up in the atmosphere, heating the planet and pushing humanity onto a climatic seesaw of weather irregularities. High-temperature records in many places are already being broken with startling frequency, and hotter temperatures are in store.

Global grain supply dangerously low

Jan 282013

Features

Grain consumption in 2012 exceeded production.

by Janet Larsen

The world produced 2,241 million tons of grain in 2012, down 75 million tons or 3 percent from the 2011 record harvest. The drop was largely because of droughts that devastated several major crops — namely corn in the United States (the world’s largest crop) and wheat in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Australia.

Dust Bowl revisited

Jan 082013

Features

Droughts are expected to become more common with global warming.

Irrigation rescued US Bread Bowl but Ogallala aquifer nearing depletion.

by Janet Larsen

Dust Bowl revisited

Nov 192012

Features

Recent droughts are predicted to become more frequent as the planet heats up.

Aquifer depletion threatens US's food self-sufficiency.

by Janet Larsen

On October 18, 2012, the Associated Press reported that “a massive dust storm swirling reddish-brown clouds over northern Oklahoma triggered a multi-vehicle accident along a major interstate…forcing police to shut down the heavily traveled roadway amid near blackout conditions.” Farmers in the region had recently plowed fields to plant winter wheat. The bare soil — desiccated by the relentless drought that smothered nearly two-thirds of the continental United States during the summer and still persists over the Great Plains — was easily lifted by the passing strong winds, darkening skies from southern Nebraska, through Kansas, and into Oklahoma.

US Corn, soybean crops ravaged

Sep 182012

Features

Global food stocks suffer after summer of heat and drought.

by Janet Larsen

September estimates from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) show 2012 U.S. corn yields at 123 bushels per acre, down by a fourth from the 2009 high of 165 bushels per acre. Yields are the lowest since 1995 and well below the average of the last 30 years. The summer heat and drought also hit US soybean yields, which are down 20 percent from their 2009 peak.