https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. When Hurricane Delta hit Mexico's Caribbean coast in 2020, insurance payouts were released within days—not to rebuild hotels or roads, but to repair coral reefs. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-economics-climate-natural-habitats.html Environment Mon, 12 Jan 2026 13:35:29 EST news687447301 For many people, the allure of video games is that they offer players a chance to enter a world very different from their own: everything from fighting dragons in a mythical realm to racing cars on an obstacle-filled roadway. Researchers at the University of Vermont wanted to see what players would do in a more realistic world: playing as small farmers, their actions modeled after real-life decisions farmers in Vermont face each harvest season. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-video-game-reveals-people-neighbors.html Agriculture Mon, 12 Jan 2026 08:58:14 EST news687430681 Global debate about how to navigate the climate crisis often centers on high-level pledges and whether national targets are being met. Yet focusing on these technical outcomes obscures a deeper problem that keeps climate action falling short. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-ecological-myopia-climate-action.html Environment Tue, 23 Dec 2025 09:54:24 EST news685706041 It matters where the rain that irrigates your food comes from. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-qa-rainfall-drought-crops.html Earth Sciences Mon, 03 Nov 2025 16:40:04 EST news681410401 Food waste has long been reviled as an immoral, largely preventable feature of our consumer society. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-plastic-packaging-greater-food.html Environment Thu, 30 Oct 2025 12:50:04 EDT news681047402 Avocados have been grown in Tanzania since the early 1890s. The global appetite for the creamy fruit, also known as green gold, is booming. The industry's market value was over US$6.5 billion in 2020, reached US$16.24 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach US$23 billion in 2029. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-tanzania-green-gold-avocado-farmers.html Agriculture Thu, 02 Oct 2025 12:21:04 EDT news678626462 Economic sanctions are widely viewed by academics and policymakers as a better alternative to military interventions to pressure governments to change objectionable policies. The idea is simple: instead of using weapons, squeeze the ruling elite economically until they change their behavior. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-economic-sanctions-rethink-evidence-food.html Economics & Business Mon, 22 Sep 2025 13:47:06 EDT news677767622 Food prices remain high even as inflation eases, and instant noodles are at the top of the list of cheap options. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-instant-ramen-short-history-noodle.html Social Sciences Sun, 21 Sep 2025 15:30:02 EDT news677499744 Human waste usually gets flushed away, but instead of going down the toilet, it can help the planet and solve global fertilizer shortages, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-power-poop-human-boost-crop.html Agriculture Wed, 13 Aug 2025 13:00:01 EDT news674308631 Climate change is pushing up the prices of the food that we buy and therefore changing what we eat. One-third of UK food price increases in 2023 resulted from climate change, according to research by agricultural economists. This extra cost contributed to food price inflation and the UK's cost-of-living crisis. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-diets-food-chaos-climate.html Environment Thu, 07 Aug 2025 10:26:05 EDT news673781161 Grocery prices are having a moment in 2025. On social media, food costs have become a full-blown cultural conversation, from outrage over a $19 strawberry (yes, one strawberry) at the upscale Los Angeles grocery store Erewhon to the rising price of staples like eggs. These moments fuel frustration, memes and more than a few stressed-out grocery haul videos. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-strawberry-viral-egg-prices-expert.html Social Sciences Thu, 24 Jul 2025 04:41:05 EDT news672550862 Amid growing political concerns that supermarkets are quietly gouging shoppers through dynamic "surge pricing," a new study from the University of California Rady School of Management offers a surprising conclusion: it's not happening. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-supermarket-surge-pricing-electronic-shelf.html Economics & Business Tue, 22 Jul 2025 13:20:05 EDT news672408625 As prices rose across the globe following the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, many expected the usual pattern, i.e., low-income households bearing the brunt of inflation. But in South Korea, they observed something exactly opposite to the usual scenario. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-reveals-middle-class-families-hardest.html Social Sciences Tue, 08 Jul 2025 16:51:04 EDT news671212261 African food systems face daunting challenges in the face of climate change. They must ensure fair access to food for residents of Africa's growing cities and create decent jobs where workers and small businesses get a fair share of earnings. Food systems must also mitigate the environmental problems they cause, such as biodiversity loss, soil degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-food-regimes-people-planet-g20.html Economics & Business Tue, 08 Jul 2025 11:23:58 EDT news671192632 In the wake of the largest series of U.S. tariff hikes since 1930, a new study from Michigan State University explores how this economic shock is reshaping global supply chains and offers a framework to help researchers and policymakers make sense of the chaos. The study was recently published in the Journal of Supply Chain Management. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-tariffs-global-chain.html Economics & Business Tue, 01 Jul 2025 11:55:04 EDT news670589701 A study by the University of the Basque Country (EHU) has identified the optimal combinations of taxes and subsidies for reducing the environmental footprint of food consumption. Researchers from the BIRTE research group looked at how different fiscal policies contributed to reducing the carbon emissions, water use and food waste generated by food consumption. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-fiscal-policies-highly-effective-mitigating.html Environment Fri, 20 Jun 2025 12:23:04 EDT news669640981 Healthy food is hard to come by in northern Manitoba. Food shipped from the south is prohibitively expensive and is often stale, and the climate and soil in the region don't support much traditional outdoor farming. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-indoor-farming-community-members-healthy.html Agriculture Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:50:01 EDT news668953688 Five years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, companies and consumers learned what can happen when supply chains get snarled. In a global economy, where a product can pass through several countries before it reaches a store's shelves, shoppers encountered shortages of products from new clothes to new cars. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-qa-discusses-tariffs-reshape-chains.html Economics & Business Tue, 20 May 2025 16:10:04 EDT news666975381 Donald Trump's tariffs will make many things more expensive for his fellow US citizens. The price of imported cars, building materials and some tech will go up—and so will the cost of the food on American dining tables. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-donald-trump-tariffs-threat-global.html Economics & Business Thu, 01 May 2025 12:36:22 EDT news665321780 When the wholesale prices of essential goods like food or oil suddenly rise, it can cause deep shifts in the economy that upend trade balances and hike inflation rates. This is known as a commodity price boom. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-windfalls-commodity-price-booms-exporters.html Economics & Business Wed, 09 Apr 2025 16:19:03 EDT news663434341 Maple syrup, often called Canada's "liquid gold," has long been a target for fraudulent activities, such as the dilution or substitution with other syrups, due to its high demand. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-tariff-threats-fuel-maple-syrup.html Economics & Business Tue, 08 Apr 2025 08:57:05 EDT news663321421 New projections by the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response (ICRR) reveal a 4°C rise in global temperatures would cut world GDP by around 40% by 2100—a stark increase from previous estimates of around 11%. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-reveals-higher-loss-gdp-4c.html Earth Sciences Tue, 01 Apr 2025 05:36:04 EDT news662704562 As global food prices rise and reducing food waste remains a top priority, a groundbreaking new study in the INFORMS journal Management Science reveals how blockchain technology could revolutionize the grocery industry. By increasing transparency in food freshness, blockchain adoption could help retailers slash waste, maximize profits and reshape relationships with suppliers. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-blockchain-grocery-reveals-freshness-transparency.html Economics & Business Tue, 25 Mar 2025 12:27:03 EDT news662124421 Food fraud occurs when products that do not meet consumer expectations reach the market and, in extreme cases, this can lead to health problems. To combat this misleading and critical practice in the food sector, a team from the University of Barcelona has published new studies presenting technologies to verify the geographical origin of two food products: virgin olive oil—emblematic of the Mediterranean diet—and pine nuts, the most expensive nuts on the market. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-advances-food-fraud-consumption-virgin.html Biochemistry Mon, 24 Mar 2025 16:32:18 EDT news662052735 Stress levels due to grocery prices are mixed, and most consumers are at least somewhat familiar with the concept of tariffs, according to the January issue of the Consumer Food Insights Report (CFI). https://phys.org/news/2025-02-consumer-stress-grocery-prices-midpoint.html Economics & Business Wed, 12 Feb 2025 13:20:00 EST news658588794 Although fertilizers are essential for global food production, they also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. The war in Ukraine has caused supply chain disruptions and price increases. How can fertilizer production become more sustainable and resilient to geopolitical crises? https://phys.org/news/2025-01-war-climate-crisis-reshaping-global.html Economics & Business Tue, 21 Jan 2025 17:05:04 EST news656701502 A study in the journal Transportation Science reveals the severe and far-reaching consequences of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on global food security. The research highlights an urgent need to address disruptions in the transportation of Ukrainian grains, which have caused dramatic price spikes and worsened food insecurity worldwide, particularly in vulnerable regions such as the Middle East and North Africa. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-ukraine-war-impacts-global-food.html Economics & Business Tue, 14 Jan 2025 12:49:56 EST news656081393 Consumers reported a 9.5% out-of-stock rate for foods in 2024. This figure dropped from 12.3% in 2023 and 19.3% in 2022, according to the December 2024 Consumer Food Insights Report (CFI). https://phys.org/news/2025-01-consumer-food-insights-stock-foods.html Economics & Business Mon, 13 Jan 2025 13:42:15 EST news655998130 Greenhouse gas emissions in German agriculture could be significantly reduced in a socially equitable way through a climate fee on food, combined with climate dividends. This is the key finding of a study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). https://phys.org/news/2025-01-climate-fee-food-effectively-greenhouse.html Environment Fri, 10 Jan 2025 11:43:03 EST news655731781 Farmers are receiving less of what consumers spend on food, as modern food systems increasingly direct costs toward value-added components like processing, transport, and marketing. A new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK shows that this effect shapes how food prices respond to agricultural climate policies: While value-added components buffer consumer price changes in wealthier countries, low-income countries—where farming costs dominate—face greater challenges in managing food price increases due to climate policies. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-agricultural-climate-policies-affect-food.html Economics & Business Fri, 03 Jan 2025 05:00:02 EST news655052461