The world’s agriculture producers are not growing enough fruits and vegetables to feed the global population a healthy diet, according to new Canadian-led research.

The study, published this week in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, indicates that agricultural practices aren’t keeping step with prevailing dietary wisdom, greatly overproducing grains, sugars and fats while growing three times less produce than what nutritionists suggest everyone should consume.

The study, led by researchers at the University of Guelph and completed by a team of more than a dozen scientists in Canada and the United Kingdom, also stressed that a focus on growing more fruits and vegetables should go hand in hand with reduced reliance on livestock production in order to limit the agriculture sector’s overall impact on the environment.

Not yielding enough

“We just wanted to ask the question, ‘is what we’re producing globally matched with what nutritionists recommend,” said University of Guelph professor Evan Fraser, who co-authored the study led by Krishna KC, a researcher at the school. “The answer is no.”

The study contrasted United Nations agriculture production data from 2011 with the nutritional guidelines set out in the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate or HHEP model, an internationally recognized blueprint for consuming a healthy diet.

The study said the HHEP advises that 50 per cent of a person’s diet should be comprised of fruits and vegetables, with 25 per cent dedicated to whole grains and the last quarter reserved for a combination of protein, fat and dairy. The study notes that the Canadian Food Guide, updated last year, calls for 27 per cent less produce, 34 per cent less protein and 60 per cent more dairy than the HHEP model.

In order to feed everyone according to the HHEP’s guidelines, the study found global agriculture would have to produce 15 servings of fruits and vegetables per person per day. The 2011 data, however, suggested current practices were yielding just five servings.

The study also documented a smaller shortfall in protein production, with three servings per person per day produced compared to the five recommended by the HHEP.

Fraser said other food groups, however, were being grossly overproduced.

The study said agriculture should produce one serving each of oil and dairy, zero servings of sugar, and eight servings of whole grains per person per day to keep the population in compliance with the HHEP.

Instead, it found 2011 agricultural practices were yielding three servings of oil and fat, four of sugar, one of milk and a whopping 12 servings of grains per day.

Fraser said there are numerous, complex reasons for much of the overproduction, noting that people in impoverished countries often focus on growing grains because they offer a cheap, easy source of calories.

But he said government subsidies and industry lobbies also played a significant role, citing a long-standing, multibillion-dollar U.S. government subsidy for corn growers as one example.

Fraser said the current crop-to-diet ratios play a direct role in levels of diabetes, obesity and other conditions strongly tied to diet, adding the shortfalls and their ensuing results would only intensify as the earth’s population continues to climb.

Nor is the solution as simple as merely growing more fruits and vegetables.

Fraser said that if the agriculture industry immediately corrected its imbalances and shifted its production priorities to align with the HHEP, a new problem would emerge.

He projected doing so would free up 51 million hectares of arable land globally, but the total amount of land used for agriculture would jump by 407 million hectares thanks in part to increased availability of pasture for livestock. Greenhouse gas emissions would also rise as a result, the study predicted.

Fraser and the team of researchers said a focus on growing more fruits and vegetables should be accompanied by reduced reliance on livestock in order to keep the global food supply sustainable.

Fraser said he “cannot imagine an agro-ecosystem without animals in it,” arguing animals play a role in cycling nutrients in the environment and preserving the quality of certain types of land.

But he said the best path forward would couple a significant increase in fruit and vegetable production with a shift away from animal protein.

“If we want to move forward to feed the future … and we want to be healthier and we don’t want to increase the amount of land that agriculture uses, we both have to shift to a Harvard Healthy Eating Plate model and we have to shift our protein consumption away from livestock-based to plant-based,” he said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. –  Two perfect games and a 16-hit week land Minnesota State senior Coley Ries and Cedarville junior Brianne O’DellLouisville Slugger / NFCA Division II National Pitcher and Player of the Week honors, respectively, for games played April 17-23.

Ries was nearly perfect in three starts, not allowing a base runner over the final 17.1 innings of the week. The right-hander from Eagle Lake, Minn. fanned 44 in 20 innings, did not issue a walk and allowed just two hits for a .032 opponent’s batting average. Those two hits came in the second and third frame of a six-inning shutout over Southwest Minnesota State. She struck out 11 and did not allow a base runner over the final 3.1 innings. Carrying that momentum into the weekend, Ries was perfect in her next two starts against Northern Sun Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foes Northern State and Minnesota State Moorhead. She struck out 15 in a 4-0 triumph over the Wolves and then sat down 18 of 21 Dragons she faced in a 7-0 victory. This marks Ries’ second NFCA weekly honor, earning her first in 2016.

O’Dell extended her hitting streak to 18 games as she recorded at least one hit in all six contests, including a pair of four-hit outings, helping the Yellow Jackets to a 4-2 week. She finished 16-for-21 (.762) with six doubles, a triple, 11 RBI, seven runs and a 1.143 slugging percentage. O’Dell was a perfect 7-for-7 in a mid-week sweep of Ohio Valley, recording four RBI in game one and posting four hits, two doubles and three RBI in the nightcap. In games two and three of a Great Midwest Athletic series against Kentucky Wesleyan, O’Dell was 7-for-8 with three doubles, four runs and three RBI. The Goshen, Ind. native added a triple, RBI and run scored in game one.

Player of the Week
April 26 – Brianne O’Dell (Cedarville)
April 19 – Kylee Moore (West Texas A&M)
April 12 – Shea Ibrahim (West Texas A&M)
April 5 – Taylor Luzzi (University of New Haven)
March 29 – Mariah Jameyson (Texas A&M University-Commerce)
March 22 – Natalie Lalich (Indianapolis)
March 15 – Kailey Green (Missouri Western)
March 8 – Lyndsay Butler (Wayne State University)
March 1 – Ashley Hardin (West Texas A&M)
Feb. 22 – Erika Lutgen (Missouri Southern)
Feb. 15 – Abbey Walters (UNC Pembroke)
Feb. 8 – Tiffany Hollingsworth (Humboldt State)

Pitcher of the Week
April 19 – Taylor Brandts (UVa-Wise)
April 12 – Jayden Chestnut (University of Central Oklahoma)
April 5 – Bridgette Sappington (Rockhurst) & Jessica Yost (Bemidji State)
March 29 – Amanda Houck (West Chester University)
March 22 – Michelle Sorensen (Henderson State)
March 15 – Brandy Marlett (Angelo State)
March 8 – Anna Kasner (Western Washington)
March 1 – Kylee Smith (North Georgia)
Feb. 22 – Ally Marcano (Flagler)
Feb. 15 – Rachel Pence (Florida Tech)
Feb. 8 – Anna Kasner (Western Washington)

Selected Top Performances
Chelsea Hawks, Molloy (ECC Pitcher of the Week)- 3-0, 1.38 ERA, 37 K, 3 BB, .141 opp. BA, Program’s first-ever perfect game against Dominican (14 K); Sydney Ponto, Caldwell– 4-0, 0.23 ERA, 48 K, 5 BB, 30 IP, 2 SHO, .137 opp. BA, Perfect game vs. Goldey-Beacom (9 K); Makinlee Sellevold, Western Washington (GNAC Player of the Week)- .588 (10-for-17), 3 2B, 2 HR, 14 RBI, 6 R, 1.118 SLG; Brandy Marlett, Angelo State (Lone Star Pitcher of the Week)- 3-0, 1.00 ERA, SHO, 37 K, 3 BB, .176 opp. BA; Jenna Lenza, Grand Valley State (GLIAC Player of the Week)- .529 (9-for-17), 3 2B, HR, 8 R, 5 BB, .636 OBP; Samantha Waskowitz, Merrimack (NE 10 Player of the Week)- .588 (10-for-17), 2B, 3 HR (Grand Slam), 7 RBI, 6 R, 4 SB; Allison Lipovsky, Grand Valley State (GLIAC Pitcher of the Week)- 3-0, 2 SHO, 0.64 ERA, 8 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 34 K, .108 opp. BA; Cassidy Wootten, Mercy (ECC Player of the Week)- .571, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 6 R; Chandler Walker, Pfeiffer (Conference Carolina’s Player of the Week)- .462, 2 2B, HR, 9 RBI; Jasmine Harris, Barry (Sunshine State Player of the Week)- .500, 9 H, 5 XBH, 9 RBI, 8 R, 3 BB; Nikole Van Gennep, Eckerd (Sunshine State Pitcher of the Week)- 2-0, 1.00 ERA, SHO, 2 CG, 12 K , 2 BB, 6 H, 14 IP; Ashley Mills, St. Mary’s (Heartland Pitcher of the Week)- 3-0, 0.00 ERA, 0 R, 5 H, 11 K, 16.1 IP.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) is pleased to announce that Virginia Wesleyan University freshman pitcher Hanna Hull has been named the 2017 winner of the Schutt Sports/NFCA Division III National Player of the Year award.

Earlier this week at OGE Energy Field at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, the Chesterfield, Va., native earned NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player honors for leading the (54-3) Marlins to their first Division III softball national championship.

In six NCAA Championship contests, Hull went 3-1 with two saves, a 0.90 earned-run average and 46 strikeouts in 31 innings. She pitched two three-hitters and had an one-hitter with 13 strikeouts against St. John Fisher on Monday in game one of the best-of-three NCAA Championship Series.

For the season, she was 32-3 with a 0.51 ERA, just 90 hits allowed and 372 strikeouts in 220.1 innings. Hull set school marks for season ERA and strikeouts, and had a program-best 19 strikeouts in a two-hitter against Bridgewater on April 22. In 41 appearances (32 starts), she tallied nine three-hitters, nine two-hitters, five one-hitters and no-hit William Peace on March 7.

“I’m unbelievably proud of this young woman,” Virginia Wesleyan head coach Brandon Elliott said. “Not because of all the accolades, but because of the humility and grace she possesses.”

“She’s a tireless worker, unselfish, a perfectionist, a competitor and the ultimate teammate. We knew she had God-given ability and talent, but she became successful at the highest level of our game because of her trust in the process and the extraordinary efforts and knowledge from Jim Inzana, our pitching coach. Her maturity is also a direct reflection of Kasey Newcomb, our senior in the bullpen and the drive of Alana Peters and Courtney Wright alongside her. We talk about outloving each other and there is no better example than that in our bullpen under Coach Inzana’s leadership.”

“Her strength lies within her humility and genuine love for pitching,” Inzana added. “She is a consummate professional in every aspect and a joy to work with.”

Hull received first team NFCA All-America and Schutt Sports/NFCA Division III National Freshman of the Year honors at last Wednesday’s NCAA Championship Banquet. Her 6-0 victory over Illinois Wesleyan last Saturday at the NCAA Championship set a record for most wins by an Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) pitcher in a season and made the Marlins the first ODAC school with a 50-win campaign.

In addition to her NCAA Championship honor, Hull was selected as the Most Outstanding Player of the ODAC Tournament, the NCAA Regional and NCAA Super Regional. She previously was honored as the ODAC Pitcher and Rookie of the Year, and was a three-time recipient of the Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division III National Pitcher of the Week award this season (March 1, March 8 and April 12).

Of the 10 finalists for this year’s Schutt Sports/NFCA Division III National Player of the Year, nine were selected as first team NFCA All-Americans, with Texas Lutheran pitcher Maitlin Raycroft registering second team All-America status behind first team selections Hull and Lindsey Thayer of NCAA runner-up St. John Fisher. The other seven finalists were Hull’s Virginia Wesleyan teammate Cassetty Howerin, a junior first baseman, Salisbury junior outfielder LeAnne Collins, East Texas Baptist sophomore second baseman Linzie Lewis, Averett senior infielder Jessica Long, Texas-Tyler senior outfielder Kaylee Prather, Kean senior infielder Emily Sabo and Luther junior shortstop Anna Strien.

Howerin, Long and Thayer were all in the initial watch list group of 50 at the start of the season and remained on the list through cuts to 25 and 10 finalists, respectively. The list was a collaborative effort between the NFCA’s All-America Committee and Division III head coaches.

University of Texas at Tyler pitcher Kelsie Batten was the inaugural winner of the Schutt Sports/NFCA Division III National Player of the Year award last season, after earning her fourth-straight NFCA All-America honor and recording 118 career wins, just four short of the all-time Division III record of 124 posted by Coast Guard’s Hayley Feindel from 2009-12.

IGN is proud to exclusively reveal Darkborn, the debut game from developer The Outsiders. Previously codenamed Project Wight, Darkborn is a story-focused action game where you play a literal monster in a classic revenge story.

Though still in development in a pre-alpha state, Darkborn is a first-person mixture of stealth and action as you inhabit one of the titular creatures in a bid to visit vengeance on the Viking-like humans who inhabit the world.

But there’s more to it than pulping your way through grunting, barbaric Norsemen. Darkborn is positioned to tell a unique story revolving around opposing powers in the world, while you and your family are caught in the middle. As evident from the 15-minute gameplay reveal above, the opening moments of Darkborn paint the picture of a caring family unit that’s literally ripped apart, sparking your journey to grow and evolve from a cub to a predator, gaining size, strength, and incredible bestial powers.

Speaking with The Outsiders co-founder, project lead, and longtime Battlefield and Payday developer David Goldfarb, Darkborn is about putting you on the other side of the sword, so to speak.

“Darkborn is first and foremost a game about being a monster,” Goldfarb said. “Playing it is about experiencing that monstrous quality – in first person combat, in novel abilities and movement, and even in enemy reactions to you.”

“But it’s not traditional in that humans are murderous, cruel enemies bent on your extinction. You yourself are an innocent caught up in a much larger conflict between Powers, the specifics of which become clearer in the course of the game. It’s a classic revenge story, but also a mystery: what happened to the world and your people? Can they be saved?”

Darkborn’s inspirations are similarly varied. The idea was pulled together from twists on classic epic literature like John Gardner’s Grendel being the biggest influence on Goldfarb, pop-culture staples like King Kong and Bambi, and video games like Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of the Colossus.

“What if the Orcs [in Shadow of Mordor] were the good guys?” Goldfarb said. “What kind of lives did those great beasts [in Shadow of the Colossus] have before you came to murder them?”

At a scant 25 members, The Stockholm-based development studio has been working on Darkborn for nearly three years, albeit with a much smaller development team for half that time – the exception being some outsourced art, and the audio team Two Feathers which is responsible for the incredible, yet heart-wrenching crunches, cries, and whimpers of Darkborn’s opening minutes.

“Originally [The Outsiders] was founded to try to make the types of games we wanted to play that we felt no one else was making,” Goldfarb said. “Darkborn was the first of those games.”

Though there’s currently no release window, The Outsiders’ vision seems to be coming together nicely as Darkborn makes its way to an eventual PC release with the possibility of a home on consoles over the horizon.

“We hope people experience a new perspective,” Goldfarb said of his hopes Darkborn players. “We want them to want to help this lone creature succeed against seemingly impossible odds on their journey of knowledge and vengeance.”

So while there is a huge component of traditional power fantasy in the player’s own growth across the game, there’s also the ‘man this poor thing had it hard and it’s terrible what the humans did and I’m going to help’ element that propels the narrative and, we hope, player engagement.”

You can follow the development of Darkborn on the studio’s Twitter and Facebook page, or even contact them via email – the studio is eager to know what people think of its little monster!

Brandin Tyrrel is IGN’s Xbox Editor. You can find him on Unlocked, or chat over on Twitter at @BrandinTyrrel.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Norco kept rolling this week to top three California schools among the first eight in the USA Today Sports/NFCA High School Super 25 poll.

The (11-0) Cougars have outscored opponents 41-5 over their last four games, including Saturday’s doubleheader sweep of Diamond Ranch by scores of 13-4 and 14-1.

Second-ranked Spain Park (22-1), meanwhile, beat rival Oak Mountain, 2-1, on Monday before suffering its first loss in Tuesday’s 14-7 slugfest with Hewitt-Trussville. No. 3 Hendrickson (20-0) stayed perfect with a 9-6 victory over Round Rock on Tuesday.

In a top-five showdown, No. 4 Pinnacle (18-1) dealt No. 5 Desert Ridge (11-1) its first loss on Tuesday in stunning fashion, 12-0 in five innings, while Lakewood Ranch (10-0) remained unbeaten on the strength of its stellar pitching (0.67 ERA) and solid hitting (.387).

In all, 20 of the 25 ranked teams have one or fewer losses so far this season, including No. 10 Willis (21-1), which beat Brenham, 3-2, on Tuesday in the bottom of the seventh, and reigning Kentucky state titlist Scott County (3-0) at No, 20, which has outscored its three opponents 27-0 and allowed just one hit in each contest.

State rankings submitted by NFCA member coaches are used to compile the USA Today Sports/NFCA High School Super 25.

USA Today Sports/NFCA High School Super 25 Poll – March 23, 2017

Rank Team 2017 Record Previous 1 Norco (Calif.) 11-0 4 2 Spain Park (Ala.) 22-1 NR 3 Hendrickson (Texas) 20-0 NR 4 Pinnacle (Ariz.) 18-1 25 5 Desert Ridge (Ariz.) 11-1 NR 6 Lakewood Ranch (Fla.) 10-0 NR 7 Amador Valley (Calif.) 6-0 NR 8 Cape Fear (N.C.) 8-0 NR 9 Westminster Christian (Ala.) 27-1 NR 10 Willis (Texas) 21-1 NR 11 Hamilton (Ariz.) 16-3 9 12 Los Alamitos (Calif.) 8-2 1 13 Sheldon (Calif.) 6-1 NR 14 Bishop O’Connell (Va.) 4-0 13 15 La Habra (Calif.) 8-2 NR 16 D.H. Conley (N.C.) 6-0 NR 17 Coral Springs Charter (Fla.) 14-1 NR 18 Johnson (Texas) 17-1 NR 19 Deer Park (Texas) 14-3 11 20 Scott County (Ky.) 3-0 22 21 Mater Dei (Calif.) 10-2 NR 22 Clovis (Calif.) 7-1 NR 23 Immaculate Heart Academy (N.J.) 0-0 18 24 Orange (N.C.) 5-0 NR 25 South Granville (N.C.) 6-0 NR

DC is going all-out when it comes to celebrating Batman’s 80th anniversary this year, and that includes inviting 1.5 million actual bats to the party.

Today DC shed light on some of the Bat-themed festivities going on during 2019. In addition to the release of the landmark Detective Comics #1000 this month (which features the comic book universe debut of the Arkham Knight), the company will be hosting several Batman panels at events like SXSW, Emerald City Comic-Con and WonderCon, as well as celebrating another annual Batman Day on September 21.

DC also revealed this new anniversary logo designed by artist Jose Luis Garcia-Loez and painted by Admira Wijaya:

Among other events at SXSW this year, DC will host a gathering as attendees watch 1.5 million bats fly over Congress Bridge in Austin, TX.

This year’s Batman Day will be even more ambitious than usual, as multiple cities will shine Bat-signals and host 5K and 10K marathons.

Other Batman events in 2019 will include:

• The Madame Tussauds locations in Orlando and Sydney will host a Batman-themed exhibit in September.
• Six Flags theme parks will have a #LongLivetheBat event, featuring extended hours, new events and exclusive Batman merchandise.
• Austin-based art gallery MONDO will host a Batman art exhibition in May.
• The LEGO exhibition The Art of the Brick: DC Super Heroes will kick off a new touring Batman exhibit in September, beginning in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
• DirecTV will air a special Batman-centric TV channel.
• Both Rome and Shanghai will play host to unique Batman exhibits.
• Batman will be featured in a new campaign for National Boys & Girls Clubs Week in April.
• Genetic Disorders UK will release a new Batman shirt as part of Jeans for Genes Day in September.

Batman’s official 80th anniversary happens on March 30, with Batman Day scheduled for September 21. Detective Comics #1000 will hit stores on March 27.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

The country’s first municipal vote to be held under a ranked-ballot system was finally decided on Tuesday, with a mayor declared after 14 rounds of counting.

Under the system, in which voters picked their top three candidates in order of preference, Ed Holder was declared winner over his closest challenger about 18 hours after polls closed Monday evening.

This was the first provincewide election in Ontario in which municipalities were allowed to choose using ranked ballots rather than the traditional first-past-the-post system that rewards a person with the most votes, regardless of whether that translates into a majority.

Other communities mull switching to ranked ballots

Only London opted to go that ranked-ballot route after public consultation and passage of a bylaw. Two other communities — Cambridge and Kingston — asked voters during Monday’s election whether they should move to ranked ballots in 2022. Voters in both centres said yes but Cambridge didn’t have a large enough turnout to make the result stick.

Under the ranked system, votes are counted and the last-place person is dropped from the ballot. However, their votes are distributed according to the second and third-place choices voters indicated, provided those candidates have not been eliminated.

To win, Holder had to win a simple majority.

He started off strong, taking about 33,000 votes — or roughly one third of all ballots cast — to lead the balloting on the first round. However, despite coming out as the front-runner through subsequent rounds, he was unable to make much headway through round 11, where he still led against three other challengers.

It was only in the following few rounds that he finally powered his way to more than 57,000 votes and a solid victory over his second-place rival, Paul Paolatto.

Holder, 64, a former Conservative MP, takes over from Matt Brown, a former one-term city councillor and teacher.

Brown had been elected mayor in 2014 on a platform of integrity and teamwork but scandal marred his tenure. Among other things, he admitted to an affair with the deputy mayor, leading to a split with his wife. He announced in April he wouldn’t run again.

The mayor-elect campaigned on a platform that included his opposition to a $500-million bus rapid transit project. He said it would cost too much for not enough benefit, and would create traffic chaos during a decade of construction.

In Kingston, almost 63 per cent of those who cast ballots voted to move to a ranked-ballot system. In Cambridge, the split was closer. About 57 per cent were in favour and 43 per cent opposed. However, overall turnout in Cambridge was a low 33 per cent, election officials said, invalidating the result, which required a majority of voters to have weighed in.

Earlier: Toronto councillor says cutting the council will cost more