Feature Channels: Agriculture

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The axiom, “growing like a weed,” takes on new meaning in light of changes in gene expression that occur when weeds interact with the crops they infest, according to plant scientist Sharon Clay. Using sophisticated genetic-mapping techniques, the South Dakota State University professor and her research team are documenting how corn and weeds influence one another. “Weeds grow like weeds when they grow with corn,” says Clay. “They grow bigger, and taller in corn than by themselves.” And inversely, “corn grows less among weeds.”

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A South American insect may hold the key to controlling the spread of the invasive Brazilian peppertree, which supplants native vegetation critical to many organisms in several states.

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Two widely used neonicotinoids—a class of insecticide—appear to harm honey bee colonies over the winter, particularly during colder winters, according to Harvard School of Public Health researchers. The new study replicated a 2012 finding from the same research group that found a link between imidacloprid and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), in which bees abandon their hives over the winter and eventually die. The new study also found that a second neonicotinoid, clothianidin, had the same negative effect.

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A new cultural psychology study has found that psychological differences between the people of northern and southern China mirror the differences between community-oriented East Asia and the more individualistic Western world – and the differences seem to have come about because southern China has grown rice for thousands of years, whereas the north has grown wheat.

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A Virginia Tech team of researchers has proven that homemade, inexpensive stink bug traps crafted from simple household items outshine pricier models designed to kill the invasive, annoying bugs.

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Locally-owned seed companies participating in a program to offer high-yield crop varieties to smallholder farmers across the continent have collectively become the largest seed producers in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new report released at the Grow Africa Investment Forum alongside World Economic Forum for Africa.

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Interest in local, sustainable food sources is motivating more people to plant their own gardens each spring or shop their local farmers market. As a result, Iowa State University experts are fielding more questions.

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Just in time for Mother's Day, UF/IFAS Horticultural Researcher Ria Leonard, demonstrates the proper way to select and care for cut flowers to keep them looking good for longer.

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Researchers create model that can predict the effects of changing climate, planting and other agricultural variables. This could lead to optimized agricultural land use and improve regional food security.

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The Mississippi State University Extension Service has assessment teams visiting farms to report damage to the Board of Animal Health and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. The Winston County teams near Louisville witnessed significant property losses, including residences, barns, poultry houses, equipment, fences, poultry and animals.

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Increasingly harsh drought conditions may take a serious toll on corn and soybean yields over the next half-century, according to research published in the journal Science. Corn yields could drop by 15 to 30 percent, according to the paper's estimates.

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The value of soybeans in Mississippi expanded $1 billion in six years, largely through the efforts of the Extension Service to make farmers better managers. The story takes a historic look at this significant row crop.

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Annual carbon emissions from global agriculture can be reduced by as much as 50 to 90 percent by 2030—the equivalent of removing all the cars in the world—according to a comprehensive new report released by Climate Focus and California Environmental Associates. The study highlights twelve key strategies—led by reduced global beef consumption, reduced food waste and better farm nutrient management and production—that can deliver big climate wins while maintaining food security and building resilience.

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Cornell University plant breeders have released a new alfalfa variety with some resistance against the alfalfa snout beetle, which has ravaged alfalfa fields in nine northern New York counties and across the St. Lawrence River in Canada.

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Horticulturist explains how to check if your fruit buds survived the late burst of cold weather.

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In honor of Earth Day, the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) is highlighting the important role sustainable agriculture plays in feeding the world’s population.

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A review of recent research on the domestication of large herbivores for “The Modern View of Domestication,” a special feature of PNAS, suggests that neither intentional breeding nor genetic isolation were as significant as traditionally thought.

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A credit-card-sized anthrax detection cartridge developed at Sandia National Laboratories and recently licensed to a small business makes testing safer, easier, faster and cheaper.

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Changing agricultural practices and ending food waste around the world are among recommendations made by scientists charged with looking at ways to mitigate global climate change. The scientists were authors who contributed to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

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According to a new study, over the past couple of decades, global coffee production has been shifting towards a more intensive, less environmentally friendly style. That's pretty surprising if you live in the U.S. and you've gone to the grocery store or Starbucks, where sales of environmentally and socially conscious coffees have risen sharply and now account for half of all U.S. coffee sales by economic value.

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Geologic and soil processes are to blame for significant baseline levels of arsenic in soil throughout Ohio, according to a new study. Every sample had concentrations higher than the screening level of concern recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Cornell scientists have created the first vaccines that can prevent metritis, one of the most common cattle diseases. The infection not only harms animals and farmers’ profits, but also drives more systemic antibiotic use on dairy farms than any other disease. The new vaccines prevent metritis infection of the uterus from taking hold and reduce symptoms when it does, a prospect that could save the United States billions of dollars a year and help curb the growing epidemic of antibiotic resistance.

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Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory develops tests to identify pig viruses, hoping to prevent the further spread of diseases that have already killed almost 6 million pigs.

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Corralling desperados with names like bacillus and paenibacillus will require ingenuity and an arsenal of weapons. These outlaws aren’t rustling cattle—they’re making milk sour and cheese soft and crumbly. For more than a century, milk has been heated to kill any bacteria or pathogens that can affect consumer health and shorten the shelf life of the product. However, microbes-- known as thermoduric--can survive pasteurization, according to South Dakota State University dairy science professor Sanjeev Anand. The Agricultural Experiment Station researcher has begun developing ways to combat heat-resistant microorganisms, a major challenge for the world’s dairy industry. His work is also supported by the Dairy Research Institute and the Midwest Dairy Food Research Center.

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Swine specialist and team of researchers investigating how porcine epidemic diarrhea virus may be infecting pigs' feed.

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Charred grains of barley, millet and wheat deposited nearly 5,000 years ago at campsites in the high plains of Kazakhstan show that nomadic sheepherders played a surprisingly important role in the early spread of domesticated crops throughout a mountainous east-west corridor along the historic Silk Road, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

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A meta-data analysis has uncovered more than 1,000 genes in rice that may be key targets for developing new strains of super rice.

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In a new study from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF), researchers identified a range of factors and challenges related to the perceived risk of soil contamination among urban community gardeners and found a need for clear and concise information on how best to prevent and manage soil contamination.

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A new international partnership seeks to increase wheat yields by 50 percent by 2034. This will address demand for wheat – one of the world’s most important crops – that is growing much faster than production.

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A new treatment, using microparticles made from chitosan, could help dairy cattle stave off uterine diseases and eventually could help improve food safety for humans.

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Wheat farmers in East Africa and the Middle East are on alert after a damaging strain of a plant disease called stem rust decimated more than 10,000 hectares of wheat in southern Ethiopia, the largest wheat producer in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), according to a report discussed today at an international gathering of the world’s top wheat experts.

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Enter some data into a computer and you'll find out how much water farms use. The global implications include the consequences of water sent overseas. This includes water used to grow crops and commodities made from water.

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Challenges to the global food supply mean that critically trained scientists are needed for innovative solutions. Over 1,000 scientist level employees will be hired through 2015, with a long-term need as well.

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Results from a new study co-authored by Netra Chhetri, a faculty member at the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes at Arizona State University, show global warming of only two degrees Celsius will be detrimental to three essential food crops in temperate and tropical regions. And beginning in the 2030s, yields from those crops will start to decline significantly.

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Despite major research funding--including the U.S. Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative, scientists’ have had only limited success in controlling fusarium head blight , a fungal disease that not only dramatically shrinks yields but produces toxins that make the grain dangerous for human or animal consumption. Using advanced genetic and molecular technologies, biologist Yen has begun tracing the biochemical pathways that make wheat susceptible or resistant to head blight. The South Dakota State University researcher believes the key to head blight resistance lies in its ability to block production of two key hormones.

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Global experts will hold critical talks in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico (March 22-28) about evolving risks and opportunities for wheat, one of the world’s three key staple food crops. The meetings also will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Norman Borlaug, a legendary scientist who developed high-yielding, semi-dwarf wheat that is credited with sparking the Green Revolution and saving over 1 billion people from starvation. Borlaug’s wheat varieties were first grown in Mexico, India, Pakistan and Turkey, boosting those countries’ harvests, preventing a famine in South Asia and sparking widespread adoption of improved crop varieties and farming practices.

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Use of beta agonists in cattle production has received considerable national attention. A Texas Tech veterinary epidemiologist has found that although there are significant benefits to the practice, an increase in death loss of cattle raises questions about welfare implications of its use.

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To buy, or not to buy? That is the question for the more than 5 million annual visitors to New York’s wineries. Cornell University researchers found that customer service is the most important factor in boosting tasting room sales, but sensory descriptions of what flavors consumers might detect were a turn-off.

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Wastewater used to irrigate farmers' fields may present public health risks to children and others.

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Global farmers could get better decision-making help as refinements are made to North Alabama soil moisture modeling research being done by an atmospheric science doctoral student at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

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Crops genetically modified with the bacterium Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) produce proteins that kill pest insects. Steady exposure has prompted concern that pests will develop resistance to these proteins, making Bt plants ineffective. Cornell research shows that the combination of natural enemies, such as ladybeetles, with Bt crops delays a pest’s ability to evolve resistance to these insecticidal proteins.

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A sweetener created from the plant used to make tequila could lower blood glucose levels for the 26 million Americans and others worldwide who have type 2 diabetes and help them and the obese lose weight, researchers said here today. Their report was part of the 247th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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If significant climate change occurs in the United States it may be necessary to change where certain foods are produced in order to meet consumer demand. In a paper published online this week in the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University provide an overview of current farmland use and food production in the Northeastern U.S., identifying potential vulnerabilities of the 12-state region.

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More than eight tons a month. That’s how much organic material in the form of spent coffee grounds the Austin-based Ground to Ground program diverts from area landfills and makes available to people in the community as compost.

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Cowpeas, known as black-eyed peas in the U.S., are an important and versatile food legume grown in more than 80 countries. Texas A&M University scientists are working to map the genes controlling drought and heat tolerance in recent varieties.

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Eat4-Health program teaches healthy eating and activity habits to students.