Saint Michael’s College receives $766,000 NSF grant as part of a 5-year $6.6 million Plant Genome Grant allocated to 4 universities and Saint Michael's; Project could lead to better quality corn plants.
As misperceptions about modern food production and technology become increasingly common, a new alliance has formed to better articulate how our food is produced. Today the Alliance to Feed the Future is announcing its formation and its new website, www.alliancetofeedthefuture.org.
The greater the amount of marbling in beef, the higher its grade because marbling makes beef more tender, flavorful and juicy. This study is unique in that it focuses on marbling development in cattle during the stocker phase.
If a foal doesn’t ingest colostrum within its first 12 hours of life, the animal likely will have a compromised immune system. Colostrum is provided in the mare's milk. For orphan foals, a suitable replacement must be administered.
In recent years, amphibian populations around the world have been declining. For example, the Iberian newt has become rare in Spain and Portugal. Simultaneously, human populations have increased, and along with them agricultural demand and the use of chemical fertilizers have increased. Runoff from fields brings chemical compounds such as ammonium nitrate into ponds and streams where they can be toxic to amphibians.
Scientists at the Netherlands’ Center for Genetic Resources have examined the extent of the problem of non-authenticity of old cultivars in genebank collections using a large lettuce collection from a Dutch genebank.
You are invited to a reception in celebration of the“Agriculture, Food, Nutrition, and Natural Resources Round Table: Showcasing Exemplary R&D Collaborations.”
A team of ARS-USDA scientistsexamined a series of commercial, anaerobic, swine wastewater lagoons in North and South Carolina for genes involved in the nitrogen cycling process.
Key elements of successful collaborations between federal agencies and partner organizations are the focus of the Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and Natural Resources R&D Round Table.
First global map suggests climate change will have greatest impact on the populations least responsible for causing the problem - those in the low-latitude hot regions of the world, places like Central South America, the Arabian Peninsula and much of Africa.
Maintaining a yard of grass can require repeated mowing and application of herbicides. When your “yard” is miles and miles of roadsides throughout a state, that effort and expense become a big factor. More efficient equipment to apply herbicides and reduce the need for mowing roadside grasses could cut costs for state transportation departments.
The release of methane into the atmosphere by cattle and other large grazing mammals is estimated to account for 12 to 17% of the total global methane release. Scientists have now developed a new methane release measuring technique.
A visionary plan for a “Desert Development Corridor” in Egypt, researched and created by Boston University geologist Dr. Farouk El-Baz, has been adopted by the country’s interim government as its flagship program. According to El-Baz, the plan – which includes the construction, along 1,200 kilometers, of a new eight-lane superhighway, a railway, a water pipeline, and a power line – would open new land for urban development, commerce, agriculture, tourism and related jobs.
Invasive plant species have long had a reputation as being bad for a new ecosystem when they are introduced. As it turns out, they aren't any more abundant away from home than they are at home.
Plants under snow cover are exposed to fewer drastic temperature changes, which can be more damaging than continued cold, says botanist Karen Snetselaar, Ph.D., chair and professor of biology at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. However, this year’s insulating snow cover may have come too late, Snetselaar notes.
The United Kingdom’s Department of International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced they will invest $40 million in a global project led by Cornell University to combat deadly strains of Ug99, an evolving wheat pathogen that poses a dangerous threat to global food security.
A former Kansas State University faculty member is leading the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Arthropod-Borne Animal Disease Research Unit. The unit studies animal diseases -- including Rift Valley fever, bluetongue virus -- in hopes of developing a vaccine.
Unlike most other crops, wheat is disproportionally dependent on public research. Wheat has a genome larger than that of humans. More than three-quarters of wheat varieties used today came from public research.
The latest edition offers information on the latest strategies for alfalfa establishment, production, and harvest, including how to go from a 3-ton-yield to a 9-ton-yield per acre.
What is the difference is between one variety of honey and another? Which kinds are better for cooking? Eating? City Tech's Claire Stewart, who is a beekeeper answers these questions and more, and explains her love of bees.
With global warming comes increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which benefits at least one species—weeds. Carbon dioxide acts as a fertilizer to invasive exotic grasses, resulting in higher growth rates and larger leaves.
Recalculating the global use of phosphorous, a fertilizer linchpin of modern agriculture, a team of researchers warns that the world’s stocks may soon be in short supply and that overuse in the industrialized world has become a leading cause of the pollution of lakes, rivers and streams.
ASU's Sustainable Phosphorus Summit was the first international gathering on U.S. soil and an important milestone in the emerging global dialogue around phosphorus scarcity and sustainability. A consensus statement, released Feb. 10, reflects the optimism coming out of the summit around solution-building.
Cultivating coca bushes, the source of cocaine, is speeding up destruction of rainforests in Colombia and threatening the region’s “hotspots” of plant and animal diversity, scientists are reporting in a new study.
A team of researchers America identified the most important questions that future generations will face when dealing with changes in soil structure. These questions will serve as a guide for direction of soil science research.
Crop yields from India’s first genetically modified crop may have been overemphasized, as modest rises in crop yields may come at the expense of sustainable farm management, says a new study by a Washington University in St. Louis anthropologist.
In time for the chocolate-giving and chocolate-eating fest on Valentine’s Day, scientists are reporting discovery of how this treat boosts the body’s production of the “good” form of cholesterol that protects against heart disease. Polyphenols in chocolate rev up the activity of certain proteins, including proteins that attach to the genetic material DNA in ways that boost “good” cholesterol levels. Their report appears in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Scientists analyzed five classical long term experiments using a process-based carbon balance model. They simulated experiments to predict the potential of no tillage management to maintain soil organic carbon.
RTI International has hired pioneer in the field of microbial ecology Daniel (Niels) van der Lelie, Ph.D., to lead the new center for Agricultural and Environmental Biotechnology, which seeks to unlock the mysteries of the plant-microbe interaction and apply that knowledge to a wide range of applications.
A Cornell University scientist investigated the response of 2 soybean varieties in 3 row widths at 4 seeding rates to measure emergence rates of soybean, growth, yield components, and seed yield of soybeans.
In a study funded by the U.S. EPA and administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, biologists at Virginia Commonwealth University measured the nutrient removal capacity of the Eastern oyster.
In a collaborative study the USDA-ARS Water Management Research Unit and Colorado State University, soil samples were analyzed to determine the extent of atrzine degradation in northeastern Colorado.
A student’s scholarship-winning project at South Dakota State University may help scientists better understand how grapes and other plants respond to drought. The study could pay off in better production as plant breeders develop varieties for regions facing increased drought stress due to climate change.
Encroaching woody plants such as the eastern redcedar are affecting many privately owned grasslands in the Midwestern United States. The attitudes and behaviors of private landowners to redcedar expansion are essential to preserving the remaining tallgrass prairie. Landowners must join forces to identify management strategies that will minimize this threat to grassland ecosystems. However, the owners’ attitudes toward taking steps to manage the restoration of the grasslands may affect efforts to preserve the prairie.
Scientists have identified the genes related to leaf angle in corn (maize) – a key trait for planting crops closer together, which has led to an eight-fold increase in yield since the early 1900s.
An international team of researchers have completed the first DNA sequence of any strawberry plant, giving breeders much-needed tools to create tastier, healthier strawberries. UNH’s Tom Davis was a significant contributor to the genome sequence of the woodland strawberry, which was published in the journal Nature Genetics.
University of Utah researchers developed a new concept in water treatment: an electrobiochemical reactor in which a low electrical voltage is applied to microbes to help them quickly and efficiently remove pollutants from mining, industrial and agricultural wastewater.
Research supports what Cape Cod cranberry growers already suspected: The traditional “flow-through” bogs have a negative impact on stream quality compared with modern bogs.
Weizmann scientists and a global team have produced the full genome of the woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca). The wild strawberry has important nutritive properties, as well as qualities that make it an ideal model plant; e.g., it could provide insight into related agricultural crops from the rose family, including apple and almond trees.
Georgia Tech Regents professor Mark Borodovsky led efforts in identifying protein-coding genes in the newly sequenced woodland strawberry genome. The development is expected to yield tastier, hardier varieties of the berry and other crops in its family.
Researchers at the University of California-Davis, Kansas State University, and the USDA Cereal Disease Laboratory in Minnesota have mapped and characterized a gene resistant to Ugandan stem rust.
A Kansas State University professor is part of a national research team that discovered that streams and rivers produce three times more greenhouse gas emissions than estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Faculty, staff, students and members of the Western Illinois University community have the opportunity to support organic crop research, pick up a stocking stuffer or holiday gift this season and show school spirit -- all with one little bag of popcorn. WIU's School of Agriculture is once again selling its Rocky Popcorn, purple and gold (WIU's colors) popcorn, grown on WIU's Allison Organic Research and Demonstration Farm in Warren County (IL).
Creating a trading market giving farmers financial incentives for using best fertilizer practices can benefit water quality, help fight climate change, and raise farmer income, finds a new study by the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research. Md. is one of a handful of states considering both fertilizer and CO2 markets.