Scientists have identified three neighboring genes that make soybeans resistant to the most damaging disease of soybean. The genes exist side-by-side on a stretch of chromosome, but only give resistance when that stretch is duplicated several times in the plant.
Weed scientists in Oregon have found that the timing of herbicide application along with reseeding of native grasses offers the best recipe for restoring native grasslands while controlling invasive weeds. Grasslands are a valuable resource for ecosystems, providing soil conservation, food and fiber production, and wildlife habitat. When threatened by invading exotic species, the quality and quantity of forage for wildlife can be reduced, fire frequencies can be altered, soil moisture and nutrients can be depleted, and the costs of land management can increase.
Cornell University, New York’s Land Grant university, has several teams of researchers and extension specialists working to support the state’s growing wine industry. These experts say it was a challenging year for the region’s vineyards and bottlers, but that 2012 should prove to be a very good year.
Drought conditions have had a significant effect on feeder cattle supplies, with feedlots expected to feel a noticeable pinch in the months ahead as they will be unable to maintain current inventories.
Researchers at Arizona State University are examining the ethical aspects of food production and consumption. They are helping consumers navigate the maze of moral choices involved in filling their plates and bellies. And they are finding that being morally mindful can lead to better nutrition, as well.
It’s a battleground down there — in the soil where plants and bacteria dwell. Even though beneficial root bacteria come to the rescue when a plant is being attacked by pathogens, there’s a "dark side" to the relationship between the plant and its white knight, according to University of Delaware research reported in Plant Physiology.
Kochia, a weed that is rapidly becoming more abundant across southern Canadian prairies and the Great Plains of the United States, can reduce crop yields by up to 60 percent. Fighting this weed has become difficult because more than 90 percent of kochia populations are now resistant to acetolactate synthase (ALS)-inhibiting herbicides. The phenomenon of negative cross-resistance, however, may offer another path to defeating the spread of this weed.
The “siloed” structure of U.S. health agencies is hindering efforts to spot and combat animal-to-human afflictions, such as West Nile Virus, New York University sociologist Colin Jerolmack has concluded after conducting an organizational analysis of their operations.
Conservationists, government agencies, and landowners often have different ideas about the best uses for land and natural resources. When these stakeholders build partnerships that achieve common goals and meet their individual needs, it is something to celebrate. To increase awareness of successful partnerships in land management and to encourage future collaborations, the Bureau of Land Management, USDA Agricultural Research Service, and the Society for Rangeland Management organized a special conference session and journal.
Top wheat experts are reporting a breakthrough in their ability to track strains of a deadly, rapidly mutating wheat pathogen called stem rust that threatens wheat fields from East Africa to South Asia.
Salk findings of a key genetic mechanism in plant hormone signaling may help save crops from stress and help address human hunger.
Georgia Tech Professional Education will be conducting a course at Georgia Tech-Savannah on September 20, 2012 that will provide the tools to prevent violations, and create a safer facility for any employee or employer that receives, handles, stores, processes, or ships bulk raw agricultural commodities.
Already ranked by some as number one in nutrition among vegetables, the traditional sweet potato can be nutritionally supercharged with a simple, inexpensive electric current treatment that increases its content of healthful polyphenols or antioxidants by 60 percent, scientists said here today. Their report on the first electrical enhancement of sweet potatoes, a dietary staple since prehistoric times, was part of the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Oklahoma State University research indicates that excessively hot summertime temperatures can shorten the gestation length of beef cows, altering animal management requirements.
Even as crops resistant to 2,4-D herbicide are being developed, populations of weeds are also developing a resistance. A 2,4-D–resistant variety of the waterhemp weed has been found, and its spread could lessen the impact of an herbicide widely used in grassland and crop production. Despite worldwide use of 2,4-D since the 1940s, only 17 weeds were previously known to be resistant to it.
Salk study finds stress triggers widespread epigenetic changes that aid in disease resistance.
Chris Henke specializes in courses on science and technology, work, the environment, and research methods. In addition to my work in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, he is also a member of Colgate's Environmental Studies Program.
The Alliance to Feed the Future today announced the availability of new, free curricula to help students in grades K-8 learn about modern food and agricultural production and how American farmers and producers provide safe, nutritious and abundant food choices every day.
The chronic drought that hit western North America from 2000 to 2004 left dying forests and depleted river basins in its wake and was the strongest in 800 years, but those conditions will become the “new normal” for most of the coming century. Such climatic extremes have increased as a result of global warming.
New Zealand is a very weedy country. Indigenous plant species are matched in number by naturalized, exotic species, and about 20 new invaders are discovered each year. Thus, a weed eradication program has been under way for the past 10 years, but completely eradicating an unwanted plant species is much more difficult than it might seem.
Data released this week paints a grim picture for farmers throughout the United States. Almost everywhere, fruit, crop, livestock and dairy farmers are being choked by the driest growing season since 1956. Researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University are available to talk with the media about the impacts of the Drought of 2012.
Scientists searching for clues to understand how superweeds obtain resistance to the popular herbicide glyphosate may have been missing a critical piece of information, a Purdue University study shows.
Food, agriculture, and environmental research part of sequestration spending slash planned as part of an upcoming vote on the defense appropriations bill.
University of Washington researchers found that the decline in milk production due to climate change will vary across the U.S., since there are significant differences in humidity and how much the temperature swings between night and day across the country.
Like many Neotropical fauna, sloths are running out of room to maneuver. As forests in South and Central America are cleared for agriculture and other human uses, populations of these arboreal leaf eaters, which depend on large trees for both food and refuge, can become isolated and at risk. But one type of sustainable agriculture, shade grown cacao plantations, a source of chocolate, could become critical refuges and bridges between intact forests for the iconic animals.
The Departments of Homeland Security and Agriculture have developed a novel vaccine for one of the seven strains of the dreaded Foot-and-Mouth Disease, paving the way for the development of the others.
For more than a decade, consumer demand for organic products in the United States has seen double-digit growth. Organic foods now comprise more than 3 percent of U.S. food sales, and the amount of certified organic farmland is increasing as well. Yet demand still supports importation of organic products. A major limitation affecting domestic organic crop production is effective weed control.
American Society of Agronomy Provides Panel of Experts to Answer Questions Related to Heat and Dry Conditions
Food scientists are working to replicate the nutrition, as well as the texture, taste and functionalities of meat and eggs, by utilizing plant-based products and in-vitro technologies, according to a presentation at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) 2012 Annual Meeting & Food Expo in Las Vegas.
For many grocery shoppers, those perfect, red tomatoes from the store just can’t match the flavor from the home garden. Now, researchers at Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University, USDA and the University of California at Davis have decoded a gene that contributes to the level of sugar, carbohydrates and carotenoids in tomatoes.
It's considered an important crop for those living in a small village, nestled within the Sierra Juarez Mountains. And farming is the primary occupation for 600 residents of Santa Maria Jaltianguis in Oaxaca, Mexico. Most depend on the high-protein Phaseolus bean to feed their family. Just one in five sell it to a local market. Now a California researcher and Crops Science Society of America member is revealing some surprising preservation practices found, while studying these natives at work. Their techniques are considered key to conserving bean diversity unique to the region.
Research at Kansas State University could give consumers with celiac disease more food product choices and expand the sorghum market for Kansas farmers.
A dry spring in portions of the Midwest is expected to result in the second-smallest Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" on record in 2012, according to a University of Michigan forecast released today.
The American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) applaud the U.S. Senate's passage today of the 2012 Farm Bill.
Sweet and biomass sorghum would meet the need for next-generation biofuels to be environmentally sustainable, easily adopted by producers and take advantage of existing agricultural infrastructure.
Taking just a few seconds to cool freshly laid eggs would add weeks to their shelf life, according to a Purdue University study.
When a virgin male moth gets a whiff of female sex attractant, he’s quicker to start shivering to warm up his flight muscles, and then takes off prematurely when he’s still too cool for powerful flight. So his headlong rush to reach the female first may cost him the race.
New edge of extinction research is creating a revival of conservation and interest in what these old wild relatives of current crops mean to the future.
The nation's food supply may be vulnerable to rapid groundwater depletion from irrigated agriculture, according to a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study paints the highest resolution picture yet of how groundwater depletion varies across space and time in California's Central Valley and the High Plains of the central U.S.
Scientists and stakeholders to focus on economic and environmental considerations of nutrient management planning.
A Kansas State University professor is getting support for his research to develop a novel class of natural antibiotics for the treatment of mastitis in dairy cattle.
The molecular ballet to stay alive may be recorded, then passed to future generations.
Listening to squawks and other chicken "vocalizations" using digital signal processing techniques may help farmers better manage growing conditions, contributing to both healthier birds and more productive poultry operations.
University of Wisconsin-Madison plant breeders have developed a new oat variety that’s significantly higher in the compound that makes this grain so cardio-friendly.
Salk and Iowa State researchers identify three proteins involved in plant fatty acids, the key components of seed oils.
The American West has a drinking problem. On farms and in cities, we are guzzling water at an alarming rate. Scientists say that to live sustainably, we should use no more than 40 percent of the water from the Colorado River Basin. As it is now, we use 76 percent.
The University of Delaware's Janine Sherrier is part of a team that has been awarded $6.8 million from the National Science Foundation to study the legume Medicago truncatula and the protein-to-protein interactions essential for the development of its symbiotic relationships with beneficial microbes.
The 1930s Dust Bowl proved what a disastrous effect wind can have on dry, unprotected topsoil. Now a new study has uncovered a less obvious, but equally troubling, impact of wind: Not only can it carry away soil particles, but also agriculturally important bacteria that build soil and recycle nutrients.
American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America member leads team to determine delays.
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