Feature Channels: Agriculture

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Scientists report that the content of potentially health-promoting antioxidants in coffee brewed without heat can differ significantly from a cup of joe prepared the traditional way, particularly for dark roasts.

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Low biomass production limits cover crop effects on soils

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Miscanthus, willow found as good biomass crops to add carbon to vulnerable soils

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Darren Hudson says the supply chain for the U.S. is in good shape, and food supply is ample to handle a short-term shutdown.

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Cornell University researchers have just released a new variety of New York-adapted spring barley, to meet needs created by a 2012 Farm Brewery Bill that expects New York’s craft brewers to steadily increase the amount of state-sourced ingredients used in their beer.

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A new global study reveals the extent to which high-yielding rice varieties favored in the decades since the “Green Revolution” have a propensity to go feral, turning a staple food crop into a weedy scourge.Weedy rice is a de-domesticated form of rice that infests paddies worldwide and aggressively outcompetes cultivated varieties.

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Northern Michigan University will begin offering an indoor agriculture associate degree program this fall. Through a hands-on, multidisciplinary approach, graduates learn equally about plant biology and the construction/maintenance of indoor growing systems, preparing them for a variety of career opportunities.

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DHS S&T and MatMaCorp completed a successful evaluation of a field-deployable genetic test to detect African Swine Fever (ASF) virus in infected pigs and pork products.

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With a little training, farmers and scientists can use drones to grow food more efficiently

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The findings of a new study underscore the value and potential of technological adoptions to help design targets and incentives for water scarcity mitigation measures.

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Long-term farm success depends on sustainable practices.

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The American Dust Bowl of the 1930s - captured by the novels of John Steinbeck - was an environmental and socio-economic disaster that worsened the Great Depression.

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A Cornell University Global Climate Change Science and Policy course is helping students and researchers lead efforts in Armenia to mobilize action related to agriculture.

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Many millions of homeowners use feeders to attract birds. But a two-year study featured in the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management suggests there may be one unintended consequence to this popular hobby. Bird feed mixtures may be helping to spread troublesome weeds that threaten agricultural crops.

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Researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have developed an easy-to-use, robust sensor that can monitor a plant's development and health.

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Irvine, Calif., March 16, 2020 – Farmers in California’s Central Valley are not known for their love of government regulations, but those same growers have seen a boost in the productivity of their high-value crops – and greater earnings – as a result of the Golden State’s strict air pollution controls. For a study published today in Nature Food, researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions conducted a statistical analysis of pollution exposure and yields from 1980 to 2015 on a key sector making up about 38 percent of the state’s total agricultural output: perennial crops such as almonds, grapes, nectarines, peaches, strawberries and walnuts.

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Genetically modified Bt cotton is the most widely planted cotton crop in India by acreage, and it is hugely controversial. Supporters long touted increased yields and reduced pesticides to justify its pickup. But that argument does not hold up under the first long-term study of Bt cotton impacts in India. The analysis is co-authored by a Washington University in St. Louis anthropologist in the journal Nature Plants.

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Researchers illuminate the dawn of land plants and discover genes that could help crops grow more efficiently with less synthetic fertilizer.

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A new autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) is being developed to transform the horticultural sector and tackle the labour shortage

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Heat stress from extreme heat and humidity will annually affect areas now home to 1.2 billion people by 2100, assuming current greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Rutgers study. That’s more than four times the number of people affected today, and more than 12 times the number who would have been affected without industrial era global warming.

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Cornell University researchers have found that squash and pumpkin pollen have physical, nutritional and chemical defense qualities that are harmful to bumblebees. The results of their recent study suggest that deterring bumblebees from collecting and eating pollen may provide an evolutionary benefit to cucurbit plants.

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Isotope analysis of two Bronze Age El Algar sites in present-day south-eastern Spain provides a integrated picture of diets and farming strategies, according to a study published March 11, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Corina Knipper from the Curt Engelhorn Center for Archaeometry, Germany, and colleagues.

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If different types of vegetables and fruits are stored together, they influence each other in the ripening process. This is due to ethylene, which is emitted by some plant-based foodstuff and accelerates ripening. To prevent excessive food waste due to accelerated ripening Empa and ETH Zurich researchers are developing a new catalyst that degrades ethylene into water and carbon dioxide.

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But different microbes have distinct roles to play, and environmental factors influence activity.

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A recently published study analyzed a combination of soil tests to gauge corn nitrogen needs more accurately than the standard chemical tests that have been in use for roughly 50 years. The research could result in economic benefits to farmers and improved environmental quality.

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Many farmers struggle with an enemy that looks like a friend. Agricultural weeds that are close relatives of crops present a particular challenge to farmers because their physical similarities to the desirable species make them difficult to detect and eradicate. Along the way, the imitators compete with crops for water, nutrients and space — often depressing crop yields.

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The effects of Brexit on different food types and what this will mean for families has been measured by research from the University of Warwick.

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Patience is a virtue for on-farm flood recovery

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Imagine purchasing products from your local grocer, only to find out that those products are comprised of critically endangered species.

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Currently, nearly a third of the food produced in the US never makes it to the grocery aisle — creating a huge waste problem. Two Arizona State University professors worked on a new federal report that highlights the reasons for the losses and some potential solutions.

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Trained Cornell Cooperative Extension agents teamed with New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets personnel across the state to offer free and confidential on-farm readiness reviews to insure that farmers can meet new produce safety standards.

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Alfred Ozimati is breeding the latest in disease-resistant cassava that meets the needs of subsistence farmers, thanks to the NextGen Cassava project run by Cornell University.

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The Danforth Center today announced that Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and founder of Impossible Foods will give the keynote address on Tuesday, May 5 at the inaugural AgTech NEXT, the bold new food and agtech innovation summit to be held May 4 - 6 at the Danforth Center.

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Soil gets more than just “cover” from cover crops.

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A USDA fellowship that took Dillon Nelson, an Oglala Lakota College senior, out of his comfort zone has led him to pursue a doctoral degree in bioinformatics.

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Researchers from Cornell and Pennsylvania State Universities are developing a high-tech, portable imaging system that will increase profits and yields by making winter grapevine pruning more efficient.

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New research from the National University of Singapore showed that between 1996 and 2016, substantial mangrove forests have been converted to agricultural use in Myanmar.

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A new study shows irrigation of cattle feed crops is the greatest consumer of river water in the Western United States, implicating beef and dairy consumption as the leading driver of water shortages and fish imperilment in the region.

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New York University biologists captured highly transient interactions between transcription factors—proteins that control gene expression—and target genes in the genome and showed that these typically missed interactions have important practical implications. In a new study published in Nature Communications, the researchers developed a method to capture transient interactions of NLP7, a master transcription factor involved in nitrogen use in plants, revealing that the majority of a plant’s response to nitrogen is controlled by these short-lived regulatory interactions.

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Protecting the permafrost after a record fire season

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Four of the largest potato producers in Australia want to convert 100% of their potato waste into commercial benefit.

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Enhanced spreading, improved efficiency and reduced environmental impact will be the focus of continuing fertiliser research under a new five-year partnership agreement between the University of Adelaide and US-based fertiliser producer The Mosaic Company.

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The ever-increasing price of fertilizers and environmental concerns about nutrient runoff make development of a rugged continuous electronic monitoring device to detect soil fertility a possible boon to agriculture in the United States and the United Kingdom (UK).

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Scientists have developed a computed tomography (CT) scanning method for screening large samples of wheat for drought and heat tolerance. They believe the new system will allow more accurate and much more rapid analysis of wheat heads, speeding up the process of breeding for plants better adapted to climate change

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Study investigates plant behavior when exposed to higher carbon dioxide levels.

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A natural experiment created by an active volcano gives new insight into the long-term negative impacts of human colonisation of tropical forest islands. The findings are published in the British Ecological Society journal, Journal of Ecology.