Using the “Smell of Fear” To Protect Gardens and Crops From Destructive Insects
For home gardeners and farmers, herbivorous insects present a major threat to their hard work and crop yields. The predator insects that feed on these…
Agriculture
Human Waste Is Nutrient-Rich – It Can Be Used To Sustain Agriculture and Improve Economies
The future connection between human waste, sanitation technology, and sustainable agriculture is becoming more evident. According to research directed by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil…
NASA Watches Water From Space to Help Grow our Groceries
Every day – up to thirty times a day, in fact – one of Mark Mason’s employees at Nature’s Reward Farms in Monterey County, California…
Improving Photosynthesis in Crops To Boost Yields
In order to feed a projected 9 billion people by 2050, farmers need to grow 50% more food on a limited amount of arable land….
The Waste Product That Could Help Mitigate Climate Change – Locking Carbon in the Soil “For Hundreds to Thousands of Years”
A product made from urban, agriculture, and forestry waste has the added benefit of reducing the carbon footprint of modern farming, an international review involving…
Corn’s Rich Genetic Diversity on Display in New Genome Mapping Study
The newly assembled genomes of 26 different genetic lines of corn illustrate the crop’s rich genetic diversity and could pave the way for a better…
The Secret History of Corn – And Its “Jumping Genes” – Revealed in Its Genome
Humans adapt through language and culture, passing down knowledge from one generation to the next. Corn plants can’t talk, so they solve the problem of…
Farm Robots Are the Future – We Must Prepare Now to Avoid Dystopia
No longer science fiction, farm robots are already here — and they have created two possible extremes for the future of agriculture and its impacts…
GLAM: Keeping Track of Food Production From Space
While USDA has monitored crops around the world for almost a century, the discovery that satellites can “see” greening of vegetation has revolutionized agricultural monitoring…
Citrus Mystery: Juicy Past of Favorite Okinawan Fruit Revealed
Citrus fruits from the mandarin family have important commercial value but how their diversity arose has been something of a mystery Researchers analyzed the genomes…
‘Unshackled’ Palm-Destroying Beetles Could Soon Invade Australia – “We Thought We’d Outsmarted Them”
A destructive pest beetle is edging closer to Australia as biological controls fail, destroying home gardens, plantations, and biodiversity as they surge through nearby Pacific…
Engineering New Seed Coatings to Resist Drought
A new seed-coating process could facilitate agriculture on marginal arid lands by enabling the seeds to retain any available water. As the world continues to…
How Information Beyond the Genetic Sequence Is Encoded in Plant Sperm and Passed Down the Generations
Hereditary information is passed from parent to offspring in the genetic code, DNA, and epigenetically through chemically induced modifications around the DNA. New research from…
Global Plastic Pollution May Be Nearing an Irreversible Tipping Point
Current rates of plastic emissions globally may trigger effects that we will not be able to reverse, argues a new study by researchers from Sweden,…
New CRISPR/Cas9 Plant Genetics Technology to Improve Agricultural Yield and Resist the Effects of Climate Change
Scientists Develop the First CRISPR/Cas9-Based Gene Drive in Plants New technology designed to breed more robust crops to improve agricultural yield and resist the effects…
“Agricomb” Measures Gas Emissions From … Cows
After the optical frequency comb made its debut as a ruler for light, spinoffs followed, including the astrocomb to measure starlight and a radar-like comb…
COVID-19 Fallout Threatens Global Coffee Industry
COVID-19’s socio-economic effects will likely cause another severe production crisis in the coffee industry, according to a Rutgers University-led study. The study, which appears in…
Engineered Yeast Could Boost Biofuel Production
By making the microbes more tolerant to toxic byproducts, researchers show they can use a wider range of feedstocks, beyond corn. Boosting production of biofuels…
