Feature Channels: Agriculture

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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.

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Zebra chip disease in potatoes is currently being managed by controlling the potato psyllid with insecticides. But one Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service specialist is trying to manage the disease symptoms with alternative methods and chemistries.

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By engineering plants that emitted sex pheromones that mimic those naturally produced by two species of moths, researchers have demonstrated that an effective, environmentally friendly, plant-based method of insect control is possible.

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UF/IFAS researchers show that low-oxygen environment helps create better suitors in sterile-insect process.

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Understanding how antibodies work is important for designing new vaccines to fight infectious diseases and certain types of cancer and for treating disorders of the immune system in animals and humans. In research to be presented at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting, Dr. Damian Ekiert will explain how the immune systems of cows are used to understand the diversity of antibodies and how that knowledge could improve the health of both people and livestock.

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When every extra expense makes a difference in profitability, farmers often wonder which management decisions are worth the extra cost. Mississippi State University researchers studied rice seed treatments for effectiveness in managing crop pests.

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A recent nationwide online survey of U.S. consumers by Kansas State University found that freshness and safety were the most important values consumers placed on buying popular livestock products, including milk, ground beef, beef steak and chicken breast. Consumers felt environmental impact, animal welfare, origin and convenience were least important when making food purchasing decisions.

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Castor hasn't been grown in the U.S. since 1972. Now, a study from UF/IFAS shows that, using proper techniques, the crop that's used for many industrial applications, can be grown in Florida.

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An associate professor of clinical pharmacology of anatomy and physiology is part of a team of researchers from Egypt, Jordan and the U.S. that is evaluating the effect of chronic lead intoxication in goats.

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An international team of researchers has discovered that a process that turns on photosynthesis in plants likely developed on Earth in ancient microbes 2.5 billion years ago, long before oxygen became available.

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American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown issued the following comments on the Agricultural Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, passed by Congress today.

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Sunflower farmers have known for a long time that they are at increased risk for combine fires, but an answer to this nerve-wracking problem may be just around the corner. A team of agricultural engineers at South Dakota State University found that sunflower debris ignites at temperatures that are 68 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit lower than residue from corn or soybeans. When sunflower dust is drawn into the fan that pulls air through the radiator to cool the engine, some bits of debris can ignite. The patent-pending device encases the turbocharger and exhaust manifold and then a fan pulls in clean air to cool the chamber, while keeping the system exterior within a safe temperature range.

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Andrew Novakovic is a professor in Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Science’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, whose research focuses on the U.S. dairy industry and federal policy related to dairy, other agriculture and food. He explains the complex new dairy policy, which the Senate is expected to vote on early this week.