Agriculture and Food News

January 31, 2024

Top Headlines

A Non-Allergenic Wheat Protein for Growing Better Cultivated Meat

Jan. 29, 2024 — As the world's population increases, cultivated or lab-grown meat -- animal muscle and fat cells grown in laboratory conditions -- has emerged as a potential way to satisfy future protein needs. And edible, inexpensive plant proteins could be used ...

Foodborne-Pathogen Listeria May Hide from Sanitizers in Biofilms

Jan. 24, 2024 — An estimated 1,600 people in the U.S. contract a serious infection from Listeria bacteria in food each year and, of those individuals, about 260 people die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers may now better ...

World's Largest Database of Weeds Lets Scientists Peer Into the Past, and Future, of Global Agriculture

Jan. 23, 2024 — A new database of weeds that can help scientists understand how traditional agricultural systems were managed throughout history, could also provide insights into how global trends like the climate ...

'Talking' Tomatoes: How Their Communication Is Influenced by Enemies and Friends

Jan. 24, 2024 — Plants produce a range of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds that influence their interactions with the world around them. In a new study, researchers investigated how the type and amount ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:07pm EST

A Green Alternative for Treating Streptococcus Iniae Bacteria in Hybrid Striped Bass

Jan. 30, 2024 — Scientists have developed a green antibiotic alternative to treat the deadly pathogen Streptococcus iniae in hybrid striped bass, the fourth most ...

Asparagus and Orchids Are More Similar Than You Think

Jan. 30, 2024 — How is a beech leaf constructed? What determines the appearance of an asparagus? A new 'encyclopaedia' helps us learn more about the building blocks of plants. The encyclopaedia, probably the largest ...

Innovative Tech Shows Promise to Boost Rubber Production in US

Jan. 23, 2024 — With disease and high demand posing threats to the world's primary natural rubber supply in Southeast Asia, scientists are working to ramp up the U.S. rubber market by advancing methods to extract ...

Food from Urban Agriculture Has Carbon Footprint 6 Times Larger Than Conventional Produce, Study Shows

Jan. 22, 2024 — A new study finds that fruits and vegetables grown in urban farms and gardens have a carbon footprint that is, on average, six times greater than ...

Scientists, Farmers and Managers Work Together to Avoid the Decline of the Little Bustard, an Endangered Steppe Bird

Jan. 18, 2024 — The collaboration between scientists, farmers and managers is crucial to improve the protection of the little bustard, an endangered steppe-land bird ...

A New, Rigorous Assessment of OpenET Accuracy for Supporting Satellite-Based Water Management

Jan. 16, 2024 — Sustainable water management is an increasing concern in arid regions around the world, and scientists and regulators are turning to remote sensing ...

Scaling Up Urban Agriculture: Research Team Outlines Roadmap

Jan. 11, 2024 — Urban agriculture has the potential to decentralize food supplies, provide environmental benefits like wildlife habitat, and mitigate environmental footprints, but researchers have identified ...

Study Quantifies How Aquifer Depletion Threatens Crop Yields

Jan. 15, 2024 — Three decades of data have informed a new Nebraska-led study that shows how the depletion of groundwater -- the same that many farmers rely on for irrigation -- can threaten food production amid ...

Plant Warfare: The Crucial Function of Nrc Proteins in Tomato Defense Mechanisms

Jan. 9, 2024 — New research delves into the intricate defense mechanisms of tomatoes against the notorious bacterial pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato ...

Use of Habitat for Agricultural Purposes Puts Primate Infants at Risk

Jan. 8, 2024 — Frequent visits to oil palm plantations are leading to a sharp increase in mortality rates among infant southern pig-tailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina) in the wild, according to a new study. In ...

Earlier Headlines

Summaries
Headlines

New Rice Lines for Africa Offer Virus Protection

Jan. 12, 2024 — The so-called Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (for short: RYMV) is responsible for high crop losses in Africa, particularly among small-scale farmers. A research team has now produced rice lines that are ...

Scientists Engineer Plant Microbiome to Protect Crops Against Disease

Jan. 4, 2024 — Scientists have engineered the microbiome of plants for the first time, boosting the prevalence of 'good' bacteria that protect the plant from disease. The findings could substantially ...

Why Are Bees Making Less Honey? Study Reveals Clues in Five Decades of Data

Jan. 4, 2024 — Honey yields in the U.S. have been declining since the 1990s, with honey producers and scientists unsure why, but a new study has uncovered clues in the mystery of the missing ...

Researchers Improve Seed Nitrogen Content by Reducing Plant Chlorophyll Levels

Jan. 3, 2024 — Chlorophyll plays a pivotal role in photosynthesis, which is why plants have evolved to have high chlorophyll levels in their leaves. However, making this pigment is expensive because plants invest a ...

'Nutritional Quality Must Be at the Heart of Climate Smart Agriculture' -- Researchers

Jan. 2, 2024 — Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa need to diversify away from growing maize and switch to crops that are resilient to climate change and supply enough key micronutrients for the population, according to ...

Low-Carbohydrate Diets Emphasizing Healthy, Plant-Based Sources Associated With Slower Long-Term Weight Gain

Dec. 28, 2023 — Low-carbohydrate diets comprised mostly of plant-based proteins and fats with healthy carbohydrates such as whole grains were associated with slower long-term weight gain than low-carbohydrate diets ...

Electronic 'Soil' Enhances Crop Growth

Dec. 27, 2023 — Barley seedlings grow on average 50% more when their root system is stimulated electrically through a new cultivation substrate. Researchers have now developed an electrically conductive ...

How Technology and Economics Can Help Save Endangered Species

Dec. 21, 2023 — A lot has changed in the world since the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was enacted 50 years ago in December 1973. Experts are now discuss how the ESA has evolved and what its future might ...

Insects Already Had a Variety of Defense Strategies in the Cretaceous

Dec. 21, 2023 — Analyses of amber show that insect larvae were already using a wide variety of tactics to protect themselves from predators 100 million years ...

Discovery: Plants Use 'Trojan Horse' to Fight Mold Invasions

Dec. 21, 2023 — Scientists have discovered that plants send tiny, innocuous-seeming lipid 'bubbles' filled with RNA across enemy lines, into the cells of the aggressive mold. Once inside, different types ...

Scientists Provide Recipe to Halve Pollution from Food Production

Dec. 20, 2023 — A major report has put forward solutions to halve nitrogen pollution from agriculture and the food system in Europe, including reducing meat and dairy consumption, fertilizer use and food ...

Research Offers a Reason Why Diversity in Plant Species Causes Higher Farming Yield, Solving 'a Bit of a Mystery'

Dec. 20, 2023 — A study appearing in Nature Communications based on field and greenhouse experiments at the University of Kansas shows how a boost in agricultural yield comes from planting diverse crops rather ...

Genetic Sequencing Uncovers Unexpected Source of Pathogens in Floodwaters

Dec. 19, 2023 — Researchers report that local rivers and streams were the source of the Salmonella enterica contamination along coastal North Carolina after Hurricane Florence in 2018 -- not the previously suspected ...

Genetics of Host Plants Determine What Microorganisms They Attract

Dec. 19, 2023 — Plants often develop communities with microorganisms in their roots, which influences plant health and development. Although the recruitment of these microbes is dictated by several factors, it is ...

15 Most Pressing Issues for Conservation, Including Invertebrate Decline and Changing Marine Ecosystems

Dec. 18, 2023 — Since 2009, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative has coordinated an annual horizon scan, a well-established method for predicting which threats, changes, and technologies will have the biggest ...

Pesticides and Adjuvants Disrupt Honey Bee's Sense of Smell

Dec. 15, 2023 — It has long been known that exposure to pesticide sprays is harmful to honey bees. In a new study, researchers have uncovered the effect of such sprays on the sense of smell in bees, which could ...

Beef Farming That Keeps Cattle on Lifelong Grass Diets May Have Higher Carbon Footprint

Dec. 13, 2023 — Beef operations that keep cattle on lifelong grass-based diets may have an overall higher carbon footprint than those that switch cattle to grain-based diets partway through their lives, according to ...

Earliest Evidence for Domestic Yak Found Using Both Archaeology, Ancient DNA

Dec. 13, 2023 — The high-altitude hero of the Himalayas, yak are among the few large animals that can survive the extremely cold, harsh and oxygen-poor conditions of the Tibetan Plateau. In the mountainous regions ...

Zapping Manure With Special Electrode Promises an Efficient Method to Produce Fertilizers, Other Chemicals

Dec. 12, 2023 — An interdisciplinary team has developed a new technique that could help farmers extract useful nutrients such as ammonia and potassium from livestock manure to efficiently make fertilizer and other ...

Heavy Metals in Our Food Are Most Dangerous for Kids

Dec. 12, 2023 — Two new studies provide information on the correlation between exposure to heavy metals in food and the risk of cancers and other serious health ...

Friday, January 12, 2024