Food and Agriculture News

November 22, 2025

Top Headlines

This Engineered Fungus Cuts Emissions and Tastes Like Meat

Nov. 21, 2025 Scientists used CRISPR to boost the efficiency and digestibility of a fungus already known for its meatlike qualities. The modified strain grows protein far more quickly and with much less sugar while producing substantially fewer emissions. It also ...

A Crisis Deepens as African Penguins Compete with Fishing Fleets for Food

Nov. 18, 2025 During years of scarce fish, African penguins crowd into the same areas as commercial fishing vessels, heightening competition for dwindling prey. A new metric called “overlap intensity” shows how many penguins are affected and is already ...

A Tiny Ancient Virus Reveals Secrets That Could Help Fight Superbugs

Nov. 17, 2025 Scientists mapped the Bas63 bacteriophage in unprecedented detail, uncovering how its tail machinery infects bacteria. The structure reveals rare whisker-collar features and distant evolutionary ties reaching back billions of years. These insights ...

Extreme Floods Are Slashing Global Rice Yields Faster Than Expected

Nov. 15, 2025 Scientists discovered that a week of full submergence is enough to kill most rice plants, making flooding a far greater threat than previously understood. Intensifying extreme rainfall events may amplify these losses unless vulnerable regions adopt ...

Meet the Desert Survivor That Grows Faster the Hotter It Gets

Nov. 9, 2025 In Death Valley’s relentless heat, Tidestromia oblongifolia doesn’t just survive—it thrives. Michigan State University scientists discovered that the plant can quickly adjust its photosynthetic machinery to endure extreme temperatures that ...

Sunflowers May Be the Future of "Vegan Meat"

Nov. 4, 2025 A collaboration between Brazilian and German researchers has led to a sunflower-based meat substitute that’s high in protein and minerals. The new ingredient, made from refined sunflower flour, delivers excellent nutritional value and a mild ...

Soil Microbes Remember Drought and Help Plants Survive

Nov. 2, 2025 Researchers discovered that soil microbes in Kansas carry drought “memories” that affect how plants grow and survive. Native plants showed stronger responses to these microbial legacies than crops like corn, hinting at co-evolution over time. ...

Scientists Turn Flower Fragrance Into a Mosquito Killer

Oct. 27, 2025 A team of researchers has developed a floral-scented fungus that tricks mosquitoes into approaching and dying. The fungus emits longifolene, a natural scent that irresistibly draws them in. It’s harmless to humans, inexpensive to produce, and ...

The Red Sea That Vanished and the Catastrophic Flood That Brought It Back

Oct. 8, 2025 Researchers at KAUST have confirmed that the Red Sea once vanished entirely, turning into a barren salt desert before being suddenly flooded by waters from the Indian Ocean. The flood carved deep channels and restored marine life in less than ...

A Tiny Mineral May Hold the Secret to Feeding Billions Sustainably

Sep. 24, 2025 Rice, a staple for billions, is one of the most resource-hungry crops on the planet—but scientists may have found a way to change that. By applying nanoscale selenium directly to rice plants, researchers dramatically improved nitrogen efficiency, ...

Egg-eating Worms Could Be the Secret to Saving Chesapeake Bay’s Blue Crabs

Sep. 19, 2025 Egg-eating worms living on Chesapeake Bay blue crabs may hold the key to smarter fishery management. Once thought to be a threat, these parasites actually serve as natural biomarkers that reveal when ...

Soil Warming Experiments Challenge Assumptions About Climate Change

Sep. 17, 2025 Heating alone won’t drive soil microbes to release more carbon dioxide — they need added carbon and nutrients to thrive. This finding challenges assumptions about how climate warming influences soil ...

Latest Headlines

updated 6:51am EST

Nectar Wars Between Bumble Bees and Invasive Ants Drain the Hive

Nov. 13, 2025 Bumble bees battling invasive Argentine ants may win individual fights but ultimately lose valuable foraging time, putting pressure on colonies already strained by habitat loss, disease, and ...

Scientists Shocked as Bumblebees Learn to Read Simple “Morse Code”

Nov. 12, 2025 In a first-of-its-kind study, scientists found that bumblebees can tell the difference between short and long light flashes, much like recognizing Morse code. The insects learned which signal led to ...

Scientists in Japan Create a New Wine Grape With a Wild Twist

Nov. 3, 2025 Okayama scientists have crafted a new wine grape, Muscat Shiragai, merging the wild Shiraga and Muscat of Alexandria. The variety is part of a larger collaboration between academia, industry, and ...

A Hidden Gene Could Triple Wheat Yields

Oct. 19, 2025 Researchers discovered the gene that gives a rare wheat variety its unusual “triple-grain” trait. When switched on, the gene helps wheat flowers produce extra grain-bearing parts. The finding ...

Glowing Shark and Hidden Crab Found Deep Off Australia

Oct. 9, 2025 In a stunning glimpse into the mysteries of the deep, scientists have uncovered two new marine species off Western Australia—a glowing lanternshark and a tiny porcelain crab. The discoveries, made ...

Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus Just Revealed Stunning New Clues to Life

Oct. 2, 2025 Fresh analysis of Cassini data has revealed new complex organic molecules inside ice grains spewing from Enceladus. These discoveries strengthen the case that the moon’s underground ocean hosts ...

Pollen Holds a Secret That Could Save Honeybees

Sep. 30, 2025 Scientists have discovered that pollen is a hidden source of natural medicine for honeybees. Symbiotic bacteria called Streptomyces produce antimicrobial compounds that fight deadly bee and plant ...

The Sweetpotato’s DNA Turned out Stranger Than Anyone Expected

Sep. 14, 2025 Sweetpotato, a critical food crop for millions, has finally had its genetic code fully decoded after decades of mystery. Scientists unraveled its extraordinarily complex genome of six chromosome ...

No One Knows What These Strange Larvae Grow Into

Sep. 13, 2025 Not all barnacles just sit on rocks and ships. Some invade crabs, growing like a parasitic root system that hijacks their bodies. A mysterious group called y-larvae has baffled scientists for over a ...

How Orangutans Thrive in Feast and Famine Without Gaining Weight

Sep. 9, 2025 Orangutans, humans’ close evolutionary relatives, have developed remarkable strategies to survive in the unpredictable rainforests of Borneo. A Rutgers-led study reveals that these apes balance ...

Bumble Bees Balance Their Diets With Surprising Precision

Aug. 27, 2025 Bumble bees aren’t random foragers – they’re master nutritionists. Over an eight-year field study in the Colorado Rockies, scientists uncovered that different bee species strategically balance ...

Scientists Found the Missing Nutrients Bees Need — Colonies Grew 15-Fold

Aug. 23, 2025 Scientists have developed a breakthrough food supplement that could help save honeybees from devastating declines. By engineering yeast to produce six essential sterols found in pollen, researchers ...

Scientists Finally Crack the Secret to Perfect Chocolate Flavor

Aug. 21, 2025 Scientists have decoded the microbial and environmental factors behind cacao fermentation, the critical process that defines chocolate’s taste. By recreating the fermentation with controlled ...

Can Humans Regrow Eyes? These Snails Already Do

Aug. 6, 2025 Apple snails can fully regrow their eyes, and their genes and eye structures are strikingly similar to humans. Scientists mapped the regeneration process and used CRISPR to identify genes, including ...

700,000 Years Ahead of Their Teeth: The Carbs That Made Us Human

Aug. 2, 2025 Long before evolution equipped them with the right teeth, early humans began eating tough grasses and starchy underground plants—foods rich in energy but hard to chew. A new study reveals that this ...

Scientists Just Solved the 9-Million-Year Mystery of Where Potatoes Came from

Aug. 1, 2025 About 9 million years ago, a wild interspecies fling between tomato-like plants and potato relatives in South America gave rise to one of the world’s most important crops: the potato. Scientists ...

Did Drunk Apes Help Us Evolve? New Clues Reveal Why We Digest Alcohol So Well

Aug. 1, 2025 Ape behavior just got a name upgrade — “scrumping” — and it might help explain why humans can handle alcohol so well. Researchers discovered that African apes regularly eat overripe, ...

Did Humans Learn to Walk in Trees?

July 29, 2025 In the quest to understand how and why early humans started walking on two legs, scientists are now looking to chimpanzees living in dry, open savannah-like environments for clues. A new study ...

How AI Is Supercharging Plant Immunity to Fight Deadly Bacteria

July 30, 2025 Scientists have used artificial intelligence to upgrade plant immune systems, potentially revolutionizing how crops like tomatoes and potatoes can defend against harmful bacteria. By reengineering ...

Eggs Are Off the Hook—study Reveals Bacon’s the Real Heart Risk

July 27, 2025 Eggs are finally being vindicated after decades of cholesterol-related blame. New research from the University of South Australia reveals that eggs, despite their cholesterol content, aren't the ...

Dirty Water, Warm Trucks, and the Real Reason Romaine Keeps Making Us Sick

July 19, 2025 Romaine lettuce has a long history of E. coli outbreaks, but scientists are zeroing in on why. A new study reveals that the way lettuce is irrigated—and how it’s kept cool afterward—can make ...

This 10-Minute Ozone Hack Keeps Mangoes Fresh for 28 Days

July 17, 2025 Mango lovers and growers alike may soon rejoice: scientists at Edith Cowan University have found that a simple dip in ozonated water can drastically extend the shelf life of mangoes by up to two ...

The Secret Motor Protein That Slams Leaf Pores Shut—and Saves Crops

July 16, 2025 Scientists have discovered that a protein once thought to be just a cellular "courier" actually helps plants survive drought. This motor protein, myosin XI, plays a critical role in helping ...

This Tiny Rice Plant Could Feed the First Lunar Colony

July 11, 2025 In a bold step toward sustainable space travel, scientists are engineering a radically small, protein-rich rice that can grow in space. The Moon-Rice project, led by the Italian Space Agency in ...

Bigger Crops, Fewer Nutrients: The Hidden Cost of Climate Change

July 9, 2025 Climate change is silently sapping the nutrients from our food. A pioneering study finds that rising CO2 and higher temperatures are not only reshaping how crops grow but are also degrading their ...

What Happens When Bees Can’t Buzz Right? Nature Starts Falling Apart

July 8, 2025 High heat and heavy metals dampen a bumblebee’s trademark buzz, threatening pollen release and colony chatter. Tiny sensors captured up-to-400-hertz tremors that falter under environmental stress, ...

Why Tiny Bee Brains Could Hold the Key to Smarter AI

Aug. 24, 2025 Researchers discovered that bees use flight movements to sharpen brain signals, enabling them to recognize patterns with remarkable accuracy. A digital model of their brain shows that this ...

Scientists’ Top 10 Bee-Magnet Blooms—turn Any Lawn Into a Pollinator Paradise

July 7, 2025 Danish and Welsh botanists sifted through 400 studies, field-tested seed mixes, and uncovered a lineup of native and exotic blooms that both thrill human eyes and lure bees and hoverflies in droves, ...

These Beetles Can See a Color Most Insects Can’t

June 17, 2025 Beetles that can see the color red? That s exactly what scientists discovered in two Mediterranean species that defy the norm of insect vision. While most insects are blind to red, these beetles use ...

Cluck Once, and the River Shakes: Inside the Amazon’s Giant Snake Saga

June 16, 2025 A lifelong fascination with nature and fieldwork led this researcher to the world of ethnobiology a field where ecology, culture, and community come together. Investigating how local people relate to ...