Food and Agriculture News

July 26, 2024

Top Headlines

Scientists Study How to Bring You 'Climate-Smart Coffee'

July 25, 2024 — Coffee beans consumed across the globe come from two species: Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora. By 2050, about 80% of Arabica production is predicted to decrease because of climate change. Researchers are investigating to see if they can find ...

Groundcherry Gets Genetic Upgrades: Turning a Garden Curiosity Into an Agricultural Powerhouse

July 18, 2024 — Imagine a small fruit that tastes like a cross between a tomato and a pineapple, wrapped in its own natural paper lantern. That's the groundcherry (Physalis grisea) -- a little-known relative of ...

Researchers Predict Fewer, Pricier Strawberries as Temperatures Warm

July 17, 2024 — Strawberries could be fewer and more expensive because of higher temperatures caused by climate change, according to new ...

Why the U.S. Food System Needs Agroecology

July 5, 2024 — Agroecology -- a science, practice, and movement which seeks social, political, economic, and environmental sustainability in the global food system -- is gaining momentum in the U.S., according to a new ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:09pm EDT

Smart Soil Can Water and Feed Itself

July 17, 2024 — A newly engineered type of soil can capture water out of thin air to keep plants hydrated and manage controlled release of fertilizer for a constant supply of ...

Urban Seagulls Still Prefer Seafood

July 11, 2024 — Seagull chicks raised on an 'urban' diet still prefer ...

Air Pollution Harms Pollinators More Than Pests, Study Finds

July 11, 2024 — Pollinators experienced a 39-percent decline in foraging efficiency after being exposed to elevated air pollution levels. In contrast, plant-eating aphids and other pests were not significantly ...

Archaeologists Report Earliest Evidence for Plant Farming in East Africa

July 10, 2024 — A trove of ancient plant remains excavated in Kenya helps explain the history of plant farming in equatorial eastern Africa, a region long thought to be important for early farming but where scant ...

Wastewater Is a Viable Medium for Growing Lettuce in Hydroponic Systems

July 3, 2024 — Urban agriculture has the potential to improve food security through local, efficient, and sustainable food production. Examples of urban food systems include hydroponics, where plants grow in a ...

Choose Where to Plant Energy Crops Wisely to Minimise Loss of Biodiversity

July 1, 2024 — In the fight to protect biodiversity and limit climate change, the world will reap what it ...

Groundbreaking Discovery: Zinc Can Make Crop Yields More Climate-Resilient

June 27, 2024 — Climate change, drought, increased temperature and other stressors challenge agricultural sustainability. Researchers have now made an unexpected discovery: zinc plays a pivotal role in the plant ...

Scientists Discover Genetic 'Off Switch' in Legume Plants That Limits Biological Ability to Source Nutrients

June 26, 2024 — A genetic 'off switch' that shuts down the process in which legume plants convert atmospheric nitrogen into nutrients has been identified for the ...

Mashed Up Purple Marine Bacteria Makes an Excellent Eco-Friendly Fertilizer

June 24, 2024 — New research reports that biomass made from the purple photosynthetic marine bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum is an excellent nitrogen fertilizer. The biomass fertilizer proved to be just as ...

Improving Soil Health Yields Unexpected Benefits for Farmers

June 15, 2024 — While farmer surveys suggest that carbon prices are still too low relative to the paperwork these programs demand, a new study finds that money alone does not explain either farmers' doubts about ...

Could Intensive Farming Raise Risk of New Pandemics?

July 16, 2024 — Industrialized farming is often thought to reduce the risk of zoonotic diseases because of better control, biosecurity and separation of livestock. A new study examines the effect of social and ...

Researchers Create Groundbreaking Cotton Quality Model to Aid Farmers

July 12, 2024 — Researchers have produced a cotton quality module -- a part of a larger forecasting tool -- allowing cotton producers to better monitor crop quality under changing environmental ...

AI Shows How Field Crops Develop

June 17, 2024 — Researchers developed software that can simulate the growth of field crops. To do this, they fed thousands of photos from field experiments into a learning algorithm. This enabled the algorithm to ...

Sweaty Cattle May Boost Food Security in a Warming World

June 13, 2024 — Climate change is making it more difficult to raise cattle -- growth and reproduction are affected by heat -- so it's critical to breed cattle better adapted to a hotter and longer summer. A new ...

Ancient Syrian Diets Resembled the Modern 'Mediterranean Diet'

June 12, 2024 — Thousands of years ago, people in ancient Syria likely ate mostly grains, grapes, olives and a small amount of dairy and meat -- similar to today's 'Mediterranean diet,' according to a ...

Scientists Engineer Yellow-Seeded Camelina With High Oil Output

June 11, 2024 — Using tools of modern genetics, plant biochemists have produced a new high-yielding oilseed crop variety -- a yellow-seeded variety of Camelina sativa, a close relative of canola, that accumulates ...

Better Farming Through Nanotechnology

June 6, 2024 — Advanced technologies enable the controlled release of medicine to specific cells in the body. Scientists argue these same technologies must be applied to agriculture if growers are to meet ...

Abandoned Farmlands Could Play a Role in Fighting Climate Change: A New Study Shows Exactly Where They Are

May 29, 2024 — The team used machine learning to map nearly 30 million acres of United States cropland abandoned since the 1980s, creating a tool that could guide decisions about how to balance production of energy ...

Improved Refrigeration Could Save Nearly Half of the 1.3 Billion Tons of Food Wasted Each Year Globally

May 28, 2024 — A new study concludes that nearly half of the food waste, about 620 million metric tons, could be eliminated by fully refrigerated food supply chains worldwide. At the same time, fully refrigerated ...

Transgenic Expression of Rubisco Factors Increases Photosynthesis and Chilling Tolerance in Maize

May 28, 2024 — Maize is one of the world's most widely grown crops and is essential to global food security. But like other plants, its growth and productivity can be limited by the slow activity of Rubisco, ...

Gene Could Unlock Big Wheat Yields for a Growing Population

May 22, 2024 — A study has discovered molecular pathways regulated by a gene traditionally used to control wheat-flowering behavior could be altered to achieve greater ...

Escaped GMO Canola Plants Persist Long-Term, but May Be Losing Their Extra Genes

May 22, 2024 — Populations of canola plants genetically engineered to be resistant to herbicides can survive outside of farms, but may be gradually losing their engineered genes, reports a new ...

Chocolate That Harnesses the Full Potential of the Cocoa Fruit

May 21, 2024 — Researchers have developed a type of chocolate that is more sustainable and nutritious than conventional varieties. Cocoa-fruit chocolate uses cocoa fruit jelly as a replacement for powdered sugar, ...

The Impacts of Climate Change on Food Production

May 20, 2024 — A new study shows that climate change has led to decreased pollen production from plants and less pollen diversity than previously thought, which could have a significant impact on food ...

Natural Toxins in Food: Many People Are Not Aware of the Health Risks

May 16, 2024 — Many people are concerned about residues of chemicals, contaminants or microplastics in their food. However, it is less well known that many foods also contain toxins of completely natural origin. ...

Study Reveals Consumers Value Animal Welfare More Than Environmental Sustainability When Buying Meat and Dairy Products

May 16, 2024 — The treatment of animals rates higher than green issues when consumers choose meat and dairy products. That's according to a new study, which suggests that while consumers consider ...

Climate Change Is Most Prominent Threat to Pollinators

May 15, 2024 — A new article has found that climate change is the most prominent threat to pollinators -- such as bumblebees, wasps, and butterflies -- who are essential for biodiversity conservation, crop yields ...

Mosaic Grassland Landscapes Are the Most Beneficial

May 14, 2024 — Grassland provides many services for humans, animals and nature, such as feed production, carbon storage and recreation. Researchers spent two years investigating permanent grassland, its ...

Like Dad and Like Mum ... All in One Plant

May 13, 2024 — Scientists have established a system to generate clonal sex cells in tomato plants and used them to design the genomes of offspring. The fertilization of a clonal egg from one parent by a clonal ...

Prostate Cancer Study: More Health Benefits from Plant-Based Diet

May 13, 2024 — Men with prostate cancer could significantly reduce the chances of the disease worsening by eating more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and olive oil, according to new ...