Agriculture and Food News

April 23, 2024

Top Headlines

World's Chocolate Supply Threatened by Devastating Virus

Apr. 23, 2024 — A rapidly spreading virus threatens the health of the cacao tree and the dried seeds from which chocolate is made, jeopardizing the global supply of the world's most popular treat. Researchers have developed a new strategy: using mathematical data ...

No Bull: How Creating Less-Gassy Cows Could Help Fight Climate Change

Apr. 23, 2024 — A new study has revealed breeding less-flatulent cows and restoring agricultural land could significantly reduce rising methane emission levels, which play a considerable role in climate ...

The Spiciness of Mustard May Depend on Soil Microbes

Apr. 22, 2024 — New study finds microbes may influence the taste of mustard ...

Honey Bees Experience Multiple Health Stressors out-in-the-Field

Apr. 17, 2024 — It's not a single pesticide or virus stressing honey bees, and affecting their health, but exposure to a complex web of multiple interacting stressors encountered while at work pollinating crops, found new research. Scientists have been unable to ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:51pm EDT

Probiotic Feed Additive Boosts Growth, Health in Poultry in Place of Antibiotics

Apr. 17, 2024 — The growing need for antibiotic-free products has challenged producers to decrease or completely stop using antimicrobials as feed supplements in the ...

Plant Sensors Could Act as an Early Warning System for Farmers

Apr. 17, 2024 — Using a pair of sensors made from carbon nanotubes, researchers discovered signals that help plants respond to stresses such as heat, light, or attack from insects or bacteria. Farmers could use ...

Making Crops Colorful for Easier Weeding

Apr. 17, 2024 — To make weeding easier, scientists suggest bioengineering crops to be colorful or to have differently shaped leaves so that they can be more easily distinguished from their wild and weedy ...

Microbial Food as a Strategy Food Production of the Future

Apr. 12, 2024 — Scientists have summarized microbial food production ...

Method to Extract Useful Proteins from Beer-Brewing Leftovers

Apr. 11, 2024 — Researchers have created a method that extracts over 80 percent of the available protein in grain leftovers from brewing beer, commonly known as brewers' spent ...

Biofortified Rice to Combat Deficiencies

Apr. 11, 2024 — Vitamin B1 is an essential micronutrient for human beings. Its deficiency is the cause of numerous diseases of the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Researchers have achieved a significant advance ...

Economist: Tens of Billions of Dollars in Forest Products Are Being Overlooked

Apr. 11, 2024 — Are we missing the forest for the trees? More than timber grows in forests -- including products worth many tens of billions of dollars. Because ...

Food Security in Developed Countries Shows Resilience to Climate Change

Apr. 11, 2024 — A study has found that market forces have provided good food price stability over the past half century, despite extreme weather ...

Deforestation Harms Biodiversity of the Amazon's Perfume-Loving Orchid Bees

Apr. 10, 2024 — A survey of orchid bees in the Brazilian Amazon, carried out in the 1990s, is shedding new light the impact of deforestation on the scent-collecting pollinators, which some view as bellwethers of ...

Integrated Dataset Enables Genes-to-Ecosystems Research

Apr. 8, 2024 — A new dataset bridging molecular information about the poplar tree microbiome to ecosystem-level processes has been released. The project aims to inform research regarding how natural systems ...

Rusty-Patched Bumblebee's Struggle for Survival Found in Its Genes

Apr. 4, 2024 — The rusty-patched bumblebee, once common in the United States, has declined from about 90% of its former range. Researchers conducted the first range-wide genetic study of the endangered species to ...

'Diverse' Agriculture Benefits People and the Environment at the Same Time

Apr. 4, 2024 — A new analysis from 2,655 farms on five continents suggests that moving away from industrial, monoculture farming could benefit both the planet and ...

Nudging in a Virtual Supermarket for More Animal Welfare

Apr. 4, 2024 — It may be possible to change the purchasing behavior of consumers noticeably using some simple strategies. At least this is what a new study indicates. The researchers investigated the effect of ...

Plastic-Free Vegan Leather That Dyes Itself Grown from Bacteria

Apr. 3, 2024 — Researchers have genetically engineered bacteria to grow animal- and plastic-free leather that dyes ...

Golfers' Risk from Pesticides Used on Turfgrass Is Likely Low

Apr. 1, 2024 — For many, spring heralds fresh air and exercise on the golf course. But do players risk exposure to unsafe levels of pesticides used to beautify and maintain a golf course's green grass? To find ...

TB Vaccine May Enable Elimination of the Disease in Cattle by Reducing Its Spread

Mar. 28, 2024 — Vaccination not only reduces the severity of TB in infected cattle, but reduces its spread in dairy herds by 89%, research ...

Researchers Discover Key Gene for Toxic Alkaloid in Barley

Mar. 28, 2024 — Barley is one of the most important cereal crops on a global scale. Many barley cultivars produce a toxic alkaloid called gramine that affects the suitability of barley as fodder, but also helps to ...

Understanding Cattle Grazing Personalities May Foster Sustainable Rangelands

Mar. 27, 2024 — New research finds that not all cattle are the same when it comes to grazing, and knowing that could lead to better animal health and range ...

Sweet Success: Sugarcane's Complex Genetic Code Cracked

Mar. 27, 2024 — Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants. Exploring sugarcane's ...

Bees Use Antennae to Decode Hive Mates' Dances in the Dark

Mar. 25, 2024 — Scientists have discovered how honeybees can decipher dances by their hive mates that relay directions to ...

Honey Bees at Risk for Colony Collapse from Longer, Warmer Fall Seasons

Mar. 25, 2024 — The famous work ethic of honey bees might spell disaster for these busy crop pollinators as the climate warms, new research indicates. Flying shortens the lives of bees, and worker honey bees will ...

Small Changes Can Yield Big Savings in Agricultural Water Use

Mar. 25, 2024 — While Hollywood and Silicon Valley love the limelight, California is an agricultural powerhouse, too. Agricultural products sold in the Golden State totaled $59 billion in 2022. But rising ...

Humans Pass More Viruses to Other Animals Than We Catch from Them

Mar. 25, 2024 — Humans pass on more viruses to domestic and wild animals than we catch from them, according to a major new analysis of viral ...

Better Phosphorus Use Can Ensure Its Stocks Last More Than 500 Years and Boost Global Food Production

Mar. 25, 2024 — More efficient use of phosphorus could see limited stocks of the important fertilizer last more than 500 years and boost global food production to feed growing populations. But these benefits will ...

Maize Genes Control Little Helpers in the Soil

Mar. 25, 2024 — Tiny organisms such as bacteria and fungi help to promote the health and function of plant roots. It is commonly assumed that the composition of these microbes is dependent on the properties of the ...

New Route to Recyclable Polymers from Plants

Mar. 25, 2024 — Cellulose, abundantly available from plant biomass, can be converted into molecules used to make a new class of recyclable polymers, to sustainably replace some ...

Bees Need Food Up to a Month Earlier Than Provided by Recommended Pollinator Plants

Mar. 22, 2024 — Plant species which are recommended as 'pollinator friendly' in Europe begin flowering up to a month too late for bees, resulting in low colony survival and low production of queens. This ...

Product That Kills Agricultural Pests Also Deadly to Native Pacific Northwest Snail

Mar. 21, 2024 — A product used to control pest slugs on farms in multiple countries is deadly to least one type of native woodland snail endemic to the Pacific Northwest, according to scientists who say more study ...

Rose Essential Oil: A Safe Pesticide for Organic Agriculture

Mar. 21, 2024 — Following injury, plants release terpenoids to enhance their defenses. Researchers studying terpenoid-enriched essential oils (EOs) have found that rose EO (REO) can stimulate defense genes in tomato ...

Sheep: Excess Temperatures Cause Low Flocking Concerns

Mar. 21, 2024 — High temperatures during critical periods of the reproductive cycle of sheep result in 2.1 million fewer lambs produced in Australia each year, costing sheep farmers an estimated $97 million ...