Agriculture & Food
We eat to live. Humans use approximately 11% of Earth’s land for the cultivation of crops for food, but also for clothing, medicine and biofuels. Globally, major crops include sugarcane, pumpkin, maize (corn), wheat, rice, cassava, soybeans, hay, potatoes and cotton.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Controlling this gene boosts plant tolerance to water, salt stress
Plant Science reports that OsNCED5 gene regulated tolerance to water and salt stress, as well as leaf aging in rice ...
Smartphone-powered device quickly detects diseased plants, could help protect crop yields
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed portable technology that allows farmers to identify plant diseases in the field ...
The world faces ‘pollinator collapse’? How environmental advocates and the media get the science about the ‘bee-apocalypse’ wrong time and again
With neither the facts nor the science on their side, environmental advocacy groups are simply pounding the table ...
EU green lights imports of 10 GMO crops following comprehensive safety assessment
On [July 26], the Commission authorized ten genetically modified organisms (GMOs): seven for food and feed uses .... two renewed ...
Bayer faces expensive lawsuit in Brazil as more farmers challenge firm’s GMO soy patent
Germany’s Bayer AG, which completed the takeover of U.S.-based Monsanto [in 2018], has been dealt a legal blow in Brazil ...
Viewpoint: Eat organic apples to improve gut health? There’s reason for skepticism
Yogurt marketing and supplement claims aside, there is no evidence that your body is impacted by probiotics unless you suffered ...
Nutritionist: You can’t buy GMO wheat—so don’t blame it for celiac disease
Amber Pankonin, a registered dietitian and an adjunct instructor in the science department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, places trust ...
Quest to reduce greenhouse gases needs modern farming techniques, including use of GMOs, not organics, research shows
Modern farming has "uncoupled" itself from greenhouse gas output -- using new technologies, including genetic engineering, to boost crop yields ...
Plant-based Beyond Burger healthier than beef? Nutrition experts weigh in on popular meat alternative
Canadians can't get enough of Beyond Meat's plant-based burger that's designed to taste just like beef .... But does Beyond's ...
Video: Can we keep this parasitic, bee-killing mite out of the US?
“Bees are not just an incredibly charismatic insect, they’re also incredibly vital to our way of life as human beings,” ...
Is ‘Big Ag’ getting into the cannabis business?
When Mowgli Holmes and his childhood friend Nishan Karassik founded Phylos Bioscience in 2014 they had one major goal: to ...
Why 3 countries planted GMO Bt cotton and got ‘wildly different results’
Three countries used the same tactic to fight the same pest on the same crop, but they had wildly different ...
Viewpoint: Organic farmer’s New York Times opinion piece perpetuates ‘fantasy’ of small growers feeding the world
Barber’s perspective on GM and patented seeds follow the party line of the organic industry ...
Climate change could ‘significantly’ cut nutrient content in crops over next 30 years
One of the biggest challenges to reducing hunger and undernutrition around the world is to produce foods that provide not ...
Suspected Fusarium wilt infection in Colombia threatens global banana supply, but fungus-resistant GMO fruit on the horizon
In a long-feared development, an extremely damaging disease of bananas has apparently reached Latin America. Late last week, the Colombian ...
90% of Europeans fear biotech crops? New survey busts the popular anti-GMO myth
A special Eurobarometer survey report on food safety was published [in June]. It shows once again that the regularly promoted ...
Dessert of the future? This $20 a pint ice cream made with GMO yeast sells out in hours
Agri-tech start-up Perfect Day released a line of real ice cream made with lab-grown dairy that costs $20 a pint ...
‘Industrial-scale’ beekeeping doesn’t boost disease prevalence in honeybee colonies, study shows
It is generally thought that the intensification of farming will result in higher disease prevalences, although there is little specific ...
Viewpoint: Why CRISPR-edited crops should be allowed in organic agriculture
A University of California, Berkeley professor stands at the front of the room, delivering her invited talk about the potential ...
New test accurately estimates bee exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides, study claims
Bee populations are declining, and neonicotinoid pesticides continue to be investigated — and in some cases banned — because of ...
Viewpoint: We need GMO, CRISPR-edited crops to help feed 10 billion people
If we want to feed 10 billion people by 2050, in a world beset by rising temperatures and scarcer water ...
The rise, fall and resurrection of Russian seed bank pioneer Nikolai Vavilov
Would all this be cast aside, he wondered, his reputation disgraced? Or would the good work be rediscovered, like the ...
As technology ‘wipes out’ traditional work, biotech investment could revitalize rural America
Cow-free burgers are now all the rage — after Beyond Meats’ recent IPO, shares rose 163% on the first day ...
No Bee Armageddon: US honeybee colony numbers stable for 25 years. Thank capitalism?
Warnings of an impending "bee apocalypse" became widespread in 2006, after some commercial beekeepers reported the mass disappearance of worker ...
Podcast: Land use for animal agriculture has declined 140 million hectares since 2000. Can we keep this ‘livestock revolution’ alive?
We're often told raising animals for food takes a devastating toll on the environment, consuming ever more natural resources, hastening ...
What’s the most sustainable, affordable and nutritious sugar: Boutique imported unrefined whole cane v. domestic sugar cane v. sugar beet?
A drive toward The Everglades down US 98 between Yeehaw Junction and Belle Glade, FL takes you around the east ...
1/3 of the world’s soil is degraded. But technology can bring our farmland ‘back to life’
In Iowa they call it “black gold” – a fertile blanket covering the landlocked Midwestern state. Thousands of years of ...
