Agriculture and Food News

May 25, 2024

Top Headlines

Key Role of Plant-Bacteria Communication for the Assembly of a Healthy Plant Microbiome Supporting Sustainable Plant Nutrition

May 23, 2024 — In an interdisciplinary study, researchers discovered that symbiotic bacteria communicate with legume plants through specific molecules and that this communication influences which bacteria grow near ...

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 ...

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 ...

Charting a Pathway to Next-Gen Biofuels

May 23, 2024 — From soil to sequestration, researchers have modeled what a supply chain for second-generation biofuels might look like in the midwestern United ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:57pm EDT

Roots Are a Key to Drought-Tolerant Maize

May 22, 2024 — Maize can grow successfully in very different local conditions. An international study has now demonstrated the important role of the plant root system. The researchers analyzed more than 9,000 ...

Cuddled Cows Who Work as Therapy Animals Showed a Strong Preference for Women Compared to Men, Study Finds

May 22, 2024 — A new study reveals that cows who are cuddled as therapy animals showed a strong preference for interactions with women when compared to men. In ...

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 ...

Researchers Find Unique Adaptations of Fungus Associated With Bee Bread

May 21, 2024 — The past attempts of honey bee researchers to inventory the fungal diversity in honey bee colonies revealed that Aspergillus flavus is frequently found in hives. In a new study, researchers have ...

Rabies Outbreaks in Costa Rica Cattle Linked to Deforestation

May 21, 2024 — Deforestation in Costa Rica raises the risk of cattle becoming infected with rabies by vampire bats, finds 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, ...

Unraveling the Drought Dilemma: Can Reservoirs Be a Carbon Source?

May 20, 2024 — A team delves into the spatiotemporal patterns of water volume and total organic carbon concentration of agricultural ...

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 ...

Bees and Butterflies on the Decline in Western and Southern North America

May 15, 2024 — Bee and butterfly populations are in decline in major regions of North America due to ongoing environmental change, and significant gaps in pollinator research limit our ability to protect these ...

Two Decades of Studies Suggest Health Benefits Associated With Plant-Based Diets

May 15, 2024 — Vegetarian and vegan diets are generally associated with better status on various medical factors linked to cardiovascular health and cancer risk, as ...

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. ...

Bioengineered Enzyme Creates Natural Vanillin from Plants in One Step

May 16, 2024 — Vanilla, the most widely used flavoring compound in confectionaries and cosmetics, gets its sweet flavor and aroma from the chemical compound -- 'vanillin'. However, the large-scale ...

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 ...

Some Varieties of Annual Flowers Have a Place in Pollinator-Friendly Gardens

May 13, 2024 — While wildflowers and perennials are a must for supporting pollinators, there's no denying the popularity of many annual flowers for their colorful, visual appeal. A new study suggests choosing ...

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 ...

Scientists Unlock Key to Breeding 'Carbon Gobbling' Plants With a Major Appetite

May 10, 2024 — The discovery of how a critical enzyme 'hidden in nature's blueprint' works sheds new light on how cells control key processes in carbon fixation, a process fundamental for life on ...

Bee Body Mass, Pathogens and Local Climate Influence Heat Tolerance

May 7, 2024 — How well bees tolerate temperature extremes could determine their ability to persist in a changing climate. But heat tolerance varies between and within populations, so entomologists examined bee ...

AI to Make Crop Production More Sustainable

May 6, 2024 — Drones monitoring fields for weeds and robots targeting and treating crop diseases may sound like science fiction but is actually happening already, at least on some experimental farms. Researchers ...

Plants Utilize Drought Stress Hormone to Block Snacking Spider Mites

May 3, 2024 — Recent findings that plants employ a drought-survival mechanism to also defend against nutrient-sucking pests could inform future crop breeding programs aimed at achieving better broadscale pest ...

Researchers Develop an AI Model to Reduce Uncertainty in Evapotranspiration Prediction

Apr. 30, 2024 — Evapotranspiration (ET) includes evaporation from soil and open water pools such as lakes, rivers, and ponds, as well as transpiration from plant leaves. The difference between precipitation and ET ...

Discovery of Mechanism Plants Use to Change Seed Oil Could Impact Industrial, Food Oils

Apr. 30, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a new mechanism of oil biosynthesis and found a way to genetically engineer a type of test plant to more efficiently produce different kinds of seed oil that it otherwise ...

Fading Lights: Multiple Threats to North America's Firefly Populations

Apr. 29, 2024 — Scientists have applied a data-driven approach to understanding firefly population dynamics on a continental scale. Key findings from this new study indicate that fireflies, part of the beetle order, ...

More Plants on the Menu of Ancient Hunter-Gatherers

Apr. 29, 2024 — It has long been thought that meat played an important role in the diet of hunter-gatherers before the Neolithic transition. However, due to the scarcity of well-preserved human remains from ...

Hornets Found to Be Primary Pollinators of Two Angelica Species

Apr. 29, 2024 — Researcher discovered that two species in the genus Angelica are pollinated primarily by hornets. This overturns the conventional belief that Angelica species are 'generalists,' meaning ...

Fixin' to Be Flexitarian: Scrap Fish and Invasive Species Can Liven Up Vegetables

Apr. 29, 2024 — Greening the way we eat needn't mean going vegetarian. A healthy, more realistic solution is to adopt a flexitarian diet where seafoods add umami to 'boring' vegetables. A ...

Genetic Hope in Fight Against Devastating Wheat Disease

Apr. 26, 2024 — Fungal disease Fusarium head blight (FHB) is on the rise due to increasingly humid conditions induced by climate change during the wheat growing season, but a fundamental discovery could help reduce ...

Barley Plants Fine-Tune Their Root Microbial Communities Through Sugary Secretions

Apr. 25, 2024 — Different types of barley recruit distinct communities of soil microbes to grow around their roots by releasing a custom mix of sugars and other compounds, according to a new ...

Scientists Released Long-Term Data of Ground Solar-Induced Fluorescence to Improve Understanding of Canopy-Level Photosynthesis

Apr. 25, 2024 — A recent study utilized ground-based instruments to measure solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) that reflect plant health and ...