Farming and Agriculture

A new tool allows researchers to probe the metabolic processes occurring within the leaves, stems, and roots of a key citrus crop, the clementine. The big picture goal of this research is to improve the yields, flavor and nutritional value of citrus and non-citrus crops, even in the face of... Read more

Spotted lanternfly season is back in Pennsylvania. The polka-dotted, gray-and-red-winged adult insects make their appearance each July and tend to hang around until December. It's an unwelcome summer ritual that started in 2014 when the invasive pests were first detected in the U.S.... Read more

Humans rely on metaphors to guide a shared understanding of our complex world, and in a novel twist, a faculty member in the University of Rhode Island's Department of Fisheries, Animals and Veterinary Sciences is borrowing a technique from his colleagues in the College of Arts and Sciences to better... Read more

When most growers plant corn, they expect perfect, uniform rows and plump and pearly yellow kernels lining the cob. But a group of USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists intentionally plant the misfits—some gnarled and speckled, others sprouting tassels where ears should be—to perpetuate the wide array of genetic variation in... Read more

Modern dairy cows are milk-producing powerhouses—some yielding more than 50 kg a day. But all that productivity comes at a price: their mammary glands often suffer from inflammation and cellular stress, which not only reduces milk quality but also affects the cows' well-being.... Read more

With intensifying global warming and climate change, drought has become a major threat to global agriculture, impacting crop yields and food security. To survive such adverse events, plants have evolved several strategies. One such strategy to counteract water scarcity is "stomatal closure," where stomata—the tiny pores on leaf surfaces responsible... Read more

Cheap volcanic rock that languishes in open-cut mines and quarries could transform Australia's farming sector as a natural fertilizer, boosting crop yields and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.... Read more

A new study by an international team of researchers has revealed the huge role Indian Ocean fisheries play in feeding the world and supporting nutritional security.... Read more

Parasitic, egg-eating worms might sound like the stuff of nightmares, but they're simply a fact of life for blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay.... Read more

The U.S. has closed its southern border again to livestock imports, saying a flesh-eating parasite has moved further north in Mexico than previously reported.... Read more

The environmental impact of nine pesticides, commonly used in grape cultivation, may have been significantly underestimated, suggesting current pesticide risk assessment criteria need updating.... Read more

The Canadian government is currently considering approving the entry of gene-edited pigs into the food system.... Read more

Adding lime to agricultural soils can remove CO2 from the atmosphere, rather than cause CO2 emissions, claims new research.... Read more

A new policy brief, produced as part of the LAMASUS project, highlights that strategic agricultural de-intensification in the EU could help reduce agricultural carbon emissions by nearly a third and considerably improve biodiversity recovery.... Read more

The future of sustained space habitation depends on our ability to grow fresh food away from Earth. The revolutionary new collaborative Moon-Rice project is using cutting-edge experimental biology to create an ideal future food crop that can be grown in future deep-space outposts, as well as in extreme environments back... Read more