Agriculture
- Agriculture
Insects laughing at Bt toxin? Try this
A new countermeasure restores the toxicity of Bt pesticides to insects that have evolved resistance.
- Agriculture
Silencing Pests: Altered plants make RNA that keeps insects at bay
Engineered plants make genetic material that disables critical genes in insects that eat the plants, offering a possible new strategy for agricultural-pest control.
- Agriculture
Cleaning Up after Livestock
Manure collection system sanitizes cattle wastes and makes hay—literally—while the sun shines.
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- Agriculture
Web Special: You fertilized with what?
A study shows that farmers can substitute human urine for conventional fertilizer.
- Agriculture
Living Rust
Mention rust, and most of us think of the oxidized metal that signals the aging and decay of cars, fences, and bolts on the backyard deck. However, many plants also suffer from rust—in this case, fungal diseases named for their characteristic reddish-orange color. With a particularly virulent example known as Ug99 (see Wheat Warning—New Rust […]
- Agriculture
Bugged wines
Stinky compounds emitted by ladybugs can impart a foul taste to wines made from grapes on which the insects had been feeding.
- Agriculture
Herbal Herbicides
Scientists are tapping plants, and the self-defense chemicals they make, for new weed killers, many of which may find use in organic farming.
- Agriculture
Ethanol Juggernaut Diverts Corn from Food to Fuel
Corn feeds the production of meat and dairy goods in the United States, so those products are likely to increase in price as ethanol fuel demands more of the country's corn supply.
- Agriculture
Cloned Meat and Milk Are Safe, but They Won’t Hit Stores Soon
A Food and Drug Administration analysis concludes that food from cloned animals is safe, but the effort and expense involved in creating these animals means that products from them won't be in markets anytime soon.
- Agriculture
Big footprints
Livestock production carries surprisingly high, and largely hidden, environmental costs.
- Agriculture
Wheat gone wild
Researchers have identified a gene responsible for boosting the protein, iron, and zinc content of some varieties of wild wheat by 10 to 15 percent.
