Agriculture

Agriculture

Biotech cotton: Less spray but same yield

The way farmers grow transgenic cotton in Arizona lets them skip some of their regular spraying but end up with the same yield as traditional farmers, as well as the same impact on ants and beetles.

Agriculture

Organic Doesn’t Mean Free of Pesticides

Even organic produce, especially root crops, can carry trace residues of long-banned pesticides.

Agriculture

Wheat Warning—New Rust Could Spread Like Wildfire

A new, yield-slashing wheat blight has emerged in East Africa and could spread far beyond that part of the world.

Agriculture

Using Light to Sense Plants’ Health and Diversity

Laser scanners may help farmers better tailor when and how much to fertilize their crops, with side benefits for the environment.

Agriculture

Feds pull approval of poultry antibiotic

The FDA has announced its intent to ban an antibiotic used by poultry farmers because of concerns that continued use of the drug could make it harder to successfully treat food poisoning in people with products from the same class of antibiotics.

Agriculture

Soy-protein quality versus quantity

New tests show that as the protein yields of soybeans rise, the growth-enhancing quality of that protein as a food or feed decreases.

Agriculture

Insecticide Inside: Gene-modified rice cuts chemical spraying in China

In the hands of Chinese farmers, varieties of rice genetically modified to fend off insects reduce pesticide use and increase crop yields.

Agriculture

Illegal cigarettes pack toxic punch

Tobacco used in counterfeit cigarettes is apparently grown using metal-laced fertilizers, making the fake products even more harmful than the real things.

Agriculture

Frozen Assets

A U.S. gene bank has begun deep-freezing semen and other livestock 'seed' for possible future use in research or breeding.

Agriculture

Learning from Studs

Livestock gene banks offer dividends to researchers hoping to milk higher profits out of dairying.

Agriculture

The Ultimate Crop Insurance

A new treaty renews hope that the waning diversity in agricultural crops can be slowed, and important genes preserved, both in the field and in gene banks.

Agriculture

Bees increase coffee profits

Scientists studying a Costa Rican coffee farm have estimated the monetary value of conserving nearby wooded habitat for the bees that pollinate coffee plants.