Agriculture

  1. Agriculture

    Organic Dairying Is on Upswing, But No Panacea

    Some small dairy farms are making the switch to organic operations to increase profits and distinguish their products from undifferentiated commodities.

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  2. Agriculture

    Cow Power

    To improve the dire economics of dairying, some farmers are looking to generate commercial quantities of electric power.

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  3. Agriculture

    Demand for Ethanol May Drive Up Food Prices

    The production of ethanol from corn and other crops for fuel could drive up food prices.

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  4. Agriculture

    Farm Fresh Pesticides

    For people who live near croplands, traces of agricultural chemicals can find their way into homes by hitchhiking on windblown dust.

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  5. 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.

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  6. Agriculture

    Organic Doesn’t Mean Free of Pesticides

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

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  7. 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.

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  8. 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.

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  9. 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.

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  10. 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.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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.

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