Agriculture
- 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.
- Agriculture
Plastic vs. Plants: Mulch method changes tomato’s gene activity
A suite of at least 10 genes in a tomato plant behaves differently depending on the farmer's mulch-and-fertilizer routine.
- Agriculture
A Maize-ing Travels
Corn, an American native, has taken root the world over and is becoming increasingly important to agriculture in nations beyond the West.
- Agriculture
Coming Soon—Spud Lite
A new variety of baking potato has about 25 percent fewer calories and 30 percent fewer carbohydrates per unit weight than the typical brown-skinned Idaho potato.
