The results of twenty years of experiments into the behaviour of bacteria in foods are now freely available on the internet. In an international collaboration between the Food Standards Agency, Institute of Food Research and US Department of Agriculture, the database will help food safety and quality to be predicted quickly and free of charge.
“The behaviour of food poisoning pathogens and spoilage organisms has been intensely studied since the early 1980s in response to major food poisonin
Genetically modified crops could help small-scale farmers in developing countries according to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in The use of genetically modified crops in developing countries, a Discussion Paper published today. The Nuffield Council is inviting comments on the draft paper which aims to contribute to ‘GM Nation?’, the public debate organised by the government in the UK during the next six weeks.
In 1999, the Nuffield Council recommended that there was a moral imperative f
All gardeners know that their plants have to compete against insects and weeds. We apply insecticides to protect plants from the munching hordes, and we apply herbicides, or hoe, to protect plants from weeds. But, according to Stan Finch and Rosemary Collier of Horticulture Research International, Wellesbourne, the latter is a bad move that actually helps insects to find our crop plants.
Writing in the June issue of Biologist, Finch and Collier provide evidence that specialist insects, those
Technology is bringing precision agriculture one-step closer to widespread use
USDA-Agricultural Research Service scientists at the George E. Brown, Jr. Salinity Laboratory, Riverside, California, have developed general guidelines for soil mapping using mobile equipment. This advanced technology is valuable for looking at changes in soil quality over time; including the presence of pollutants such as salts, pesticides, and fertilizers; and for use in precision agriculture to determine
Research led by scientists at the U of T and Caprion Pharmaceuticals have uncovered the basis for a diagnostic, immunotherapy and vaccine, providing a way to detect and treat the brain-wasting damage of infectious prions like those found in mad cow disease and its human version, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
Dr. Neil Cashman, a principal investigator at U of T’s Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases and professor in the Department of Medicine (neurology) and a Caprion founder,
390 million hectares (circa 80% of the total land area) in Europe is currently laid to waste by acid soil toxicity. Now EUREKA project CEREALSTRESSOL is developing new varieties of crops that can cope with adverse due to natural stresses such as drought and due to abiotic, non-living stresses such as acid soil toxicity.
Acid soil toxicity is caused by the leaching of aluminum, manganese and other toxins into the soil through acid rain, acid forming fertilizers as well as the decay of
As concerns rise about the ecological impacts of genetically modified crops, a new Indiana University study urges a pragmatic approach to dealing with “transgenes” that escape from crop plants into the wild. Use of transgenic crops is becoming more common as farmers reap benefits from the plants’ decreased susceptibility to disease and increased marketplace value.
IU biologist Loren Rieseberg and former postdoctoral fellow John Burke (now at Vanderbilt University) reported in the May 2
Cassava is the third-most important food source in tropical countries, but it has one major problem: The roots and leaves of poorly processed cassava plants contain a substance that, when eaten, can trigger the production of cyanide.
That’s a serious problem for the 500 million people who rely on cassava as their main source of calories, among them subsistence farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, said Richard Sayre, a professor of plant biology at Ohio State University. He and his colleague Dimuth
Farmers can prioritize areas within fields to reduce nitrate contamination
Fine-tuning fertilizer and irrigation management requires farmers to carefully balance optimizing yield and protecting groundwater quality. Some states even require farmers to use crop production practices to minimize nitrate leaching to groundwater in environmentally sensitive areas.
One such practice is using a nitrification inhibitor when applying nitrogen fertilizer, which helps protect nitrogen f
Under the right economic conditions, a growing demand for forest products that accompanies development may lead to an increase – not a decline – in forest cover, according to a new study by researchers at Brown University and Harvard University. Policies that focus on reducing paper demand may not necessarily increase forestation.
The study examined the connection between the economy and forest cover in India, a country with a relatively closed economy that experienced an apparent increase
The relationship between leguminous plants such as peas and beans and nitrogen-fixing bacteria is even closer than previously thought, with bacteria acting like an intrinsic part of the plant, according to research published in the journal Nature today.
Researchers from the University of Reading and the John Innes Centre, Norwich, have found that nitrogen-fixing bacteria provide more than just a supply of useable nitrogen to the plants. They have found that amino acid cycling between the pl
Scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC) (1), Norwich, UK1 and the INRA (Institut National de Recherche Agronomique) at Evry, France(2) have today announced the creation of the largest library of genetic resources, for the study of wheat, in the world. The two scientific teams have exchanged so-called BAC libraries(3) that when combined together, represent the entire genome(4) of wheat. The research material in the libraries, and associated information, is freely available to academic and industrial scient
Pesticides are one of the most significant sources of poison to the human nervous system when misused. New research indicates that various cultures may misinterpret the directions provided by the manufacturers, thereby increasing the chances for mishandling.
The pesticide industry considers culture to be an increasing concern due to changing demographic trends – specifically, increases in migrant laborers and overall language diversity. As these trends continue, the opportunities for commun
Dutch epidemiologists have calculated that partial vaccination can stop outbreaks of swine fever. What’’s more, mother sows do not need to be vaccinated. The research was carried out at the Institute for Animal Science and Health, Lelystad, and Utrecht University.
PhD student Don Klinkenberg calculated that partial vaccinations do not exceed the limit for the outbreak of an epidemic. If the mother sows are not vaccinated, the spread of the swine fever is limited to transfer to less than on
Dutch plant ecologists have investigated how the potato cyst nematode can be controlled using Solanum sisymbriifolium, a member of the potato family. The plant produces a hatching agent which causes the nematode’’s eggs to hatch. However, the nematodes which eat the plant can no longer reproduce.
Potato cyst nematodes attack the roots of potato plants. After harvest the nematodes remain in the soil in the form of cysts. These are the dead bodies of female nematodes that are filled with egg
The newly discovered disease, Sudden Oak Death (SOD), is quickly gaining a reputation, and it’s not a good one. SOD is tenacious and lethal, using as many as 26 different plants as hosts and spreading in ways scientists don’t completely understand. Now, recent research suggests that SOD is capable of using an even greater number of host plants than previously thought. While this is not necessarily good news, it does help shed light on why SOD has been so quick to spread.
“SOD is d
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