Scientists from the University of Minnesota demonstrated yields of corn and soybeans were only minimally reduced when organic production practices were utilized as compared with conventional production practices. After factoring in production costs, net returns between the two production strategies were equivalent.
More than 80% of corn and soybeans produced in the United States is grown in the Midwest, the vast majority with conventional production practices in a corn-soybean rotation requ
An increasing amount of genetic engineering in agriculture closely resembles the conventional crop breeding that has been done for thousands of years, and unnecessarily stringent regulation of this type of gene research is choking off its usefulness, one expert says in a new policy forum in Science.
Government regulations that lump all types of genetic engineering together, instead of making reasonable distinctions between differing technologies, is stifling research, favors the efforts of
Scientists at Horticulture Research International have been studying natural mutations in vegetables in the hope of identifying the genes responsible for limiting uptake of caesium. The results of their quest, to be presented at the annual SEB conference suggest ‘safe’ crops could one day be grown on radioactive soil.
Four million people in Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine currently live in areas where 137Cs deposition densities to soils exceeded 37 kBq m-2 following the Chernobyl accident in
The expensive, energy-intensive process of turning wood into paper costs the pulp and paper industries more than $6 billion a year. Much of that expense involves separating wood’s cellulose from lignin, the glue that binds a tree’s fibers, by using an alkali solution and high temperatures and pressures. Although the lignin so removed is reused as fuel, wood with less lignin and more cellulose would save the industry millions of dollars a year in processing and chemical costs. Research at North Caroli
Significantly improved peanut yields have been achieved by researchers at the Hebrew University Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences in Rehovot.
Through the use of the plant hormone ethylene, the researchers have succeeded in regulating the flowering of the peanut plant, with a resulting four-fold increase in the yield of large peanut pods at harvest time.
The research was carried out by Eliezer Zamski, the Jack Futterman Professor of Agricultural Botan
On Monday 31 March ecologists will meet with molecular biologists at the University of Southampton for the most novel and broad-ranging scientific session of its kind. They will present findings in Session C5/P3 which show that the biochemical pathways which influence a plant’s response to stimuli such as attack, disease or other stresses are not mutually exclusive as previously thought. For example, up until recently the two separate signalling pathways in plants which respond independently to disea
The world’s biggest fungus, discovered in Oregon’s Blue Mountains in 2001, is challenging traditional notions of what constitutes an individual. The underground fungus–estimated to be between 2000 and 8500 years old–is also deepening our understanding of the ecosystem, with possible implications for the management of Canadian forests, according to a paper by the discoverers (B.A. Ferguson, T.A. Dreisbach, C.G. Parks, G.M. Filip, and C.L. Schmitt) published March 17 on the Web site of the
Known for its intoxicating effects on felines, catnip oil may also have a future in termite control. Recent experiments by USDA Forest Service researcher Chris Peterson show that catnip oil repels and even kills termites in a laboratory setting.
Peterson, a researcher with the Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS), and fellow researcher Janice Ems-Wilson, a chemist at Valencia Community College in Orlando, FL, presented the results of their research at the national meeting of the Am
Vegetable oil similar to the stuff you use to cook your food may one day fill your car’s engine. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have developed a chemically modified version of the edible oil that shows promise as a cleaner, renewable alternative to petroleum-based motor oil, while enhancing its protective properties.
Veggie motor oil could eventually be produced cheaper than petroleum-based oil and may help reduce this country’s dependence on foreign oil, the re
A biological process using three different types of fungi to control common plant diseases and mite pests has been developed by researchers at the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences in Rehovot.
Use of these fungi enables crops to overcome such plant diseases and pests without having to apply environmentally-polluting chemicals, said Abraham Sztejnberg, the Hebrew University’s Francis Ariowitsch Professor of Agriculture, a member of the resear
Researchers from Imperial College, England have just shown in a forthcoming article in the journal Ecology Letters, that insect larvae can use an engineered toxin (Cry1Ac) as a supplementary food source.
They found that toxin-resistant larvae of the Diamondback Moth developed faster and had a greater pupal weight in the presence of the toxin. This could be a genetic effect, linked indirectly to the presence of a resistance allele but more simply, could be due to resistant insects enhancing
Scottish company IceRobotics will develop a new generation of dairy farm robots, working in a way that is similar to an elephant’s trunk, that can milk cows without the presence of the farmer, thanks to an Invention & Innovation award of £98,000 from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts), the organisation that invests in UK creativity and innovation.
While studying for his PhD, Dr Bruce Davies, a senior lecturer at Heriot-Watt University, came up with the id
A robust, new geographic information systems (GIS) software tool developed by a University at Buffalo geographer is helping the U.S. Forest Service to more quickly and accurately assess and contain the devastation wrought by forest fires, such as last summer’s Hayman Fire, Colorado’s worst wildfire ever. That fire, which covered more than 137,000 acres and blazed for more than two weeks, destroyed 133 homes and caused damage of approximately $39 million.
The new tool, to be presen
Long-time farmers’ friend shows promise against parasitic worms
Roundworms, hookworms, watch out. Scientists this week announced that a soil bacterium’s crystal proteins, long an effective weapon against many insect pests, are toxic to some nematodes, too.
The crystal proteins – created by some strains of Bacillus thuringiensis, more commonly known as Bt – thwart the development of some nematodes and kill others outright. The findings raise the possibility that thes
Fruits and veggies grown organically show significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventionally grown foods, according to a new study of corn, strawberries and marionberries. The research suggests that pesticides and herbicides actually thwart the production of phenolics — chemicals that act as a plant’s natural defense and also happen to be good for our health. Fertilizers, however, seem to boost the levels of anti-cancer compounds.
The findings appear in the
Adding composted biosolids rich with iron, manganese and organic matter to a lead-contaminated home garden in Baltimore appears to have bound the lead so it is less likely to be absorbed by the bodies of children who dirty their hands playing outside or are tempted to taste those delicious mud pies they “baked” in the backyard.
The garden soil in the study is similar to potentially hundreds of thousands of yards contaminated with lead in Baltimore and other inner cities, according to Sally
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