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Cities can prove to be crucial actors in tackling food waste

Food waste is one of the most important issues of current food systems: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that more than one third of food is either lost or wasted along the entire food supply chain causing significant economic, social and environmental impacts.

20 Oct 2020

Use of nitrogen-containing fertilizers may increase climate-damaging carbon emissions

Concentration of dinitrogen oxide - also referred to as nitrous oxide - in the atmosphere increases strongly and speeds up climate change. In addition to CO2 and methane, it is the third important greenhouse gas emitted due to anthropogenic activities.

20 Oct 2020

Cheese-ripening bacteria respond to volatile gases produced by fungi

Scientists have discovered that fungi use many ways to interact with bacteria and one of these methods is through the smells emitted by cheese.

19 Oct 2020

Cell-cultured meat can surpass nutritional profile of conventionally farmed meat

Researchers have produced plant nutrients by genetically modifying the muscle cells of cows. These nutrients are not natively found in beef cells.

15 Oct 2020

Cornell researchers aim to help vineyard growers identify nutrient deficiencies

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded a $676,000 grant to a pair of Cornell University researchers aiming to use high resolution sensors to help vineyard growers identify nutrient deficiencies.

14 Oct 2020

Two proteins compete to give shape to plants

In an elegant choreography, plants take cues from their environment and channel them into flowers, roots, or branches.

13 Oct 2020

Scientists develop UK Crop Microbiome Cyrobank to facilitate sustainable yield improvement

Scientists from the UK's foremost agricultural research institutes have teamed up to create a new UK Crop Microbiome Cyrobank (UK-CMCB) to safeguard future research and facilitate the sustainable yield improvement of the UK's six major food crops including barley, oats, oil seed rape, potato, sugar beet and wheat.

12 Oct 2020

Genomes provide insights into fig-wasp coevolution

Banyan trees are fig trees that begin their life as an epiphyte. The most noticeable feature of banyan Ficus species is their extraordinary aerial roots, which enable them to live as hemi-epiphytes, as do the strangler figs often seen in tropical forests.

12 Oct 2020

Phosphorus supply chain dynamics may affect regional food security

Phosphorus is essential in agriculture to maintain higher production levels, where it is applied as a fertilizer. Some of the world regions are experiencing high population growth rates, which means more phosphorus will be needed to produce an increasing amount of food needed in the next decades.

8 Oct 2020

Global food production poses an increasing climate threat

According to a new study, rising nitrous oxide emissions are putting reaching climate goals and the objectives of the Paris Agreement in jeopardy.

8 Oct 2020

Grant awarded to study how plants affect microbiomes

For centuries, scientists have worked above ground, studying plants and their effect on biodiversity.

7 Oct 2020

Dried plum diet prevents bone loss associated with spinal cord injury

Findings from a new study among mice show a diet high in dried plum (prunes) completely prevents bone loss associated with spinal cord injury (SCI), while also restoring some of the bone lost following SCI.

7 Oct 2020

Scientists fine-tune plasma treatment to optimize plant growth and yield

Ever since scientists discovered that plasma treatment leads to faster growth and higher yields of some agricultural crops, physicists, chemists, and biologists have been working together to tease out the mechanisms driving this phenomenon.

7 Oct 2020

Fly larvae extract could protect plants from pathogenic bacteria

Biotechnologists from MIPT have developed a method for extracting the active constituents from the fat of black soldier fly larvae.

6 Oct 2020

Researchers identify gene related to seed dispersal in green millet

For years, Elizabeth (Toby) Kellogg, PhD, member and Robert E. King Distinguished Investigator and other researchers at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (Danforth Center) drove up and down the highways of the continental United States, occasionally pulling over to the side of the road to collect small weedy plants and bring them back to the lab.

6 Oct 2020

Researchers identify new DNA fragment that forms male sex organs in mice

Researchers have identified a new piece of DNA that is crucial for the formation of male sex organs. This discovery may require the revisal of biology textbooks.

5 Oct 2020

MASBio aims to advance renewable biomass and bioproducts industries

The Mid-Atlantic region has some 10 million acres of agricultural and mining land that is rich in natural resources but currently underutilized.

5 Oct 2020

Harvesting vegetation on riparian buffers minimally impacts water quality

Allowing farmers to harvest vegetation from their riparian buffers will not significantly impede the ability of those streamside tracts to protect water quality by capturing nutrients and sediment -- and it will boost farmers' willingness to establish buffers.

5 Oct 2020

Novel tool can screen cereal crops for frost damage

Agricultural scientists and engineers at the University of Adelaide have identified a potential new tool for screening cereal crops for frost damage.

5 Oct 2020

Fungus in some organic pesticides can cause severe cob rot in maize

Protecting crops against pests and diseases is essential to ensure secure food supply. Around 95 percent of the food comes from conventional agriculture, which uses chemical pesticides to keep crops healthy. Increasingly, however, organic pesticides are also being sought as an alternative.

1 Oct 2020