Food and Agriculture News

May 22, 2025

Top Headlines

A New Technology for Extending the Shelf Life of Produce

May 21, 2025 — Researchers developed a way to extend the shelf life of vegetables by injecting them with melatonin using biodegradable ...

New Research Reveals Puff Adders as an Important Conservation and Rodent Control Solution

May 20, 2025 — New research has revealed that puff adders (Bitis arietans) can be highly efficient at controlling rodent populations that threaten agricultural production on the ...

Common Diabetes Drug Helps Chickens Lay More Eggs

May 20, 2025 — What do chickens and people with a common reproductive disorder have in common? More than one might think -- and a widely-used diabetes medication might just be the surprising ...

Wild Spinach Offers Path to Breed Disease Resistance Into Cultivated Varieties

May 20, 2025 — Several varieties of wild spinach that originated in Central Asia show resistance to a destructive soil-borne pathogen that beleaguers growers of spinach seed in the Pacific Northwest -- a finding ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:49pm EDT

Bees Facing New Threats, Putting Our Survival and Theirs at Risk

May 19, 2025 — A new report identifies the top 12 emerging threats that could accelerate pollinator losses within the next 5-15 years, according to ten of the world's leading ...

Cover Crops May Not Be Solution for Both Crop Yield, Carbon Sequestration

May 19, 2025 — People have assumed climate change solutions that sequester carbon from the air into soils will also benefit crop yields. But a new study finds that most regenerative farming practices to build soil ...

Artificial Intelligence and Genetics Can Help Farmers Grow Corn With Less Fertilizer

May 14, 2025 — Scientists are using artificial intelligence to determine which genes collectively govern nitrogen use efficiency in plants such as corn, with the ...

Researchers Find New Defense Against Hard-to-Treat Plant Diseases

May 8, 2025 — Researchers showed that some spinach defensins can confer similar protection to citrus and potatoes -- and possibly other crops. The effects show significant progress toward recovering yield and ...

Heat and Drought Are Quietly Hurting Crop Yields

May 6, 2025 — A new study reveals how climate change has altered growing conditions for the world's five major crops over the past half century and is reshaping agriculture. The impacts corroborate climate models ...

Feat of 'Dung-Gineering' Turns Cow Manure Into One of World's Most Used Materials

May 7, 2025 — A new technique to extract tiny cellulose strands from cow dung and turn them into manufacturing-grade cellulose, currently used to make everything ...

Vertical Farming to Increase Yields and Reduce Environmental Impact

May 5, 2025 — Vertical farming can do more than lettuce. A research team has investigated the cultivation of six food groups in vertical farming: Crops, algae, mushrooms, insects, fish and cultivated meat. In this ...

Targeting Gluten: Researchers Delete Proteins in Wheat Harmful to People With Celiac Disease

May 5, 2025 — Deleting a cluster of genes in wheat may reduce wheat allergies without harming breadmaking, finds anew ...

New Pangenome Analysis Uncovers Genetic Key to Larger Peanut Yields

Apr. 28, 2025 — Researchers have identified crucial structural variations that determine seed size and weight in peanuts, paving the way for the development of higher-yielding crop ...

Flower Strips Could Save Apple Farmers Pest Control Costs

Apr. 28, 2025 — Planting wildflowers in apple orchards could save farmers up to 3,000 per hectare a year, according to a new ...

Intensifying Farmland Can Sometimes Degrade Biodiversity More Than Expansion

May 1, 2025 — The intensification of existing farmland can sometimes be more harmful to local biodiversity than expanding the area covered by agricultural land, finds a new ...

Will the Vegetables of the Future Be Fortified Using Tiny Needles?

Apr. 29, 2025 — Researchers have shown they can inexpensively nanomanufacture silk microneedles to precisely fortify crops, monitor plant health, and detect soil ...

How Math Helps to Protect Crops from Invasive Disease

Apr. 28, 2025 — New research demonstrates how mathematical modeling can predict outbreaks of toxic fungi in Texas corn crops -- offering a potential lifeline to farmers facing billions in harvest ...

Blackberries With No Thorns? Scientist Assembles Genome of a Blackberry in Major Step to Breed Better Fruit

Apr. 28, 2025 — New blackberry varieties could provide a boon for farmers looking to rebound after the decline of Florida citrus and who see an opportunity to meet the growing demand for blackberries, which have ...

Less Intensive Farming Works Best for Agricultural Soil

Apr. 25, 2025 — The less intensively you manage the soil, the better the soil can function. Such as not plowing as often or using more grass-clover mixtures as cover crops. Surprisingly, it applies to both ...

Plant-Based Calamari That Rivals Real Seafood in Texture

Apr. 24, 2025 — Plant-based seafood alternatives should have similar flavors, textures and nutritional content to the foods they mimic. And recreating the properties of fried calamari rings, which have a neutral ...

A Sustainable Diet Leaves Room for Two Chicken Breasts a Week

Apr. 22, 2025 — We should eat less meat and more legumes, campaigns and dietary advice tell us. But how much is 'less'? Researchers have an ...

Better Feed, Fewer Burps: Scientists Target Dairy Gas Emissions

Apr. 22, 2025 — Researchers are testing a new type of cattle feed that could help dairy cows release less methane gas from burps and flatulence and use nutrients more efficiently. Because methane traps heat in the ...

Even Sublethal Insecticide Dose May Disrupt Pollinator Mating Process

Apr. 21, 2025 — Insecticides can help protect crops against troublesome pests, but they also pose a risk for beneficial insects such as pollinators. A new study provided insight into how even sublethal doses of ...

Should Farm Fields Be Used for Crops or Solar? Or Both

Apr. 21, 2025 — As farmers debate whether fields should be used for agriculture or solar panels, new research says the answer could be both. Scientists analyzed remote sensing and aerial imagery to study how fields ...

European Potato Genome Decoded: Small Gene Pool With Large Differences

Apr. 17, 2025 — A research team has decoded the genome of historic potato cultivars and used this resource to develop an efficient method for analysis of hundreds of additional potato ...

Farm Robot Autonomously Navigates, Harvests Among Raised Beds

Apr. 16, 2025 — A researcher has developed an autonomous driving algorithm for agricultural robots used for greenhouse cultivation and other farm ...

New Pollen-Replacing Food for Honey Bees Brings New Hope for Survival

Apr. 15, 2025 — Scientists have unveiled a new food source designed to sustain honey bee colonies indefinitely without natural pollen. The research details successful trials where nutritionally stressed colonies, ...

Growing Wildflowers on Disused Urban Land Can Damage Bee Health

Apr. 15, 2025 — Wildflowers growing on land previously used for buildings and factories can accumulate lead, arsenic and other metal contaminants from the soil, which are consumed by pollinators as they feed, a new ...

Meat or Veg? Plant-Based Protein Is Linked to a Longer Life, Research Shows

Apr. 15, 2025 — A global study has shown that countries which consume more plant-based proteins -- such as chickpeas, tofu and peas -- have longer adult life expectancies. Scientists studied food supply and ...

New Plant Molecule Encourages Plant-Fungi Symbiosis to Improve Crops

Apr. 14, 2025 — Scientists use small peptides to enhance symbiosis between plants and fungi, offering a sustainable alternative to artificial fertilizers. Plant biologists discover new plant molecule, CLE16, as well ...

Intuition Guides Farmers Towards Better Decision-Making, but Remains a Taboo

Apr. 10, 2025 — In Finland, farmers who have transitioned to regenerative agriculture perceive intuition as something that leads to better decision-making, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows. ...

Impact of Processing on Biochemical Composition of Plant-Based Products Revealed

Apr. 10, 2025 — A study showed that different processing methods significantly affect the biochemical composition of plant-based foods. Current food classification systems do not sufficiently acknowledge the ...

How Much Food Can the World Grow? International Team Calls for New Yield Potential Estimates

Apr. 9, 2025 — Agronomists question statistical methods used to predict yield potential and 'yield gaps' for major crops. In some cases, yield potential is overestimated, while in others it can be ...

Best Methods for Growing Atlantic Sea Scallops

Apr. 4, 2025 — A new study compares two scallop farming methods, ear-hanging and lantern net culture, over a complete grow-out cycle to determine which approach yields the best results for commercial growers. The ...