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Huge Gap Between World Demand For Fish And What Can Be Sustainably Harvested
14 10 2008 There is a huge gap between world demand for fish and what we can harvest from the world's natural stocks. The figures are clear: If we don't do something about the over fishing, the stocks of wild fish will be dealt a death blow. At the same time, the world's population continues to grow -- and with it the global demand for food.
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Using Electrons To Treat Organic Seeds
13 10 2008 Sales of organic products are booming: Consumers want their food to be untainted. To avoid the use of fungicides yet nevertheless protect plants from disease, researchers have developed a method that involves bombarding seeds with electrons to kill fungal spores and viruses.
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Biological Alternatives To Chemical Pesticides
10 10 2008 With increasing consumer pressure on both farmers and supermarkets to minimize the use of chemical pesticides in fruit and vegetables, a new study looks at why there is currently little use of biological alternatives in the UK.
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Green Coffee-growing Practices Buffer Climate-change Impacts
10 10 2008 Chalk up another environmental benefit for shade-grown Latin American coffee: University of Michigan researchers say the technique will provide a buffer against the ravages of climate change in the coming decades.
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Experts Agree: To Protect The Environment, Biofuel Standards Are Needed
10 10 2008 Society is in a race to find renewable sources of carbon-neutral energy. Cellulose-based biofuels hold promise, but we need to proceed cautiously and with an eye toward minimizing long-term ecological impacts. Without a sound plan, we could wind up doing more environmental harm than good.
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Scent On Demand: Scientists Genetically Enhance Scent Of Flowers
09 10 2008 Scientists have found a way to genetically enhance the scent of flowers and implant a scent in those that don't have one.
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Good News For Pig Breeders
08 10 2008 There are currently two methods for artificial insemination: bull semen can be frozen to a temperature of -172 °C and may be stored indefinitely. However, pig semen must be diluted and stored liquid, and the storage capacity is only a few days. The window of opportunity for insemination is also limited. Striking the period when the sow is receptive is difficult and farmers need to inspect the animals regularly.
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Turning Freshwater Farm Ponds Into Crab Farms
04 10 2008 Biologist are working to grow and harvest blue crabs from freshwater ponds, instead of from the sea.
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Engineering Aluminum-tolerant Crop Plants: Biochemists Devise Method For Bypassing Toxicity Effects
03 10 2008 Aluminum toxicity, a global agricultural problem, halts root growth in plants, severely limiting agricultural productivity for more than half of the world's arable land. Now biochemists have determined that it is not aluminum toxicity that is directly responsible for inhibiting plant growth. The researchers identified a factor in plant cells, called AtATR, that functions as a built-in DNA surveillance system for alerting the plant of damage from excess aluminum and shutting down growth.
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Thinking It Through: Scientists Call For Policy To Guide Biofuels Industry Toward Sustainability
03 10 2008 As the United States and other nations commit to the path of biofuels production, 23 scientists call for sustainable practices in an industry that will, as one of them says, "reshape the Earth's landscape in a significant way."
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Topsoil's Limited Turnover: A Crisis In Time
02 10 2008 Topsoil does not last forever. Records show that topsoil erosion, accelerated by human civilization and conventional agricultural practices, has outpaced long-term soil production. Earth's continents are losing prime agricultural soils even as population growth and increased demand for biofuels claim more from this basic resource.
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What Is Wild? Odor Attraction Is Different Among Different Wildtype Flies
02 10 2008 Vinegar flies (Drosophila melanogaster) show a highly selective behavior towards odor stimuli. A series of behavioral studies showed that a single olfactory stimulus is often not sufficient for immediate attraction to potential food sources or oviposition sites. Interestingly, the behavior differed between investigated D. melanogaster varieties, so-called "wildtypes".
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Commercial Aquatic Plants Offer Cost-effective Method For Treating Wastewater
30 09 2008 Constructed wetlands (CWs) have been promoted as inexpensive, low-technology approaches to treating agricultural, industrial and municipal wastewater to comply with increasingly stringent environmental regulations. CWs, or marshes built to treat contaminated water, incorporate soil and drainage materials, water, plants and microorganisms. "Surface-flow" constructed wetlands resemble shallow freshwater marshes and generally require a large land area for wastewater treatment. More effective for greenhouse and nursery operations with limited production space and expensive land are a type of constructed wetland called "subsurface flow."
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Bring On The Pak Choi: Consumers Interested In Trying More Asian Vegetables
30 09 2008 Asian vegetables, a diverse group of specialty vegetables grown and consumed throughout Asia, are becoming an integral part of the American diet. To gauge their familiarity with a range of Asian vegetables, consumers were asked to complete a written survey as they entered two fruit and vegetable markets in Belleville, Ill., on busy Saturday mornings.
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Mustard Seed Meal Suppresses Weeds In Container-grown Ornamentals
30 09 2008 During processing, the useful oils are extracted from the mustard plant, leaving mustard seed meal, or MSM, as a byproduct. Scientists are searching for innovative uses for mustard seed meal, hoping to increase profitability for mustard producers. Several products derived from natural sources are currently used as pest control substances for greenhouse plants. MSM and other byproducts of the expanding biofuels industry are being studied as solutions for controlling pests while offering the potential to increase profitability of biofuel production.
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Experiment Demonstrates 110 Years Of Sustainable Agriculture
30 09 2008 Researchers have shown that a plot of land on the campus of Auburn University that has been maintained by a century old practice of sustainable farming can produce similar cotton crops to those using other methods. This 110 year old continuous field experiment, called "the Old Rotation," utilizes traditional crop rotation methods and includes winter legumes to protect the soil from winter erosion.
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Gene That May Contribute To Improved Rice Yield Identified
29 09 2008 Biologists have identified a gene in rice that controls the size and weight of rice grains. The gene may prove to be useful for breeding high-yield rice and, thus, may benefit the vast number of people who rely on this staple food for survival.
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Bees Can Mediate Escape Of Genetically Engineered Material Over Several Kilometers
27 09 2008 Bees have the potential to mediate the escape of transgenes (genetically engineered material) from crops to their wild relatives over several kilometers. The findings bear significant implications for the introduction of genetically modified crops in Africa.
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Animals Farmed For Meat Are The No. 1 Source Of Food Poisoning Bug, Study Shows
26 09 2008 A study, based on DNA-sequence comparison of thousands of bacterial samples collected from human patients and animal carriers, found that 97 percent of campylobacteriosis cases sampled in Lancashire, UK, were caused by bacteria typically found in chicken and livestock.
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Plants In Forest Emit Aspirin Chemical To Deal With Stress; Discovery May Help Agriculture
25 09 2008 Plants in a forest respond to stress by producing a chemical form of aspirin, scientists have discovered. The finding opens up new avenues of research into the behavior of plants, and it has the potential to give farmers an early warning signal about crops that are failing.
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Essential Gene For Forming Ears Of Corn Discovered
25 09 2008 Plant geneticists have identified a gene called sparse inflorescence1, or spi1, that is essential in controlling development of the maize plant. It is involved in the synthesis of the growth hormone auxin, which among other things helps to shape structures such as leaves or the female organs (ears) and male organs (tassels) of corn.
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Genome Of One Of World's Most Common And Destructive Plant Parasites Sequenced
23 09 2008 Scientists have completed the genome sequence and genetic map of one of the world's most common and destructive plant parasites -- Meloidogyne hapla, a microscopic, soil-dwelling worm known more commonly as the northern root-knot nematode.
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Walnut Trees Emit Aspirin-like Chemical To Deal With Stress
23 09 2008 Walnut trees respond to stress by producing significant amounts of a chemical form of aspirin, scientists have discovered.
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Long-term Global Food Crisis Looms: Experts Urge Immediate Action
22 09 2008 Declining agricultural productivity and continued growing demand have brought the world food situation to a crossroads. Failure to act now through a wholesale reinvestment in agriculture -- including research into improved technologies, infrastructure development, and training and education of agricultural scientists and trainers -- could lead to a long-term crisis that makes the price spikes of 2008 seem a mere blip.
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Emergence Of Agriculture In Prehistory Took Much Longer, Genetic Evidence Suggests
20 09 2008 Researchers have found evidence that genetics supports the idea that the emergence of agriculture in prehistory took much longer than originally thought.
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