Environment

Europe May Need To Ban Potatoes, Bread And Coffee Next

The European Food Safety Authority, most famous for declaring that water does not cure thirst, is now thinking about how to ban acrylamide, which is a chemical that can form in some foods during frying, roasting, or baking. No, it is not due to BPA, it has ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Sep 20 2018 - 3:28pm

10,000 Year Old Agricultural Wisdom Could Lead To Future Food Security

Why did the earliest farmers in the Fertile Crescent, an arc of land in western Asia from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf, domesticate some cereal crops 10,000 years ago and not others? ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 12 2014 - 9:00am

How Will Climate Change Impact Agriculture?

Climate change impacts could mean uncertain transformations of global agriculture systems by 2050, according to a new paper from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.  ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 18 2014 - 2:38pm

APSIM Oil Palm Makes It A Modeled Crop

An oil palm system model based on the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) framework and called APSIM Oil Palm is aimed at helping growers of the crop maximize the yields of their plantations, while minimizing detrimental environmental impact ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 22 2014 - 8:30am

The Rabbits Of 1859: Australia's Worst Christmas Present?

Rabbits can strip grasslands bare and chew through young woody trees. John Schilling /Flickr, CC BY-ND By Andrew Bengsen, University of New England On Christmas Day 1859, the Victoria Acclimatisation Society released 24 rabbits for hunting, to help settle ...

Article - The Conversation - Dec 22 2014 - 9:00am

With Such High Arsenic Levels, Why Isn't Rice Regulated?

Puffed rice with a bit of poison. Shutterstock By Andy Meharg, Queen's University Belfast There are two sides to rice: the grain that feeds half the world – and the primary carcinogenic source of inorganic arsenic in our diet. Arsenic is a natural oc ...

Article - The Conversation - Dec 30 2014 - 5:53pm

Less Leaching: Controlled Release Fertilizer Techniques Compared

Controlled-release fertilizers are a widely-used method of delivering nutrients to nursery container crops, because they contain encapsulated solid mineral nutrients that dissolve slowly in water, which are then released into substrates over an extended pe ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 5 2015 - 6:00pm

Controlled-Release Fertilizers: Fertilizer Placement Optimizes Nutrient Leaching

Controlled-release fertilizers are a widely used method of delivering nutrients to nursery container crops. Controlled release is just like it sounds, the fertilizers contain encapsulated solid mineral nutrients that dissolve slowly in water which are rel ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 6 2015 - 10:54am

Better Growth, Less Soil Modification: Salt Tolerance Gene In Soybean Found

A new research project has identified a specific gene in soybean that has great potential for soybean crop improvement because it can be bred to better tolerate soil salinity- that means less changes to soil and the ecosystem while still getting more food ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 13 2015 - 11:48am

After Fires Comes Salvage Logging- Then We Can Salvage The Ecosystem

After a wildfire burns a large swath across timberlands, logging companies come in to do salvage logging- they clean up the timber that has not been completely destroyed by the fire. It's a good idea to get economic benefit from devastated land and o ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 9 2015 - 5:01pm