• UW Researchers Discover an Evolutionary Stepping Stone to Beet-Red Beets

    The color red is splashed across gardens, forests and farms, attracting pollinators with bright hues, signaling ripe fruit and delighting vegetable and flower gardeners alike.

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  • Clear Lakes Disguise Impaired Water Quality

    Looks can be deceiving.

    Look at a hundred lakes in the agricultural heartland of the United States and you will likely see green lakes surrounded by green fields. The nitrogen and phosphorus in agricultural fertilizers that help crops grow also fuel the growth of algae and cyanobacteria that in excess can turn lakes the color of pea soup.

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  • Soil Holds Potential to Slow Global Warming, Stanford Researchers Find

    If you want to do something about global warming, look under your feet. Managed well, soil’s ability to trap carbon dioxide is potentially much greater than previously estimated, according to Stanford researchers who claim the resource could “significantly” offset increasing global emissions. They call for a reversal of federal cutbacks to related research programs to learn more about this valuable resource.

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  • Are we at a tipping point with weed control?

    If farmers could no longer control weeds with existing herbicides, Americans would take notice pretty quickly

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  • NOAA Fisheries Celebrates National Seafood Month

    Join NOAA all month long as we celebrate the bounty of sustainable seafood! From finfish to shellfish, Americans love seafood—and it's easy to see why. This healthy food choice provides key nutrients and proteins for children and adults. The seafood caught and farmed in the United States comes from some of the most sustainably managed fisheries in the world.

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  • Is Grass-Fed Beef Good or Bad for the Climate?

    An international research collaboration has shed light on the impact that grass-fed animals have on climate change, adding clarity to the debate around livestock farming and meat and dairy consumption. 

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  • AIM to Grow Conference held on the Agricultural Campus

    The Dalhousie University Faculty of Agriculture, the Government of the Netherlands and a group of Dutch agri-food companies, Greenhouse industries and organizations, are teaming up to explore the possibilities of supporting more local food production and related R&D using innovative Controlled Environment Agriculture in Atlantic Canada.

    Controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) is a technology-based approach toward food production. The aim is to provide protection and maintain optimal growing conditions throughout the development of the crop. Production takes place within an enclosed growing structure such as a greenhouse or building.

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  • South Carolina oyster farming: One man finds success on the half shell

    As a young Marine stationed in South Carolina in 1981, Frank Roberts recognized that the state’s low country was ideal for oyster farming. His family harvested oysters in the Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound, and he had a hunch it would work in South Carolina too.

    Roberts eventually started his own oyster farm in South Carolina — making a key contribution to a growing nationwide aquaculture trend worth $1.3 billion (2014 figure), with some help from NOAA.  

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  • Removing nitrate for healthier ecosystems

    Nitrogen can present a dilemma for farmers and land managers.

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  • Climate insurance is rarely well thought out in agriculture

    Internationally subsidised agricultural insurance is intended to protect farmers in developing countries from the effects of climate change. However, it can also lead to undesirable ecological and social side effects, as UFZ researchers and their US colleagues at the University of Oregon have explained in a review article in the latest issue of Global Environmental Change. The article also contains recommendations for improved insurance schemes which in future should also take account of ecological and social aspects in addition to economic issues.

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