Research NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Research Fri, 17 Sep 2021 21:18:10 +0000 https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Jonathan Ahl Agriculture is responsible for more than 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and some in the industry are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. One of those efforts is replacing the kind of crushed rock farmers use to neutralize their soil’s acidity, from limestone to basalt. Scientists are running tests in fields around the world to see if the swap will work to keep the soil healthy, increase yield and reduce agriculture's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/changing-rock-dust-applied-farm-fields-could-help-reduce-carbon-emissions 1041 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Thu, 02 Sep 2021 19:17:32 +0000 Changing The Rock Dust Applied To Farm Fields Could Help Reduce Carbon Emissions Luke X. Martin When Uhunoma Amayo found out his science experiment was one of just 34 selected to be carried out this spring on the International Space Station, he was shocked. "They pulled me out of class," says Amayo, a seventh-grader at Coronado Middle School in Kansas City, Kansas. "I was dumbfounded." Amayo is one of four students at Coronado who designed the experiment, which will explore whether mint grows as well in orbit as it does here on earth. "During our research we found that mint is really good for calming and just soothing the body," says Amayo. "So we proposed mint for the benefit of the astronauts." Their proposal was good enough to be included in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program , sponsored by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education . The program has facilitated 13 missions to deliver student experiments to be carried out in low-Earth orbit. This is the first time a school in Kansas City, Kansas, https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/does-mint-grow-space-these-kansas-city-kansas-middle-schoolers-are-eager-find-out 672 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Thu, 21 Feb 2019 15:04:54 +0000 Does Mint Grow In Space? These Kansas City, Kansas, Middle-Schoolers Are Eager To Find Out Grant Gerlock Scientific research could deliver transformative technologies to the food system over the next decade, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Advances in things like gene editing, data sharing and microbiology could make crops more resilient to climate change and livestock more environmentally sustainable. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/ag-researchers-say-breakthroughs-are-possible-only-if-theres-funding 551 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 18 Jul 2018 21:59:50 +0000 Ag Researchers Say Breakthroughs Are Possible, But Only If There's Funding Amy Mayer Puerto Rico’s hot winter days and warm nights have played a key role in the global seed business for more than 30 years. So, the devastation wrought on the U.S. territory by Hurricane Maria in September stretches to the croplands of the Midwest and Great Plains. Fields in Puerto Rico are used for research, development and/or testing of up to 85 percent of the commercial corn, soybean and other hybrid seeds grown in the U.S., according to the Puerto Rico Agricultural Biotechnology Industry Association . https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/puerto-ricos-hurricane-recovery-complicates-ag-businesses-seed-research 404 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 29 Nov 2017 17:15:12 +0000 Puerto Rico's Hurricane Recovery Complicates Ag Businesses' Seed Research Kristofor Husted During the Aug. 21 solar eclipse, spectators will turn their eyes upward to see the moon pass in front of the sun. But many Midwest scientists will turn their eyes and cameras to the plants and animals here on the ground. And they're not sure what will happen. “It's never really been studied systematically,” says Angela Speck , director of astronomy at the University of Missouri Columbia. “We have ideas about: Is this an illumination thing? The amount of light they’re receiving goes down. Is that what it is? Is it a temperature effect? Is it all of that?” Speck says a different part of the Earth experiences a total eclipse about once a year and that makes tracking changes in animal and plant behavior challenging. “The place that gets to see that total eclipse is only about 0.1 percent of the surface of the Earth,” she says. “So even though they happen every year in a given location, they are very rare.” On Aug. 21, a 70 mile-wide ribbon from Oregon to South Carolina called the “ path https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/here-comes-eclipse-how-will-midwest-livestock-crops-react 354 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Tue, 15 Aug 2017 15:13:03 +0000 Here Comes The Eclipse: How Will Midwest Livestock, Crops React? Dan Charles In the global debate over neonicotinoid pesticides, the company that makes most of them has relied on one primary argument to defend its product: The evidence that these chemicals, commonly called "neonics," are harmful to bees has been gathered in artificial conditions, force-feeding bees in the laboratory, rather than in the real world of farm fields. That company, Bayer, states on its website that "no adverse effects to bee colonies were ever observed in field studies at field-realistic exposure conditions." Bayer will have a harder time making that argument after today. (Although it still has another argument in its quiver. We'll get to that later.) This week, the prestigious journal Science reveals results from the biggest field study ever conducted of bees and neonics, which are usually coated on seeds, like corn and soybean seeds, before planting. Scientists monitored bees — honeybees and two types of wild bees — at 33 sites across Europe, in the United Kingdom, Germany and https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/pesticides-are-harming-bees-not-everywhere-major-new-study-shows 331 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Fri, 30 Jun 2017 14:59:36 +0000 Pesticides Are Harming Bees — But Not Everywhere, Major New Study Shows Kristofor Husted See a bee; hear a buzz. That is what researchers studying the declining bee population are banking on. A new technique based on recording buzzing bees hopes to show farmers just how much pollinating the native bee population is doing in their fields. Vegetable and fruit growers depend on pollinators to do a lot of work in their greenhouses and fields. Pollinators, like bees, flutter about the blossoms on plants and orchard trees, transferring pollen from plant to plant and ensuring that those organisms have a chance at reproducing. Indeed, three-quarters of global food crops depend on pollinators to some extent, according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Pollinators like bees are especially vital for fields of tomatoes, almonds and apples. In the U.S., pollinators are responsible for more than $24 billion dollars of economic activity, according to a 2014 Obama Administration report. The problem: Pollinators are disappearing . https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/can-buzz-bees-predict-success-farmers 326 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 18 Jun 2017 13:48:00 +0000 Can The Buzz Of Bees Predict Success For Farmers? Bryan Thompson As a group of visiting scientists prepared to board a plane in Hawaii that would take them back home to China, U.S. customs agents found rice seeds in their luggage. Those seeds are likely to land at least one scientist in federal prison. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/worry-fields-about-growing-threat-agricultural-espionage 320 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Thu, 01 Jun 2017 21:38:21 +0000 Worry In The Fields About The 'Growing Threat' Of Agricultural Espionage Amy Mayer A leading research center focused on local farmers and environmental conservation is hanging on by a thread, even as the movement to diversify agriculture, which it helped launch, continues to thrive. The Iowa Legislature created the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in 1987. Housed at Iowa State University, its mission is to improve the environmental impact of agriculture in ways that still allow farmers to earn a living. The Legislature recently decided to defund the research center, leaving it to rely on money from its existing endowment, grants it can procure, and whatever support Iowa State chooses to provide. Ferd Hoefner, now a senior advisor at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, says the Leopold Center is one of the top institutions supporting research on agricultural techniques that prioritize sustainability and conservation in the context of profitable farming. When he was working with Congress in the late 1980s to draft the bill that created the U.S. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/pioneering-iowa-sustainable-agriculture-research-center-survives-cut-barely 314 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Thu, 18 May 2017 20:21:29 +0000 Pioneering Iowa Sustainable Agriculture Research Center Survives Cut, Barely Luke Runyon Farmers and ranchers, with their livelihoods intimately tied to weather and the environment, may not be able to depend on research conducted by the government to help them adapt to climate change if the Trump Administration follows through on campaign promises to shift federal resources away from studying the climate. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/climate-changes-will-farmers-depend-government-research-help 310 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 10 May 2017 15:27:30 +0000 As The Climate Changes, Will Farmers Depend On Government Research For Help? Amy Mayer This summer, in cornfields in Iowa and Nebraska, about a thousand small point-and-shoot digital cameras will be enclosed in waterproof cases, mounted on poles and attached to solar-powered battery chargers. They will take pictures every ten minutes as plants grow; all part of a plan to create better seeds. “We watch plants go through their normal growth and development and also we watch them respond to environmental stressors, like drought and so forth,” says Pat Schnable, director of the Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State University. The institute still has greenhouses and traditional wet labs, but the time-honored tradition of crossbreeding plants again and again to get the best traits is no longer the primary way the science is done. Now, scientists are harnessing the power of Big Data in an effort to make the process more focused and faster. That means plant breeders can potentially bring more different new seeds, maximized for different environments, to market faster. More https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/big-data-transforming-how-breeders-create-better-seeds 307 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 07 May 2017 15:10:00 +0000 Big Data Is Transforming How Breeders Create Better Seeds Kristofor Husted Imagine you’re a farmer and it’s time to decide what to plant. You need information on supply, demand, prices, outlook -- information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, university extension services, even economists at the Federal Reserve. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/how-lack-farm-data-could-hurt-farmers 285 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:05:10 +0000 How A Lack Of Farm Data Could Hurt Farmers