Agriculture
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Ecosystems
Aspiring to Save the Planet
The failure of the G-8 Summit to put some teeth in greenhouse-gas limits suggests it may be time for a global climate czar.
By Janet Raloff -
Agriculture
Farm life turns male toads female
A detailed inventory of toads in Florida finds that, as land becomes more agricultural, more cane toads resemble females both inside and out.
By Janet Raloff -
Agriculture
Fishy Data on Weed Killer
A popular weed killer can feminize wildlife by tinkering with a gene that indirectly affects the production of sex hormones.
By Janet Raloff -
Agriculture
Bee-Loved Plantings
Zipcode-organized guidelines tell gardeners, farmers and others how to design a landscape that will not only entice pollinators but also keep these horticultural helpers happy.
By Janet Raloff -
Agriculture
A vanilla Vanilla
The orchid that gives us vanilla beans has startlingly low genetic diversity, suggesting crops might be susceptible to pathogens, researchers report.
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Humans
Wash Your Veggies!
The lesson in all of these food-poisoning outbreaks is that we must not expect a risk-free food-supply chain.
By Janet Raloff -
Agriculture
Federal Research Censorship
The media-affairs office in federal agencies can be fairly obstructionist, and when they do, the public comes out the loser.
By Janet Raloff -
Agriculture
Green Living, Chinese-Style
Chinese is developing eco-cities to take their citizens straight from the agricultural to the ecological age.
By Janet Raloff -
Agriculture
Vertical Agriculture
Instead of farming in the country, one Columbia University scientist would do it in the city, spanning floor upon floor of buildings--from basements to the tops of high rise structures.
By Janet Raloff -
Agriculture
Ethanol Fallout: Health Risks for Livestock
With Uncle Sam pushing the production of ethanol for fuel, U.S. farmers are planting more corn than at any time since World War II, and garnering premium prices for each harvested bushel. But many livestock operations are getting hit with a double whammy: higher feeds costs and corn-derived feed that’s carrying triple the normal load of fungal poisons.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & Medicine
Rice Woes, Pt. 1
A shortfall in rice production has been developing well under the radar screen of agricultural economists and growers. The bad news: It promises to get much worse, and fairly soon.
By Janet Raloff -
Agriculture
Study decodes papaya genome
Scientists have added another plant to the genome-sequencing roster: the tropical fruit tree papaya.