Related topics: food · soil · plants · drought · larvae

Plant stress paints early picture of drought

In July 2012, farmers in the U.S. Midwest and Plains regions watched crops wilt and die after a stretch of unusually low precipitation and high temperatures. Before a lack of rain and record-breaking heat signaled a problem, ...

Name that ant! New online tool helps identify alien ant invaders

(Phys.org)—Researchers have created an interactive website, called Antkey, which includes more than 1,150 images and 70 video clips to help users determine an ant's identity from more than 100 invasive and commonly introduced ...

Stopping flies before they mature

An insect growth regulator is one of the latest technologies U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are adding to their arsenal to help fight house flies that spread bacteria to food.

Tapping sorghum's potential for cold tolerance

(Phys.org)—Sorghum was originally a tropical plant, but U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists in Lubbock, Texas, are looking to Asia to increase sorghum's cold tolerance and expand its production range.

Price increases caused by US biofuel mandate hurts poor countries

(Phys.org)—Price increases for corn—a direct result of the U.S. biofuels mandate—added $11.6 billion in costs for countries importing the food staple between 2006 and 2011. More than half the increase fell on poorer, ...

'Superweeds' linked to rising herbicide use in GM crops

A study published this week by Washington State University research professor Charles Benbrook finds that the use of herbicides in the production of three genetically modified herbicide-tolerant crops—cotton, soybeans and ...

Trapping weevils and saving monarchs

Ensuring the monarch butterfly's survival by saving its milkweed habitat could result from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) studies initially intended to improve detection of boll weevils with pheromone traps.

page 11 from 27