Science News
Kidney beans, like most other beans, are a nutritional powerhouse. They are packed with complex carbohydrates, protein, iron, and folate. They are also a good source of soluble fiber, which has several health benefits.
Are you a farmer who wants to keep better track of the climate conditions around you? There’s an app for that.
Camelina: Have you heard of it? It’s an emerging alternative oilseed crop in parts of the Great Plains.
A new study looks at how three varieties of camelina perform when grown in two different regions within the Great Plains.
The end goal is to find the camelina variety that performs best in each location or environment. Augustine Obour at Kansas State University was the lead author of the paper.
Studying the effects of great cormorant droppings on water reservoirs is a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.
Ants can be annoying little insects. In your home, they make army-like lines to any crumbs on your floor. In your home’s frame, carpenter ants can do a job of eating away your walls. But what about outside? Do ants play a positive role in your yard? Your garden? What about in a farm field?
Montreal: Famous for its churches, carriage rides…and urban agriculture.
Yes, urban agriculture. Montrealers have cultivated not only a love for food, but also a love for food grown locally. The city’s growth in this field yields lessons for urban agriculture elsewhere.
Huckleberry Finn wouldn’t recognize today’s lower Mississippi River. Massive walls separate the river from low-lying lands along the bank, an area called the floodplain. Floodplains were once the spillover zone for the river. As people settled in floodplains, the land was converted into farms, homes, and businesses. Close to 1,700 miles of walls, or levees, keep the lower Mississippi River in check.
Available cropland, and the growing season, is limited. Strained soils are in need of rejuvenation. Water can be scarce. Yet the world’s nutritional needs continue to grow, along with its population.
Enter the cowpea. A modest but versatile crop, cowpeas may provide an answer to demands on grower resources—and international appetites.
Growers always deal with precipitation amounts. Some get too much water. But for those in drought areas, scientists are working to create imaginative solutions that help the soil, have an economic return, and introduce a different crop – pulses.
Antibiotics and manure. You probably don’t think of them at the same time. But across North America, manure and antibiotics often share the same pile.