Tests on cabbage plants suggest fertilisers derived from human urine and faeces are safe and could help bring down food prices. Fertilisers derived from recycled human urine and faeces are just as safe and effective as conventional ones, according to tests on cabbage plants. Using human waste in this way could help alleviate the fertiliser […]
agriculture
The Environmental Benefits of Making Gin from Peas
New distilling technique creates a new, refreshing use for mashed peas. A cold gin and tonic on a hot afternoon can really hit the spot, and now researchers in the U.K. have found a way to make that refreshing cocktail more environmentally friendly — by making the gin out of peas. Read more in Inside […]
Stopping the rot
How a natural compound called hexanal is helping prevent India’s lucrative fruit crops from spoiling. India is the world’s second-largest producer of tropical fruit and vegetables, but a huge amount of the harvest — up to 40 per cent — is lost to spoilage on the farm, in the warehouse and in transit before it […]
Fighting malaria in Northern Peru
When large-scale irrigation came to Peru’s north coast in the 1960s and 1970s it brought with it an explosion in agriculture, in particular rice cultivation. But it also brought a new disease to the area — malaria. “The north coast is a semi-arid area, the only reason there is malaria there is because of irrigation,” […]
Fitbit for Cows
Wearable tech could help cowboys spot sick animals sooner. Wearable fitness monitors are all the rage among humans right now, but they are also spreading among farm animals. Researchers hope the devices can help keep herds of beef cows healthy. Karin Orsel, a veterinary epidemiologist at the University of Calgary in Canada is testing how […]
Strategies to reduce the use of antibiotics in animals
New drugs that could eventually replace or reduce the use of antibiotics in animals are in development to help slow the rise of antibiotic resistance. Imagine a farm with over 100,000 head of cattle, each one receiving daily low-dose antibiotics in their food or water, not to treat illness, but to make them put on […]
Pests worm their way into genetically modified maize
Broadening of rootworm resistance to toxins highlights the importance of crop rotation. Even with biotech crops, farmers still need to make use of age-old practices such as crop rotation to fight insect pests. That’s the lesson to be drawn from the latest discovery of resistance to the pest-fighting toxins added to maize — also known […]
Slow science
The world’s longest-running experiments remind us that science is a marathon, not a sprint. Although science is a long-term pursuit, research is often practised over short timescales: a discrete experiment or a self-contained project constrained by the length of a funding cycle. But some investigations cannot be rushed. To study human lifespans or the roiling […]