For millennia, people have understood the need to protect seeds. They are precious packets of life that bring us food. As early as 2000 BC, there are records of people soaking seeds […]
Protecting seeds: The what, why, and how of seed treatments
What are the long-term effects of the Fukushima disaster on local agronomy?
On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced the unprecedented Tohoku earthquake. It was the largest in Japan’s history, and created a massive tsunami that impacted Japan’s northeastern coast. A result of the earthquake […]
Reviewing the importance of International Year of Plant Health
The United Nations (U.N.) declared 2020 the International Year of Plant Health. This sent a powerful message to the world: Plants are life. Sadly, the COVID-19 crisis changed a lot of 2020 […]
What is the status of public plant breeding programs in the United States?
Most plant-based foods we eat today are a product of innovative plant breeding programs. Careful choice of plant parents is followed by a multitude of intentional, hand-pollinated blooms. These result in thousands […]
Giving flax a perennial upgrade with crop wild relatives
Flaxseed is one of humanity’s oldest, and most widely adopted multi-use crops. For over ten thousand years, the oil-rich seeds have been an important source of nutrition for both humans and livestock. […]
How do my food choices affect the environment?
Every food-related action you take calls a world into being. We call this world the food system, and it is a vast network of farms, fisheries, processors, manufacturers, stores, restaurants, and home […]
Are there edible cotton seeds?
Most of us associate cotton with its fiber. A by-product of cotton fiber production is the leftover seeds. One item that can be made from the seed is cottonseed oil, but that […]
What do nutrients do for plants?
If a plant decided to go on a diet, you know, to keep its plant-like figure, what do you think it would choose to be as healthy as possible? It turns out […]
What is the difference between square and round hay bales?
Ask most anyone what hay is, and they will tell you something like “dried grass that is fed to cows and horses during the winter.” Everyone has seen, either in real-life or […]
What are the types of crops based on nutrition?
Plants-based foods are a major part of human nutrition and health. Human nutrients can be put into two main categories: macronutrients and micronutrients. The key to maintaining good health is to balance […]