��о�� Feeding a Growing Population News

Feeding Grazing Cattle Seaweed Cuts Methane Emissions by Almost 40%

Amy M Quinton — December 02, 2024

Scientists find making a seaweed additive more accessible to grazing cattle would make cattle farming more sustainable while meeting global demand for meat.

Making High-yielding Rice Affordable and Sustainable

Andy Fell — November 20, 2024

Rice is a staple food crop for more than half the world’s population, but most farmers don’t grow high-yielding varieties because the seeds are too expensive. Researchers from the University of California’s Davis and Berkeley campuses have identified a potential solution: activating two genes in rice egg cells that trigger their development into embryos without the need for fertilization, which would efficiently create high-yielding clonal strains of rice and other crops.

Coffee Scientists Find Best Ways to Make Coffee

Tatiana Muniz — November 18, 2024

��о�� coffee scientists are finding the best ways to make coffee, from sustainable farming to quality control to taste, improving the global coffee industry.

Extreme Weather Accelerates Nitrate Pollution in Groundwater

Amy M Quinton — November 13, 2024

Extreme weather from climate change, including droughts and heavy rains, may increase the risk of nitrates from fertilizers ending up in groundwater.

��о�� and BioInnovation Institute Team Up to Improve Protein Nutrition on a Global Scale

James Michael Nash — October 09, 2024

The ��о�� today announced an expanded collaboration with the BioInnovation Institute (BII) to accelerate commercialization of discoveries in protein nutrition important to consumers around the world.

Smoke From Megafires Puts Orchard Trees at Risk

Amy M Quinton — October 02, 2024

��о�� researchers say long-term smoke exposure from massive wildfires lowers the energy reserves of orchard trees and can cut their nut production by half.

The Promise of Alternative Proteins

Jocelyn C Anderson — September 09, 2024

��о�� food scientists are studying how to make beef using cow stem cells.

How Plants Become Bushy, or Not

Andy Fell — August 06, 2024

For many plants, more branches means more fruit. But what causes a plant to grow branches? New research from the ��о�� shows how plants break down the hormone strigolactone, which suppresses branching, to become more “bushy.” Understanding how strigolactone is regulated could have big implications for many crop plants.

The study was published August 1 in Nature Communications.

Plant Biologist Siobhan Brady Named HHMI Investigator

Andy Fell — July 23, 2024

Siobhan Brady, a professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Genome Center at the ��о��, has been selected as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator. The prestigious Investigator program, which Brady describes as “life changing,” will provide her with roughly $9 million in research support over a seven-year term, with the option to renew.

Plant Biologist Venkatesan Sundaresan Wins 2024 Wolf Prize in Agriculture

Andy Fell — July 17, 2024

Venkatesan Sundaresan, Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Plant Biology and Plant Sciences at the ��о��, has been awarded a 2024 Wolf Prize in Agriculture for key discoveries on plant developmental biology of relevance to crop improvement.

Big Data Comes to Dinner

Jocelyn C Anderson — April 29, 2024

Learn how ��о�� leverages artificial intelligence to transform food and agriculture, ensuring sustainability and health from seeds to stomachs.

Researchers Identify Microbes That Help Plants Thwart Parasite

Andy Fell — March 26, 2024

Bacteria that could help one of Africa’s staple crops resist a major pest have been identified by researchers at the ��о��. Their findings, published March 26 in Cell Reports, could improve yields of sorghum, a mainstay of food and drink in West and East African countries.

Plant Biologists Identify Promising New Fungicides

Andy Fell — February 29, 2024

A promising new fungicide to fight devastating crop diseases has been identified by researchers at the ��о��. The chemical, ebselen, prevented fungal infections in apples, grapes, strawberries, tomatoes and roses, and improved symptoms of pre-existing fungal infection in rice.

Maize Researcher Wins Prestigious National Academy of Sciences Prize

Andy Fell — January 23, 2024

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, a professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology at the ��о��, has been awarded the prestigious National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences for 2024.

For This Beetle, ‘Date Night’ Comes Every Other Day

Andy Fell — January 18, 2024

Life on Earth runs on a 24-hour cycle as the planet turns. Animals and plants have built-in circadian clocks that synchronize metabolism and behavior to this daily cycle. But one beetle is out of sync with the rest of nature.

Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein to Launch at ��о�� Jan. 17

Amy M Quinton — January 11, 2024

The ��о�� Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein will advance plant-based, fungal-based and cultivated meat for more sustainable food choices.

Genetic Diversity of Wild North American Grapes Mapped

Emily C Dooley — December 19, 2023

��о�� mapped the genetic traits of wild North American grapes, which will help breeders tackle challenges like climate change.

Can AI Be Too Good to Use?

Andy Fell — December 12, 2023

Much of the discussion around implementing artificial intelligence systems focuses on whether an AI application is “trustworthy”: Does it produce useful, reliable results, free of bias, while ensuring data privacy? But a new paper published Dec. 7 in Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence poses a different question: What if an AI is just too good?

Google Weed View? Professor Trains Computer to Spot Invasive Weed

Emily C Dooley — December 07, 2023

��о�� researchers are using AI and Google Street View to spot invasive weeds for a fraction of the cost and time to track them using traditional surveys.

A Mixed Origin Made Maize Successful

Andy Fell — November 30, 2023

Maize is one of the world’s most widely grown crops. It is used for both human and animal foods and holds great cultural significance, especially for Indigenous peoples in the Americas. Yet despite its importance, the origins of the grain have been hotly debated for more than a century. Now new research, published Dec. 1 in Science, shows that all modern maize descends from a hybrid created just over 5,000 years ago in central Mexico, thousands of years after the plant was first domesticated.

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