• Food

Wild Variants of Popular Crops Under Threat of Extinction

• agriculture
• biodiversity
• crops

by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer While humans have been domesticating crops for the past 10,000 years, we also need wild variants of the crops we cultivate as they have traits that make them more resistant to disease and resilient to environmental changes. We can breed these traits into our domesticated crops. But a new […]

• Food

One Fishy Thing: Wisconsin’s Caviar Cover Up

• caviar
• Department of Natural Resources
• eggs
• sturgeon

The case of the caviar cover-up! Wisconsin’s top expert on sturgeon fish — dubbed the “sturgeon general” — was charged with obstructing an investigation into an illicit caviar ring — he and fellow biologists at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are alleged to have funneled fish eggs to a network of caviar processors.  […]

• Food

Government Report About Heavy Metals In Baby Foods Causes Widespread Concern

• baby food
• brain development
• children
• FDA
• infants
• toxic metals

A government report released last week raised alarm due to the high levels of heavy metals found in most baby foods.  The House Oversight Committee reviewed documents provided by four of the largest baby food makers in the U.S. — and found that all four used ingredients containing high levels of arsenic, mercury, and lead.

Why This Matters:  Even low levels of exposure to these metals can cause serious damage to brain development in kids.

• Food

One Cool Thing: Printed Beef — It’s What’s for Dinner!

• 3D printing
• beef
• climate change
• cows
• cruelty free
• steak

Bringing new meaning to conjuring up dinner, an Israeli company has pioneered a cruelty-free ribeye steak made from real cow cells and “produced” by a 3D printer.  The company, Aleph Farms, prints living cells that are incubated to grow, differentiate and interact — the result is meat with the texture and qualities of a real […]

• Food

Climate Change Threatens California’s Nuts with a New Pest

• crops
• Drought
• pests

by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer Despite facing droughts and record heat, California’s almond farmers have had record-breaking harvests over the last five years. That said, California’s nuts may be under threat once again as the rise in global temperatures may introduce a new pest to the California farm ecosystem. This pest, the navel orangeworm, […]

• Food

Engineers Crack the Code of Communicating with Plants

• climate change
• MIT
• nanobiology
• technology

by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer You’ve probably heard that plants can communicate with each other, or that they grow stronger if you sing to them, but engineers at MIT are teaching plants some new skills and they’re learning a lot. Through a technology called “plant nanobiotics,” engineers have placed electronic components into spinach plants that monitor […]