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Transparent Wood Could Be the Window of the Future

October 01, 2020 Amy Androff, Forest Products Laboratory and posted by Robert Westover, Office of Communication, USDA Forest Service

Could looking through trees be the view to a greener future? Trees replacing the clear pane glass in your windows is not a work of science fiction. It’s happening now.

Forestry

APHIS and Partners Sponsor Annual Honey Bee Survey Directed at Monitoring Bee Health

August 16, 2018 Aaliyah Essex, USDA APHIS, Public Affairs

About one mouthful in three in our diets directly or indirectly benefits from honey bee pollination. That makes bees critically valuable to humans’ existence. For this reason the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) documents issues affecting honey bee...

Animals

Biosecurity Education and Compliance are Critical in Preventing Avian Influenza Outbreaks

November 01, 2016 Stephanie Pearl, Science Communicator, National Institute of Food and Agriculture

The December 2014 to June 2015 avian influenza outbreak was the largest animal health emergency in U.S. history. The virus contributed to the death of more than 48 million birds, either due to infection with the virus or depopulation to prevent additional spread. The virus was introduced into the U...

Food and Nutrition Research and Science

Reversing Pollinator Decline is Key to Feeding the Future

June 24, 2016 Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, Director, National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Without pollinators, we don’t eat—it’s simple as that—and, at the moment, large numbers of pollinators are dying. With the world’s population projected to exceed 9 billion in just the next 30 years or so, that is not a good position for us to be in. More than 90 species of U.S. specialty crops...

Food and Nutrition

Nutritional Security Through Sustainable Agriculture

May 27, 2016 Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, Director, National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Nutritional security is defined as “a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” Achieving nutritional security in the...

Food and Nutrition

Developing New Leaders in a Global Landscape

April 06, 2016 Carlos Harris, National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Historically black colleges and universities, particularly the “1890 land-grant universities (LGUs),” have conducted groundbreaking studies to further advance agricultural research in this country, such as eradicating peanut allergens and food borne illnesses. Now, they’re making significant impacts...

Initiatives

Innovative Program Promotes Rotational Grazing in Chesapeake Bay Area

January 06, 2016 Ciji Taylor, Natural Resources Conservation Service

“Who better to share the benefits of intensive rotational grazing than farmers who are actually doing it on their lands?” asked Beth L. McGee, Chesapeake Bay Foundation Senior Regional Water Quality Scientist. Intensive grazing systems, a type of rotational grazing that uses higher per acre stocking...

Conservation

Second Morrill Act Redux: America's 1890s Land Grant Universities Academic Excellence

July 15, 2015 Sonny Ramaswamy, Director, National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Booker T. Washington. George Washington Carver. Educators par excellence. Pioneers in food and agricultural scientific research. Dedicated their lives to helping "lift the veil of ignorance" by bringing knowledge to African-Americans and others with limited resources. For 125 years, since passage of...

Initiatives Food and Nutrition Animals Plants Technology

The Morrill Act: 153 Years of Innovations for American Agriculture

July 02, 2015 Sonny Ramaswamy, Director, National Institute of Food and Agriculture

July in America. It is summer time and school’s out. It is about vacations and maybe a trip to the beach. It is Independence Day—the 4 th of July—and parades and fireworks. It is about barbecues, hotdogs, and burgers. 2015 marks America’s 239 th birthday. July is also the month for another important...

Initiatives

1890 Land Grant University Transform City Kid into Ag School's Research Leader

May 01, 2015 Alexandra Wilson, National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Like many city kids growing up in Richmond, Va., Carolyn Brooks didn’t know much about agriculture and had never heard of 4-H. That changed quickly, however, as she was the first in her family to graduate from college—earning a B.S. and then a M.S. in biology from one of the foremost agricultural...

Initiatives
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