A Roadmap to Better Decision Making

A new genetically modified purple tomato will be coloring farmers markets and grocery store produce aisles next year. About the size of a cherry, the team behind the completely purple fruit hopes to win over consumers not only with its unique color but also its potential health benefits and longer shelf life. The creators of the tomato are also aware ...
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The third week of September is National Farm Safety and Health Week, timed to coincide with the busy harvest season that leaves many farmers running low on both time and sleep. Not surprisingly, it's also the time of year that farm accidents tend to increase. Running September 19-23, this year's theme is "Protecting Agriculture's Future," a gentle reminder that the ...
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Once seen as experimental land at the fringe of what's possible, the commercial wine industry in regions just below the Arctic Circle is starting to take advantage of the warmer summers. In the last decade, the region has become an emerging wine destination, a development spurred by hotter summers and the introduction of disease-resistant hybrid grape varieties that can resist ...
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The "Dust Bowl" of the 1930s was named for the choking dust storms that swept across wide swaths of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma from approximately 1930 through 1936. By 1940, some 2.5 million Americans had pulled up stakes and abandoned the Great Plains along with tens of thousands of farms. While it ultimately became the largest ...
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Farmers and ranchers might have a new way to get around next spring if all goes as planned for RYES Aero Technologies. The company is aiming for an early-2023 release date of its RYSE RECON, its first electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) platform. Or as RYSE Aero CEO Mick Kowitz calls it, "an aerial ATV."Kowitz says the RECON is ...
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Sustainable Beef LLC is getting a big boost from Walmart to build its new facility in North Platte, Nebraska. The world's largest retailer will take a minority stake in the $325 million meatpacking plant slated to begin operations by late 2024. Walmart will also get the majority of the beef produced at the plant, guaranteeing a consistent supply for the ...
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Scientists at Stanford University have been exploring ways to make critical crops better able to withstand the stresses of climate change. While many of these plants might naturally adapt over time, scientists worry that changes are happening too rapidly for nature to keep up. The researchers think a solution could be genetic circuits that "smart plants" can turn on and ...
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Ocean agriculture startup "Alora" is using CRISPR tools in their pilot program to grow rice plants on land in salty waters and eventually plan to move them to floating platforms off the coasts of African and Asian countries. To thrive in a saline environment plants like seagrasses and mangroves have had to adapt and eventually evolved a tolerance to salt ...
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Cattle producers need to be aware of a potentially fatal disease known as "Ikeda" that is currently circulating in several states. The disease is transmitted via Asian longhorned ticks, which have been confirmed in 17 US states. Ikeda has been identified in 12 of those so far and is blamed for the death of at least two bulls in Kentucky ...
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Corn harvest is now underway in many parts of the US, with the crop on track to be the smallest since 2019 thanks to a string of weather hiccups this season. Weather has also negatively impacted corn production for a few other major growers around the world, including China and the EU. Combined with the geopolitical fallout in major corn ...
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