24/7 Farm  News Coverage
March 07, 2017
FARM NEWS
Colombia's 'drug triangle' puts hope in chocolate



Guerima, Colombia (AFP) March 4, 2017
Isidro Montiel arrived in Colombia's lawless "drug triangle" in 1982 hoping to get rich farming coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine. Today, with the country perched at the edge of a new era, he is betting instead on cacao, the little brown seeds used to make chocolate. "I had heard that planting coca was a good living," Montiel, a stout 57-year-old farmer, said of his decision 35 years ago to move to the remote triangle of jungle between the villages of Guerima, Chupave and Puerto Principe, in ... read more

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Bringing water to Kenya's drought-stricken wildlife
Voi, Kenya (AFP) March 5, 2017
In a wildlife sanctuary in southern Kenya the relentless sun has bleached savannah grasses and dried up rivers, turning water holes first into muddy pits and now, dust bowls. ... more
WATER WORLD
Syrian farmers fear IS to flood villages near Euphrates
Tuwayhina, Syria (AFP) March 5, 2017
Syrian farmers near the Euphrates river are terrified the Islamic State group will literally open the floodgates to defend its stronghold Raqa, drowning their tiny villages in the process. ... more
FARM NEWS
Hand-picked specialty crops 'ripe' for precision agriculture techniques
Champaign IL (SPX) Mar 03, 2017
Timing the harvest and transport of highly perishable, hand-picked crops such as strawberries so these delicate products reach consumers at peak flavor and freshness is an intricate dance that partn ... more
FARM NEWS
Magic cover crop carpet
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 03, 2017
Organic farmers have to make hard choices between protecting soil from erosion and controlling weeds. For example, large-scale organic farming relies heavily on tillage. Tilling breaks up the soil t ... more
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FARM NEWS
Researchers propose using CRISPR to accelerate plant domestication
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 03, 2017
Out of the more than 300,000 plant species in existence, only three species - rice, wheat, and maize - account for most of the plant matter that humans consume, partly because in the history of agri ... more
CLIMATE SCIENCE
Somali president declares 'national disaster' over drought
Mogadishu (AFP) Feb 28, 2017
Somali's newly elected President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed on Tuesday declared a "national disaster" due to severe drought which aid agencies say has left some three million in crisis. ... more
WATER WORLD
Calculating recharge of groundwater more precisely
Freiburg, Germany (SPX) Mar 01, 2017
A team of international researchers led by University of Freiburg hydrologist Dr. Andreas Hartmann suggests that inclusion of currently missing key hydrological processes in large-scale climate chan ... more
FARM NEWS
SpaceX delivers BAM-FX to ISS for Zero Gravity Solutions
Boca Raton FL (SPX) Feb 27, 2017
Zero Gravity Solutions, Inc., an agricultural biotechnology public company commercializing its technology derived from and designed for Space with significant applications for agriculture on Earth, ... more
FARM NEWS
'Our daily bread' has hidden climate costs
Paris (AFP) Feb 27, 2017
Nearly half the environmental impact of a loaf of bread comes from the "unsustainable use" of fertilisers on wheat crops, researchers said Monday. ... more
FARM NEWS
Brexit sows seeds of doubt for British farmers
London (AFP) Feb 26, 2017
Dependent on foreign workers and subsidies from Brussels, Britain's small but important agricultural sector is losing sleep over the possible fallout from Brexit, but hopes a future outside the EU will open up new export opportunities. ... more


Researchers unravel powerful tool in maize breeding

FARM NEWS
Study finds consumers willing to pay more for 'all-natural' labeled foods
Chicago IL (SPX) Feb 24, 2017
A study published in the Journal of Food Science found that expectations of product quality, nutritional content and the amount of money consumers were willing to pay increased when consumers saw a ... more
FARM NEWS
Cultivating cool-for-cash-crop
Washington DC (SPX) Feb 24, 2017
When deciding what crops to grow during a season, growers look at several factors. Do the crops have a good yield in their area? Does the area currently have the resources - usually water - to grow ... more
FARM NEWS
Widely accepted vision for agriculture may be inaccurate, misleading
University Park PA (SPX) Feb 24, 2017
"Food production must double by 2050 to feed the world's growing population." This truism has been repeated so often in recent years that it has become widely accepted among academics, policymakers ... more
FARM NEWS
What's the buzz on bee parasites?
Liverpool, UK (SPX) Feb 24, 2017
Published in the open-access journal GigaScience is an article that presents the genome of a parasitic mite, Tropilaelaps mercedesae, that infects bee colonies, which are facing wide-spread devastat ... more

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NASA examines deadly spring-like weather with GPM satellite
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
Rainfall from spring-like downpours in the U.S. from February 25 to March 1 were analyzed at NASA using data from the Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM satellite. Record breaking warm temperatures this winter have caused plants to bloom early in the eastern United States. Unfortunately this has also resulted in the formation of spring-like severe thunderstorms and deadly tornadoes. ... more
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
Flashy first images arrive from NOAA's GOES-16 lightning mapper
Stanford CA (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
Study shows US grasslands affected more by atmospheric dryness than precipitation
Paris (ESA) Mar 07, 2017
Second 'colour vision' satellite for Copernicus launched
Police in China's restive Xinjiang to track cars by GPS
Beijing (AFP) Feb 21, 2017
A prefecture in China's restive Xinjiang region has ordered all vehicles to be equipped with GPS-like tracking software, police and media reports said Tuesday, as authorities step up an "anti-terrorism" campaign. All drivers in the Bayingol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture must install a China-developed satellite navigation system called Beidou "to prevent theft, but also primarily to maintai ... more
New Delhi (Sputnik) Feb 15, 2017
GLONASS station in India to expedite 'space centric' warfare command
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Feb 14, 2017
Australia and Lockheed field 2nd-Gen sat-based augmentation system
Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 14, 2017
UK may lose access to EU Galileo GPS system after Brexit


How nature creates forest diversity
Vienna, Austria (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
Forests, especially tropical forests, are home to thousands of species of trees - sometimes tens to hundreds of tree species in the same forest - a level of biodiversity ecologists have struggled to explain. In a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and thei ... more
Pullman WA (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
Tree growth model assists breeding for more wood
Bangkok (AFP) March 2, 2017
The battle to save Bangkok's 'Green Lung'
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 03, 2017
Ancient peoples shaped the Amazon rainforest
New materials could turn water into the fuel of the future
Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
Researchers at Caltech and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have - in just two years - nearly doubled the number of materials known to have potential for use in solar fuels. They did so by developing a process that promises to speed the discovery of commercially viable solar fuels that could replace coal, oil, and other fossil fuels. Solar fuels, a dream of clean-energy ... more
Pullman WA (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
Novel 3-D manufacturing leads to highly complex, bio-like materials
Durham NC (SPX) Feb 28, 2017
Light-driven reaction converts carbon dioxide into fuel
Ithaca NY (SPX) Feb 28, 2017
New polymer additive could revolutionize plastics recycling


King County Metro signs Urban Solar on for rare 10 year contract
Seattle WA (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
In an unprecedented move, King County Metro (Metro) granted Urban Solar a decade-long contract to provide solar LED lighting solutions for its transit shelters and stops. The relationship began in 2011 when Metro signed Urban Solar on for a five-year contract for its PV-Shelter solar systems. Urban Solar was able to transform Metro's flat shelter roof solar lighting systems and implement a ... more
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions Introduces New Solamet
Toronto, Canada (SPX) Mar 01, 2017
SOVENTIX developing solar parks of up to 140 megawatts in Alberta, Canada
Zug, Switzerland (SPX) Feb 24, 2017
meeco installed biggest solar energy plant in Zimbabwe
Breakthrough research for testing and arranging vertical axis wind turbines
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 01, 2017
The sight of propeller-like rotating blades positioned high up the pole of a tall horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) may be familiar to many. Often grouped in wind farms, HAWTs provide significant amounts of energy for local communities. One drawback to HAWTs is the large space they take up, needing to be placed far apart from each other. If placed too close together, the turbulence and wind ve ... more
Essen, Germany (UPI) Mar 3, 2017
German company to store US wind energy in batteries in Texas
Newark DE (SPX) Feb 22, 2017
US grid can handle more offshore wind power
Lansing, Mich. (UPI) Feb 16, 2017
Michigan meets renewable energy targets


China says coal consumption falls for third year
Beijing (AFP) Feb 28, 2017
China's world-leading coal consumption fell for the third straight year in 2016, government data showed Tuesday, as the planet's biggest carbon emitter struggles to break its addiction to the heavily polluting fuel. Coal consumption fell by 4.7 percent year-on-year in 2016, and the share of coal in the country's energy mix slipped to 62.0 percent, down 2.0 percent year-on-year, the National ... more
Beijing (AFP) Feb 18, 2017
China halts N. Korea coal imports after missile test
Brussels (AFP) Feb 9, 2017
EU must shut coal plants by 2030 to meet climate pledge: study
Canberra, Australia (UPI) Feb 7, 2017
Do more to advance CCS, BHP Billiton says
Shared bikes grind Shanghai's gears
Shanghai (AFP) March 3, 2017
Shanghai has impounded thousands of brightly coloured bikes placed on city streets by cycle-sharing companies, in the latest sign of impatience with an explosion of the haphazardly-parked two-wheelers. The bike-sharing sector has become one of the fastest-growing industries in the country, with users typically renting the bicycles for short periods by first unlocking them through the use of ... more
Beijing (AFP) March 1, 2017
Beijing's shanties: Towns of hope and despair
Hong Kong (AFP) March 1, 2017
Hong Kong rebel lawmakers fight parliament ban
Hong Kong (AFP) Feb 27, 2017
Activists gatecrash meeting of Hong Kong leadership hopeful


Switzerland taps Kongsberg for Protector weapon system
Washington (UPI) Mar 2, 2017
Norwegian company Kongsberg received a $15 million contract to deliver updated Protector remote weapon systems to the government of Switzerland. The weapon system was ordered by Armasuisse, Switzerland's federal procurement office. According to Kongsberg, the Protectors to be delivered will be modified to integrate with modern platforms. "Kongsberg has delivered Protector remote ... more
Providence RI (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
Robot uses social feedback to fetch objects intelligently
Raleigh, NC (SPX) Feb 28, 2017
Tracking the movement of cyborg cockroaches
Oxford, England (UPI) Feb 23, 2017
Study: Even 'benevolent bots' fight, sometimes for years
Bangladesh orders shutdown of city tanneries
Dhaka (AFP) March 6, 2017
A Bangladeshi court on Monday ordered the government to shut down more than 100 tanneries in Dhaka after they were accused of dumping huge amounts of toxic waste into the city's main river. The High Court ruling followed a petition by Bangladeshi environmentalists, who have accused the government of failing to enforce earlier orders to clean up the tanneries. "The court told the administ ... more
Geneva (AFP) March 6, 2017
Environmental risks kill 1.7mn kids under 5 a year: WHO
Karachi (AFP) March 5, 2017
Pakistan's financial capital Karachi turned 'into rubbish bin'
East Lansing MI (SPX) Mar 06, 2017
A Trump twist - Environment over economy in Michigan


Humans sparked 84 percent of US wildfires, increased fire season over 2 decades
Boulder CO (SPX) Feb 28, 2017
Humans have dramatically increased the spatial and seasonal extent of wildfires across the U.S. in recent decades and ignited more than 840,000 blazes in the spring, fall and winter seasons over a 21-year period, according to new research. After analyzing two decades' worth of U.S. government agency wildfire records spanning 1992-2012, the researchers found that human-ignited wildfires acc ... more
Beijing (AFP) Feb 26, 2017
China detains 24 after deadly hotel fire
Sydney (AFP) Feb 13, 2017
Australia fires ease as damage mounts after record heat
Albany CA (SPX) Feb 07, 2017
Vegetation resilient to salvage logging after severe wildfire
Underwater mountains help ocean water rise from abyss
Boston MA (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
At high latitudes, such as near Antarctica and the Arctic Circle, the ocean's surface waters are cooled by frigid temperatures and become so dense that they sink a few thousand meters into the ocean's abyss. Ocean waters are thought to flow along a sort of conveyor belt that transports them between the surface and the deep in a never-ending loop. However, it remains unclear where the deep ... more
Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Mar 03, 2017
More bang for the buck
Tuwayhina, Syria (AFP) March 5, 2017
Syrian farmers fear IS to flood villages near Euphrates
London, UK (SPX) Mar 01, 2017
First direct measurements of Pacific seabed sediments reveal strong methane source


French storm Zeus leaves two dead, 600,000 homes without power
Paris (AFP) March 6, 2017
Winds gusting up to hurricane force battered west and central France on Monday, leaving two people dead and 600,000 homes without electricity, authorities said. Storm Zeus - named after the paramount god in Greek mythology - hit the Atlantic coast before sweeping across to the centre and southeast of the country. Weather experts said they measured gusts of up to 193 kilometres (120 mil ... more
London (AFP) Feb 23, 2017
One dead as Storm Doris hits British Isles
Los Angeles (AFP) Feb 18, 2017
Four dead as 'worse storm in years' buffets California
Albuquerque (UPI) Feb 14, 2017
Extreme heat threatens desert songbirds
White House's Navarro: trade deficit threat to national security
Washington (AFP) March 6, 2017
The Trump administration's top trade advisor said Monday US trade deficits are a threat to national security that could cause the loss of American freedom and prosperity. Outlining an unapologetically aggressive trade policy, Peter Navarro, director of the White House National Trade Council, accused economists and the media of ignoring the risk posed by trade deficits and embracing an "antiq ... more
Geneva (AFP) March 2, 2017
WTO faces first attack from US under Trump
Beijing (AFP) March 5, 2017
China trims GDP target, citing severe challenges
Beijing (AFP) March 3, 2017
Financial risks hang over China legislature meeting
Daily Newsletters - Space - Military - Environment - Energy

Solar storms remove electrons from large portions of Earth's atmosphere
Copenhagen, Denmark (UPI) Mar 3, 2017
New research shows solar storms leave large portions of Earth's atmosphere without electrons. Typically, when a solar storm reaches Earth, the collision with the planet's magnetosphere creates space through which a barrage of charged particles and electrons flood the ionosphere, an outer layer of Earth's atmosphere. In other words, solar storms are most often associated with an e ... more
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 01, 2017
First Solar Images from NOAA's GOES-16 Satellite
Washington (UPI) Feb 25, 2017
Rare 'Ring of Fire' eclipse to cross Southern Hemisphere
Tucson AZ (SPX) Feb 24, 2017
NSF to Fund a Nationwide Effort to Capture the Eclipse
Poachers kill rare giant elephant in Kenya
Nairobi (AFP) March 6, 2017
One of Africa's oldest and largest elephants was killed by poachers in Kenya on Monday, according to a conservation group that protects the dwindling group of giant "tuskers". Richard Moller of the Tsavo Trust told AFP that Satao II, named after another famed giant killed in 2014, was found dead on Monday and was believed to have been shot with a poisoned arrow, however this had not been con ... more
San Francisco CA (SPX) Mar 07, 2017
Study shows how skates, rays and sharks sense electrical fields
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 03, 2017
Woolly mammoths experienced a genomic meltdown just before extinction
Davis, Calif. (UPI) Mar 3, 2017
Study explains why the panda is black and white




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