Agriculture

A team led by researchers at the University of Tokyo has shown that feeding pigs on the barley waste left over from the distillation of the Japanese liquor shochu makes for more relaxed pigs and results in tastier pork.

As tasty as cows are, their greenhouse gas emissions aren’t quite so palatable. To help clean up the agriculture industry, Burger King has now announced it will start feeding its cows a new diet that can cut methane emissions by as much as a third.

Even when they're allowed to roam, chickens are still susceptible to infestations of blood-sucking mites. It now turns out that a backpack-like device could let farmers know when those mites are biting, so treatment could begin as soon as possible.

We've already heard about genetically manipulated types of rice that are drought-resistant and antioxidant-rich. A new one, however, could potentially save the lives of people with high blood pressure.

Due to the ongoing worldwide decline in bee populations, farmers are increasingly looking to alternative methods of pollinating fruit-bearing plants. As it turns out, the use of soap bubbles may succeed where things like drones alone have failed.

When it comes to farm animals being raised in subpar conditions, chickens often have it particularly rough. A new system that analyzes chick vocalizations, however, could help alert farmers (or authorities) when things really need to change.

Powdery mildew is a widespread fungal disease that attacks many crops. And while it typically has to be treated using fungicides, special ultraviolet light-emitting robots could soon prove to be a better way to go.

Boston Dynamics’ dog-like Spot robot can now be remotely controlled from anywhere in the world thanks to a partnership with Rocos. To demonstrate its new capabilities the US team remotely monitored the robot working on an isolated farm in New Zealand.

As factors such as habitat loss decrease the number of flowering plants in the environment, beekeepers are starting to augment their insects' diet with artificial feeds. It now turns out that microalgae may be a particularly good form of "bee chow."

Geneticists at Penn State University have manipulated the expression of one gene in a plant that makes them more resilient to environmental change – and found that this is passed down to future generations.

Responsible for millions of dollars in crop losses annually, the red palm weevil is a flying beetle that lays its eggs inside date palm trees. It could soon be possible to detect such infestations earlier than ever, using fiber optic cables.

When it comes to safer, less painful, slow-release alternatives to the hypodermic injection of medications, "microneedle patches" show a lot of promise. Now, MIT scientists have adapted the technology for use on plants.