DailyDirt: Growing Better Strawberries

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

We've talked about how strawberries are actually not berries and about a few cool tidbits about growing them. If you like strawberries, here are just a few more links for your perusal.

• American strawberry farmers enjoy access to the strawberry breeding program at UC Davis which accounts for more than half of the ancestry of strawberries in our supermarkets. The proprietary strawberry breeds created in this program are generally sold to any grower that wants to use them, but potential changes to the university's program could make desirable strawberries harder to obtain. [url]
• The Marshall strawberry almost went extinct -- even though it had been called "the tastiest strawberry in America" -- in 2007. A single clone at the USDA's Germplasm Repository was re-grown among some strawberry enthusiasts (circa 2009), and a Kickstarter campaign is helping to create an organic strawberry farm dedicated to this variety. [url]
• The use of methyl bromide as a fumigant has been around for decades in strawberry fields, but it's an ozone-depleting chemical (and a possible carcinogen). Alternatives are being tested as methyl bromide is (slowly) phased out, and some disinfestation techniques appear to be promising replacements. (It should be noted that even some organic strawberry farmers get plants from nurseries that use methyl bromide, and new techniques to control disease organisms can use more water.) [url]

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Filed Under: disinfestation, farming, food, gmo, marshall strawberry, methyl bromide, organic, pesticides, strawberries
Companies: kickstarter

DailyDirt: Kill All The Mosquitoes

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mosquitoes are a serious pest. They spread terrible diseases like malaria and dengue fever, and they're just generally annoying to people. So it's no surprise that quite a few methods have been developed to kill them off in significant numbers, if not entirely. There are actually thousands of different kinds of mosquitoes, and some of them are completely harmless to humans. But if we could target just the ones that spread diseases, we could prevent an enormous amount of death and suffering. Is it really safe to drive mosquitoes to extinction? Here are just a few ways we're trying to do it (regardless of whether we should).

• Mosquito-borne diseases kill about a million people each year and have killed more people than war, cancer or heart disease. Releasing a genetically modified mosquito could push these insects to near extinction, and this appears to be a very effective way to kill off mosquitoes. [url]
• DDT was once the weapon of choice for killing mosquitoes, but these bugs have developed a resistance to DDT and other chemical pesticides. Researchers are learning more about how DDT resistance develops in mosquito populations, but spraying different chemicals might not be the best solution for controlling mosquitoes. [url]
• For a few years, Nathan Myhrvold has been promoting a laser system to shoot mosquitoes. So far, this Death Star for mosquitoes doesn't seem to be very practical, but zapping insects with lasers is an entertaining idea at least. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: ddt, diseases, extinction, gmo, health, lasers, medicine, mosquitoes, nathan myhrvold, pesticides

DailyDirt: The Disappearing Bee

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

People usually don't think too much about how important bees are to the quality of human life. As pollinators, bees play an important role in the survival of crops that depend on them. The mass die-off of bees, also known as "Colony Collapse Disorder," can have detrimental effects on economies that depend heavily on pollinator-dependent crops. Scientists are just starting to figure out what might be causing these mass die-offs, while others are working on alternatives to using bees for pollination. Here are a few links related to the disappearing bee.

• A new study has found that pollen contaminated with a wide variety of pesticides and fungicides could be responsible for the mass die-offs of bees. Bees that ate contaminated pollen were less able to resist getting infected by a parasite called Nosema ceranae, which has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder. On average, the contaminated pollen contained nine different pesticides and fungicides. [url]
• The once-common-but-now-rare Western bumblebee (Bombus occidentalis) has been spotted in Washington state for the first time since the mid-1990s. This particular bee species has a very unique "white butt" that makes it instantly distinguishable. A queen and a few other bees were also spotted, and they may be the only population of Western bumblebees in the state. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is hoping to conserve and help rebuild the population. [url]
• University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources is looking at using leafcutter bees as an alternative to disappearing honey bees for pollination. While leafcutter bees are more expensive and management intensive, they're as good as or even better than honey bees at pollinating certain crops, such as alfalfa seed, strawberries, and melons. [url]
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture is studying the use of blue orchard bees (aka orchard mason bees) as a replacement for honey bees. Blue orchard bees can pollinate a variety of crops, including almond, peach, plum, cherry, and apple, and they're extremely efficient. For fruit trees, it takes only 2,000 blue orchard bees to do the work of 100,000 honey bees. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: bees, blue orchard bees, colony collapse disorder, crops, environment, farming, fruits, fungicides, honey bees, insects, leafcutter bees, pesticides, pollination
Companies: usda

DailyDirt: Robots For Farming

Robots are perfect for tedious and boring tasks, and they seem to be well-suited for the repetitive labor of farming. More and more robots are getting into the farming industry, with the potential to displace a lot of human labor. It might take some time before robots are growing a significant portion of our food supply, but farming technology could solve a lot of problems (and create a few more labor problems as well). Here are just a few more farming robots that might take over our farms.

• A "Lettuce Bot" made by Blue River Technology can recognize the difference between weeds and budding lettuce. This robot could improve yields for crops without using pesticides, but it would have to be re-trained for each new crop. [url]
• Hydroponic lettuce farms could be automated with indoor fields maintained by robots. Hortiplan is testing a hydroponic farm in Belgium, and hopefully, world hunger can be solved eating lettuce...? [url]
• Remote controlled helicopters can spray herbicides and pesticides more efficiently, and the RMAX helicopter has been used in Japanese rice fields for 20 years. The same mini-helicopter is being tested in a Napa vineyard, after obtaining FAA clearance to operate at a maximum altitude of 20 feet. [url]

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Filed Under: agriculture, ai, farming, harvest, helicopters, hydroponic, image recognition, lettuce, pesticides, rmax, robots, weeds
Companies: blue river technology, hortiplan

DailyDirt: Growing Food Safely

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Modern farming isn't as low-tech as it used to be. There are invasive species of insects to deal with and growing concerns over using various pesticides to control them. But until we figure out the perfect formula for Soylent Green, the economically-viable options for producing cheap and plentiful food seem a bit limited. Here are just a few examples of problems in the food industry.

• A study of over 200 pregnant women indicates that there is a possible link between eating rice (grown in the US!) and consuming potentially harmful levels of arsenic. Apparently, the arsenic comes from years of pesticide use where rice is grown, and unfortunately, there aren't any legal limits for arsenic in most foods sold in the US. [url]
• Farmers are looking to kill off stink bugs without pesticides using parasitic wasps. But first, researchers need to determine if releasing the wasps won't cause even more problems with farm crops and the environment. [url]
• Strains of Escherichia coli on bean sprouts that caused food poisonings and deaths in Germany may have come from human sources. Japanese researchers suggest a remedy of soaking the veggies in strong vinegar to kill off these nasty bugs. [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: arsenic, e coli, farming, food poisoning, insects, pesticides, rice

DailyDirt: Making Foods Yucky...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The modern food industry has developed a lot of techniques to help distribute food efficiently and safely, but sometimes there are a few "bad apples" out there that make it look like the entire food industry is filled with unsavory practices. Here are just a few examples of some food issues that might have hit your plate.

• There's possibly some "honey laundering" going on in the US -- where tainted honey from China is smuggled into the US market without proper country of origin labels. The yuck factor of this story almost triggers an urban legend skepticism... [url]
• Those organic strawberries from California might not be as organic as you think. Apparently, just about all strawberry plants come from plant nurseries that are not "organic" because they use pesticides. [url]
• Watching fish that were over-soaked in sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) as they cook is not very appetizing. Don't watch this video if you like seafood. [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: china, fish, food, honey, pesticides, stpp, strawberries

DailyDirt: Biotech On Bugs

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Bio-engineering is making some serious progress. It seems like the more we learn about biology, the more we can use biology to help solve all kinds of problems that you wouldn't necessarily think would be related to biology. Here are just a few cool examples of biology research that sound like they could serve mankind (and hopefully not in the "cookbook" sense).

• Engineered algae could help clean up radioactive waste. These little organisms might significantly reduce the amount of nuclear waste just by separating lots of harmless calcium from radioactive strontium. [url]
• One small step for man, one giant leap for yeast: multicellularity! Countdown until somebody tries to breed monkeys in a centrifuge... [url]
• Entomologists are looking at insect genes to try to find potential pesticides that bugs are genetically susceptible to. This doesn't sound like the beginning of a scary bio-virus horror flick at all. [url]
• To discover more biotech stuff, check out what's roaming around in the StumbleUpon jungle. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: algae, biology, entomologists, evolution, pesticides, yeast